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Rory McIlroy picked up five shots in his last five holes to fly up the leaderboard and sit just one shot off the lead heading into the weekend at the Omega European Masters.
The world number two arrived in Switzerland fresh off winning $15million for his FedEx Cup victory on Sunday but was eight shots off the lead when he teed off in round two after a 64 had moved Gavin Green to 11 under.
McIlroy could not catch the Malaysian but he showed the sort of form that has won him four Majors, posting a 63 to sit alongside Ryder Cup team-mate Tommy Fleetwood in second.
McIlroy, who has brought his wife and in-laws to Crans Montana, has admitted the pressure is off this week after his PGA Tour heroics, but he is still determined to lift the trophy at an event where he lost a playoff in his rookie season 11 years ago.
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“Going out this afternoon eight shots off the lead, you know there are scores out there but you don’t want to push too hard,” he told Sky Sports Golf. “Getting myself much closer to the lead going into the weekend was nice.
“It’s very easy for me to be patient this week after what’s just happened. Even if I do make a bogey, I’m having a good time here, I’m enjoying myself. That’s probably part of the reason why I finished like that after three bogeys in the first 12 holes.
“I’m excited to give myself another chance to win. It would have been easy for me to take my foot off the gas after last week but I really wanted to come here and play well.”
McIlroy was two under for his round after 13 holes but huge drives on the two following par fives helped him go birdie-eagle and he added further gains with smart iron play on the 16th and 17th.
Englishman Fleetwood also went birdie-eagle on the 14th and 15th and then picked up shots on the seventh and ninth in a second consecutive 65.
Australian Wade Ormsby, Argentinian Andres Romero and Austrian Matthias Schwab were also a shot clear of Green, who made eight birdies and two bogeys in his round.
Pádraig Harrington (73), Paul Dunne (74) and Gavin Moynihan (76) all finished well outside the weekend cut mark.
LEADERBOARD
(British and Irish unless stated, par 70, (a) denotes amateur)
129 Gavin Green (Mal) 65 64
130 Rory McIlroy 67 63, Tommy Fleetwood 65 65, Andres Romero (Arg) 69 61, Wade Ormsby (Aus) 66 64, Matthias Schwab (Aut) 63 67
132 Lorenzo Gagli (Ita) 64 68, Hideto Tanihara (Jpn) 66 66
133 Adri Arnaus (Esp) 66 67, Miguel Angel Jimenez (Esp) 67 66, Renato Paratore (Ita) 67 66
134 Lucas Bjerregaard (Den) 66 68, Sebastian Soderberg (Swe) 64 70, Sergio Garcia (Esp) 66 68, Christiaan Bezuidenhout (Rsa) 67 67, Mikko Korhonen (Fin) 64 70, Erik Van Rooyen (Rsa) 65 69, James Morrison 67 67, Thomas Pieters (Bel) 67 67
135 Mike Lorenzo-Vera (Fra) 63 72, Alexander Bjork (Swe) 67 68, Haydn Porteous (Rsa) 70 65, Darren Fichardt (Rsa) 66 69, Scott Jamieson 70 65, David Drysdale 65 70, Wilco Nienaber (Rsa) 72 63, Sean Crocker (USA) 68 67, Bradley Dredge 66 69
136 Max Schmitt (Ger) 68 68, Rory Sabbatini (Svk) 71 65, David Horsey 69 67, Eddie Pepperell 70 66, Sam Brazel (Aus) 67 69, Nino Bertasio (Ita) 66 70, Lee Slattery 66 70
