A disastrous opening foray – which brought three bogeys in his opening five holes – seemed to hit any lingering aspirations Rory McIlroy held to scoop the $10 million jackpot on offer to whoever claims the FedEx Cup title, only for the 27-year-old Northern Irishman to hit a late birdie streak to potentially revive his ambitions.

With Jason Day, the world number one, withdrawing from the Tour Championship at East Lake in Atlanta due to a back injury and Dustin Johnson freewheeling his way to the top of the leaderboard, McIlroystruggled in his second round with a misbehaving driver, some poor approach play and a cold putter all contributing to a poor outward run.

Bogey-free

In fairness to world number three McIlroy – the only member of Europe’s Ryder Cup team in action in Atlanta – rebounded with a bogey-free back nine which included three birdies to sign for a 70 that left him on two-under-par 138 at the midpoint of the season-ending championship.

McIlroy’s difficult opening run came after pushed drives on the first and second led to opening bogeys and he suffered a third bogey on the fifth where his approach found a greenside bunker.

After managing to recover a shot with a birdie on the sixth, McIlroy’s approach to the eighth plunged into the lake as he turned in 38, seemingly unable to find any rhythm.

However, McIlroy knuckled down the task and birdied the 10th, 12th and 17th to move back in the right direction and inside the top-five heading into the weekend in chasing down US Open champion and world number two Johnson.

Precautionary

Day – who opened with a 67 – was forced to withdraw midway through the second round after hitting four shots, including one into the water, on the eighth hole.

The Australian suffered an annular tear in one of the discs that hold the vertebrae together and was feeling pain when he swung his driver. He claimed the move was “precautionary”.

It is the second straight tournament that Day has been forced to withdraw in mid-tournament, following the BMW Championship a fortnight ago. His withdrawal at East Lake means he can’t win the FedEx Cup title and is likely to be usurped by Johnson for PGA Tour ‘player of the year’ honours too.

“I had a bulged disc in 2014,” he told reporters. “Through the exercise that I’ve been doing, that bulged disc ... has actually come in, which is kind of a miracle because ... you’re thinking that it’s either going to stay the same or get worse.

“Unfortunately, I’ve got an annulus tear in my disc, annulus tear of the ligament. I’ve torn it once before, and I’ve retorn it again.”

He also said after Thursday’s opening round that he had felt pain on a few shots, but not constantly.

“There was a couple of drives out there where ... felt a bit of a sharp pain in my back,” he said after the round.