Who is leading the 2025 Hero Dubai Desert Classic after round 2? Leaderboard explored

The second round of the 2025 Hero Dubai Desert Classic was played on Friday, January 17 at Emirates Golf Club. The cut line was drawn at even par after 36 holes and 70 players made it through.

Ewen Ferguson leads the event at the half-way stage on 12-under. Daniel Hillier is one stroke back and four players are tied for third on 8-under.

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2025 Hero Dubai Desert Classic Round 2 Leaderboard

Below is the Hero Dubai Desert Classic leaderboard after the second round. Only the top 50 are included:

1	Ewen Ferguson	-12
2	Daniel Hillier	-11
T3	Tyrrell Hatton	-8
T3	Shaun Norris	-8
T3	Laurie Canter	-8
T3	Jason Scrivener	-8
T7	Rasmus Højgaard	-7
T7	Min Woo Lee	-7
T7	Thorbjørn Olesen	-7
T7	Robin Williams	-7
T7	Ricardo Gouveia	-7
T12	Johannes Veerman	-6
T12	Ryan Fox	-6
T12	Todd Clements	-6
T12	David Micheluzzi	-6
T16	Jannik De Bruyn	-5
T16	Tommy Fleetwood	-5
T16	Niklas Norgaard	-5
T16	Tom McKibbin	-5
T16	Richard Mansell	-5
T16	Patrick Reed	-5
T16	Louis de Jager	-5
T16	Guido Migliozzi	-5
T24	Ugo Coussaud	-4
T24	Nacho Elvira	-4
T24	Alfredo Garcia-Heredia	-4
T24	Robert MacIntyre	-4
T24	Ivan Cantero	-4
T24	Bernd Wiesberger	-4
T24	Keita Nakajima	-4
T24	Casey Jarvis	-4
T24	David Ford (a)	-4
T33	Dylan Frittelli	-3
T33	Dan Bradbury	-3
T33	Connor Syme	-3
T33	Preston Summerhays (a)	-3
T33	Haotong Li	-3
T33	Rory McIlroy	-3
T33	Marcel Siem	-3
T33	Richie Ramsay	-3
T33	Kiradech Aphibarnrat	-3
T33	Mike Lorenzo-Vera	-3
T33	Calum Hill	-3
T44	Alexander Knappe	-2
T44	Elvis Smylie	-2
T44	Jeong weon Ko	-2
T44	Adam Bresnu	-2
T44	Joost Luiten	-2
T44	Alexander Björk	-2
T44	Angel Hidalgo	-2
T44	Adam Scott	-2
T44	Matt Wallace	-2
T44	Julien Guerrier	-2
T44	Akshay Bhatia	-2

Ewen Ferguson carded an eagle, five birdies, and no bogeys in the second round of the Hero Dubai Desert Classic. The Scot has carded an eagle and 10 birdies with no bogeys over the first 36 holes of the event.

The play of the day came from Ferguson himself on his second shot on the 18th hole. The leader looked for the green with an iron shot that went long and left. However, the ball had the good fortune to hit a fence and roll back onto the green, just four feet from the hole. Ferguson holed the putt for eagle.

Two more 65s were reported during the round. Daniel Hillier also eagled the 18th and added five more birdies without a bogey to move up seven places to second. Tyrrell Hatton, meanwhile, carded eight birdies and one bogey to move up 45 places on the leaderboard to tie for third.

Defending champion Rory McIlroy carded three birdies and two bogeys in the second round to move into a share of 33rd place, nine shots off the lead. A year ago, McIlroy overcame a 10-stroke deficit with 36 holes to play to win the tournament.

Several top players missed the cut at the DP World Tour event. They include Jon Rahm, Viktor Hovland, Thriston Lawrence, Adrian Meronk, and Dean Burmester.