Rory McIlroy carded a brilliant 65 to lead by three shots as he chases his third Hero Dubai Desert Classic win, but Patrick Reed still managed to overshadow the Holywood star with another rules controversy.

The pair narrowly avoided being drawn together in yesterday's third round in which McIlroy made eight birdies in 17 holes to go four clear before taking six at the par-five 18th after finding water with his approach.

Playing in the group ahead of McIlroy, Reed left the Ulsterman waiting on the 17th tee when his drive got stuck up a palm tree 50 yards short of the green.

Replays on social media later suggested Reed was searching in the wrong tree for his ball and identified a ball that could not have been the one hit from the tee.

Had he failed to identify his ball, the 2018 Masters champion would have been forced to return to the tee.

But he used binoculars to identify it as his, dropped under the tree after a one-shot penalty and made bogey before going on to birdie the 18th for a 69 that left him tied for fourth on 11-under.

He's just four shots behind McIlroy, whose 65 gave him a three-shot lead over England's Dan Bradbury and Callum Shinkwin on 15-under par.

Asked afterwards if he was "100 per cent" sure it was his ball, Reed said: "100 per cent. I would have gone back to the tee if I wasn't 100 per cent… I got lucky that we were able to look through the binoculars and you have to make sure it's your ball and how I mark my golf balls is I always put an arrow on the end of my line, because the Pro VI the arrow on the end stop before it so you can see the arrow.

"And you could definitely see and identify the line with the arrow on the end, and the rules official, luckily, was there to reconfirm and check it to make sure it was mine as well."

Reed has been at the centre of several rules controversies over the years and the DP World Tour felt obliged to issue a statement.

Interestingly, it mentions the ruling did not require him to identify which tree has ball had landed in.

"Two on-course referees and several marshals identified that Patrick Reed's ball had become lodged in a specific tree following his tee shot on 17," it said. "The DP World Tour chief referee joined the player in the area and asked him to identify his distinctive ball markings. Using binoculars, the chief referee was satisfied that a ball with those markings was lodged in the tree.

"The player subsequently took an unplayable penalty drop (Rule 19.2c) at the point directly below the ball on the ground. To clarify, the player was not asked to specify the tree but to identify his distinctive ball markings to confirm it was his ball."

While Reed is in the clear, the noise will likely rumble on considering past rules controversies, such as the two-shot penalty he was handed for improving his lie in a waste bunker in the Bahamas in 2019.

McIlroy will be tough to beat on the evidence of his play yesterday when he birdied the first four holes, added three in a row from the 13th and picked up another at the 17th before finding water at the last in a repeat of the 72nd bogey that handed Victor Hovland the title last year.

He has yet to start a year with a win or lift a Rolex Series title, but he has a chance to do both today.

"Yeah, it would be great," admitted McIlroy, who is guaranteed to remain world number one after Jon Rahm tied seventh behind Max Homa in the Farmers Insurance Open on Saturday. "I love this golf course. I love this tournament. You know, as you said, I've won here a couple of times.

"You know, this is my first start of the year. I don't think I've ever won in my first start of the year.

"I had plenty of chances at Abu Dhabi down the road over the years and never quite got it done.

"So tomorrow is a nice opportunity to try to do something that I've never done before."

Rory McIlroy

“Obviously got off to a great start with those four birdies in a row. Then hit a little bit of a lull sort of after that. Made a really good par save on 11 that sort of kept my momentum going, and then kick-started again with obviously three nice birdies in a row on 13, 14 and 15.

“So felt like the good golf came in sort of two bursts today, and then the rest of it, it was okay. I held it together. I still don't feel quite in control of my game. But today was much better than yesterday, so that was a positive.

Dan Bradbury

“It was pretty cool. Very unique experience. Got a few shouts of my name but they were mainly for Rory but to be expected. It was great having a lot of people out there.

“Well, you hear so many “Rorys” and then you just hear a random "Dan" in the middle of it, you can't help but smile. But it's nice to know that there are people out there wishing me well.

“My game is in the right place. I'm obviously playing some decent stuff. Didn't really feel like I got the best out of it the first day or today, so hopefully we can have more of round two tomorrow.”

Callum Shinkwin

“Today I wasn't that great at the start, really. It was solid but nothing special. The back nine just got the better of people early on and stayed close behind as well.

“Normally it's the start of the year (playing in Dubai), you're always excited to come out and play and you have great weather, normally. Yeah, it's great coming out here and playing. It's like summer back home, isn't it, 25, 30 degrees and pure sunshine.

“I don't really think about it too much. Tomorrow is another day. It's weird playing till Monday but it is what it is. Hopefully go and do the job tomorrow.