137 Kalle Samooja (Fin) 66 71, Joost Luiten (Ned) 69 68, Oliver Wilson 68 69, Jack Singh Brar 69 68, Guido Migliozzi (Esp) 65 72, Ashley Chesters 70 67, Jaco Van Zyl (Rsa) 70 67, Grant Forrest 69 68, Alvaro Quiros (Esp) 67 70, Lucas Herbert (Aus) 70 67, Sam Horsfield 68 69, Yusaku Miyazato (Jpn) 67 70
138 Andrew Johnston 69 69, Chris Wood 67 71, Ross Fisher 68 70, Clement Sordet (Fra) 68 70, Zander Lombard (Rsa) 71 67, Victor Dubuisson (Fra) 69 69, Liam Johnston 69 69, Andrea Pavan (Ita) 70 68, Troy Merritt (USA) 67 71, Matthew Fitzpatrick 69 69
139 Marcus Kinhult (Swe) 67 72, Daniel Gavins 72 67, Joachim B. Hansen (Den) 73 66, Robert Karlsson (Swe) 68 71, Eduardo De La Riva (Esp) 68 71, Thomas Detry (Bel) 68 71, Lee Westwood 67 72, Richie Ramsay 70 69, David Howell 69 70, (a) Giovanni Manzoni (Ita) 70 69, Stuart Manley 70 69, Chris Paisley 70 69, Romain Langasque (Fra) 72 67, Nick Cullen (Aus) 70 69, Deyen Lawson (Aus) 69 70, Jamie Donaldson 65 74, Pedro Figueiredo (Por) 68 71, Jens Dantorp (Swe) 69 70, Richard Sterne (Rsa) 69 70
MISSED CUT
140 Hugo Leon (Chi) 72 68, Alex Noren (Swe) 69 71, Matthieu Pavon (Fra) 68 72, Ashun Wu (Chn) 71 69, Richard McEvoy 71 69, Danny Willett 69 71, Aaron Rai 69 71, Andy Sullivan 74 66, Thomas Bjorn (Den) 75 65, Per Langfors (Swe) 68 72, Robert Macintyre 72 68, Luke Donald 67 73, Louis De Jager (Rsa) 69 71, Bernd Wiesberger (Aut) 71 69, Benjamin Hebert (Fra) 73 67
141 Kurt Kitayama (USA) 69 72, Benjamin Rusch (Swi) 73 68, Oliver Fisher 70 71, Pablo Larrazabal (Esp) 68 73, Jason Scrivener (Aus) 67 74, Tapio Pulkkanen (Fin) 74 67, Raphael De Sousa (Swi) 70 71, Romain Wattel (Fra) 70 71, Jake McLeod (Aus) 70 71, Victor Perez (Fra) 69 72, Alexander Levy (Fra) 71 70, Edoardo Molinari (Ita) 68 73
142 Soren Kjeldsen (Den) 71 71, Ben Evans 70 72, S.S.P Chawrasia (Ind) 70 72, Niklas Lemke (Swe) 73 69, Jorge Campillo (Esp) 72 70, (a) Ronan Kleu (Swi) 72 70, Jeunghun Wang (Kor) 66 76, Mathias Eggenberger (Swi) 70 72, Joel Girrbach (Swi) 71 71, Masahiro Kawamura (Jpn) 75 67, Bernd Ritthammer (Ger) 70 72, Min Woo Lee (Aus) 71 71
143 Sihwan Kim (Kor) 69 74, Kristoffer Reitan (Nor) 70 73, Ryan Fox (Nzl) 68 75, Gonzalo Fernandez-Castano (Esp) 70 73, Kim Koivu (Fin) 75 68, Dean Burmester (Rsa) 69 74, (a) Eugenio Lopez-Chacarra (Esp) 69 74, Fabrizio Zanotti (Pry) 73 70, Jordan Smith 72 71, Justin Walters (Rsa) 71 72, Adrian Otaegui (Esp) 69 74
144 Stephen Gallacher 71 73, Gaganjeet Bhullar (Ind) 72 72, Nacho Elvira (Esp) 75 69, Jacques Kruyswijk (Rsa) 76 68, Pádraig Harrington 71 73, Raphael Jacquelin (Fra) 71 73
145 Ricardo Gouveia (Por) 70 75, Julian Suri (USA) 72 73, Matt Wallace 71 74, Nicolas Colsaerts (Bel) 73 72, (a) Nicola Gerhardsen (Swi) 72 73
147 Steven Brown 76 71, Anton Karlsson (Swe) 75 72, Gregory Molteni (Ita) 71 76, Paul Dunne 73 74, Alejandro Canizares (Esp) 73 74, Brandon Stone (Rsa) 71 76, Joakim Lagergren (Swe) 75 72
148 Brett Rumford (Aus) 74 74, David Law 71 77, Hyo-won Park (Kor) 76 72, Filippo Bergamaschi (Ita) 73 75
149 Gavin Moynihan 73 76, Trevor Immelman (Rsa) 78 71, Matthew Southgate 73 76
150 David Borda (Esp) 72 78
151 (a) Loris Schupbach (Swi) 75 76
152 Scott Hend (Aus) 75 77
158 (a) Alessandro Noseda (Swi) 83 75
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