Golf’s cruelest hazards aren’t always bunkers or water. Sometimes it’s a few blades of grass, a close-up camera angle, and a long wait in the scorer’s hut. Rory McIlroy got reacquainted with that kind of misery at Yas Links, and with a Race to Dubai record on the line, the timing could hardly have been worse.

McIlroy initially thought he had carded a 68 in the opening round of the Abu Dhabi Aldar Championship. However, officials reviewed footage of his 12th-hole incident after his round and handed him a two-shot penalty.

Explaining the incident afterwards, he said: “Obviously there’s no intent. I play by the rules. I feel like this is never really; I try to do everything that I can to never end up in these positions. But just by looking at the video, like it doesn’t, it doesn’t look very good. Obviously that wasn’t my intent. I’m just trying to get a feel for the lie.”

After missing the par-4 12th green from 113 yards, his ball sat in a divot, and his first chip rolled back down. Before the next one, officials ruled he had improved his lie by pressing the grass down behind the ball with his wedge. A six became a quadruple-bogey eight, and his 68 became a 70.

It was his only dropped shot of the round. He had six birdies, including three in a row from the 14th. He now sits two under, level with Race to Dubai leader Eugenio Chacarra and eight shots behind Francesco Laporta, who shot 62.

Rory McIlroy disputes the key detail but accepts the verdict. “I don’t feel like I pressed down. But at the same time, I don’t want the perception of, like, people thinking like I got away with something either. So I’m happy to take a 2-shot penalty and move on and move into tomorrow.”

That reads like a player protecting his reputation over winning the argument. A clip of the incident was already circulating on social media before the penalty was confirmed. Taking the two shots stops the story from growing.

If this feels familiar, it should. In 2012, a two-shot penalty for brushing sand away from his ball’s path left him one behind Robert Rock. In 2014, he took an incorrect drop on the second hole of round three after leaving his foot on a spectator crosswalk line. That penalty cost him a title he lost by one shot to Pablo Larrazabal.

Both times the penalty was the exact margin of defeat. This time it came on day one, so he has time to recover.

The stakes explain the sting. McIlroy has won seven Race to Dubai titles, including the last four, and an eighth would match Colin Montgomerie’s record. He arrived in third, roughly 330 points behind Patrick Reed and about 1,000 behind Chacarra, who has three wins this season. The Abu Dhabi winner earns 1,500 points, and next week’s DP World Tour Championship in Dubai, where McIlroy has won three times, pays 2,000.

He is already framing it that way. “Golf tournaments are long. There’s a long way to go to the finish line, especially in situations like this where it’s not just this week, it’s next week as well.”

A quadruple bogey doesn’t end a title race, and the six birdies suggest his game is fine. The bigger risk is the gap. Reed shot 74 and Chacarra a 70, so the leaders stumbled too, which helps. But Rory McIlroy now needs a big weekend in Abu Dhabi and a stronger finish in Dubai.

If he gets there, Thursday will be a footnote in a record chase. If he doesn’t, it will be another Abu Dhabi story that ends with the words “if only.”