Victor Perez

“It wasn't as clean as probably the scorecard says. I struggled a bit at the start with a good up-and-down on 2, I chipped in on 3. Made some nice putts. Got a bit fortunate out of the rough where the ball ended up in a decent spot where you can never 100 per cent predict, so I was quite happy with that.

“I think the good side of it is that you know you're playing well, and the guarantee is the outcome of the previous week, so obviously that gives you a lot of confidence. Probably the downside is that, you know, people might expect you to play well. The best players in the world deal with that every week, so eventually if you want to progress and lead to the top 20, 10, No. 1 in the world, it's something that you have to learn how to manage.

“It would be incredible to go back-to-back, obviously two Rolex Series Events to start the year, it would be incredible.”

Hero Dubai Desert Classic, Emirates GC

Detailed scores

201 R McIlroy (Nir) 66 70 65,

204 C Shinkwin (Eng) 71 66 67, D Bradbury (Eng) 73 63 68,

205 V Perez (Fra) 67 72 66, S Norris (Rsa) 71 67 67, P Reed (USA) 66 70 69, I Poulter (Eng) 65 71 69, A Hidalgo (Esp) 66 70 69, A Arnaus (Esp) 67 68 70, R Bland (Eng) 67 67 71,

206 R Fox (Nzl) 69 71 66, J Harding (RSA) 70 68 68, C Hill (Sco) 70 67 69, J Brun (Fra) 70 67 69, M Wallace (Eng) 68 68 70, L Herbert (Aus) 69 67 70, M Kinhult (Swe) 70 65 71, T Pieters (Bel) 67 67 72,

207 A Bjork (Swe) 69 70 68, P Larrazábal (Esp) 73 65 69, J Veerman (Usa) 71 66 70, L De Jager (RSA) 66 71 70, B Wiesberger (Aut) 69 67 71, M Thorbjornsen (Am) (USA) 70 64 73,

208 R Macintyre (Sco) 70 69 69, A Wu (Chn) 71 68 69, O Bekker (Rsa) 68 71 69, J Kruyswijk (RSA) 69 69 70, T Olesen (Den) 70 67 71,

209 R Mansell (Eng) 69 73 67, K Samooja (Fin) 73 68 68, D Law (Sco) 71 69 69, M Jordan (Eng) 68 72 69, J Janewattananond (Tha) 72 68 69, J Wang (Kor) 68 71 70, A Otaegui (Esp) 69 70 70, M Lee (Aus) 73 65 71,

210 F Zanotti (Par) 69 73 68, J Donaldson (Wal) 72 70 68, N Norgaard (Den) 69 72 69, M Helligkilde (Den) 70 71 69, J Dantorp (Swe) 69 71 70, R Langasque (Fra) 69 70 71, J Campillo (Esp) 70 69 71, T Fleetwood (Eng) 68 70 72, D Gavins (Eng) 68 70 72, M Armitage (Eng) 69 68 73, C Syme (Sco) 68 67 75,

211 M Jiménez (Esp) 73 69 69, L Westwood (Eng) 71 70 70, N Hojgaard (Den) 70 69 72, E Ferguson (Sco) 71 68 72,

212 Y Paul (Ger) 74 68 70, R Hojgaard (Den) 71 71 70, J Smith (Eng) 76 66 70, H Stenson (Swe) 70 72 70, L Nemecz (Aut) 73 68 71, J Guerrier (Fra) 69 71 72, J Catlin (Usa) 72 68 72, N Von Dellingshausen (Ger) 71 69 72, M Kieffer (Ger) 73 67 72, J Luiten (Ned) 70 70 72, G Forrest (Sco) 71 69 72, A Johnston (Eng) 72 68 72,

213 A Sullivan (Eng) 70 72 71, D Whitnell (Eng) 71 71 71, A Rozner (Fra) 71 71 71, M Southgate (Eng) 71 71 71, S Horsfield (Eng) 70 71 72, P Waring (Eng) 71 69 73, D Huizing (Ned) 69 71 73, C Hanna (USA) 70 70 73, L Aberg (Am) (Swe) 65 73 75,

214 N Kimsey (Eng) 73 69 72, S Jamieson (Sco) 72 70 72, T Pulkkanen (Fin) 70 72 72, J Walters (RSA) 72 70 72, J Scrivener (Aus) 71 71 72, T Hatton (Eng) 72 70 72, M Schneider (Ger) 71 71 72, H Du Plessis (RSA) 68 73 73, M Lindberg (Swe) 73 67 74,

215 D Hillier (Nzl) 71 71 73, M Warren (Sco) 74 68 73,

216 L Donald (Eng) 70 72 74,

218 D Van Driel (Ned) 72 69 77,

219 N Colsaerts (Bel) 71 71 77,