Golf:Rory McIlroy and Alvaro Quiros remain locked together at the top of the Hong Kong Open leaderboard after both players moved to seven-under-par, one clear of the field. Quiros set the early target but McIlroy, a late starter, matched the Spaniard's score of 69.
McIlroy was on course to claim the outright lead but two bogeys in the last three holes saw him fall back alongside Quiros. Starting the day level at the top of the leaderboard alongside Quiros and David Horsey on six-under, McIlroy picked up his first birdie of the day at the third but immediately relinquished the shot at the next.
However, further birdies at the eighth, 10th and 12th saw the 22-year-old move to nine-under-par before he ran into trouble on the 16th when his drive ended up behind a tree and he was forced to pitch out onto the fairway for an eventual bogey.
A wayward tee shot at the 17th landed in the rough down the left but he recovered for par before another poor tee shot at the last found the trees and he was forced to lay-up before pushing his putt right of the hole to finish with a 69 and level with Quiros.
the Northern Irishman feels a hectic year that has seen him rise to number two in the world and win the US Open, as well as a recent bout of illness, could have contributed to the sloppy finish.
"It was obviously not the way I wanted to finish," McIlroy said. "I got myself in a good position, hit it in the middle of the 13th fairway and had a good chance there to get to 10 under par and to finish at seven is a bit disappointing.
"I hit a few loose shots coming in that I'll have to try and eliminate tomorrow if I want to lead this tournament going into Sunday, but I'm still tied for the lead, I'm in the same position I was last night. I feel like I definitely could have shot a few better today but if that's my worst round of the week, it's not too bad.
"It could have been a bit of mental and physical fatigue. I don't feel like I'm completely 100%, maybe a couple of tired swings towards the end. I've just got to try and get through this weekend the best I can and really give it everything and try and win the tournament to give myself a chance (of overtaking Luke Donald in the money list) going into next week.
"It's been a learning experience for me these last 10 weeks, I know my capabilities and my limitations and I feel like I'm coming to the end of that. I just need to make sure that I have decent energy levels for the next two rounds. I might have made the season a little bit too long for myself and that's something I've got to learn from in the future.
"I had two weeks off in between the HSBC Champions and the World Cup and I got sick for a few days so that took a little bit of energy out of me. I was on a drip for three days in the Maldives which wasn't too nice. It's the end of the season, I'm sure it's not just me feeling like this, I'm sure a lot of guys are. It's been a long season and there's a couple of weeks left and we get to enjoy Christmas."
The Spaniard's round featured four birdies and three bogeys including, a disappointing five at the ninth, his final hole.
“Unfortunately, I didn’t play as well as yesterday,” said Quiros. “I managed the round well until the first hole, my 10th. I three-putted there, I three-putted the second and after that, I didn’t hole any good putts. Finishing with a bogey at the ninth was a bit frustrating but this is how it is.
“It’s a shame of a round because without the these two three-putts, it was a proper number, nine-under would be great.”
Panupol Pittayarat is at six under par after the Thai returned a 65 containing an eagle and three birdies. “I played well. My score came out great and I had a good feeling about it. I was confident with my game today,” said Panupol.
“My goal was to make the cut and, well, I’m up here now. I’ll stick with my plan and whatever happens, happens.”
Ian Poulter is one under par after the defending champion produced a 68 containing an eagle, three birdies and three bogeys in a 71 saw Padraig Harrington finish one-over as his hopes of sneaking into the Dubai World Championship receded.
Colin Montogmerie also looks set to be around at the weekend after a 69 should see the Scot make the cut at two over par. Justin Rose is likely to miss out, however, the Englishman following up yesterday’s 74 with a 69 that left him three-over for the tournament.
Dubliner Peter Lawrie also carded a 69 to move to two under, one ahead of Gareth Maybin (73) and three in front of Pádraig Harrington, who shot a 71. All three made the cut but Michael Hoey (71) on nine over and Damien McGrane (76) in 13 over have not made the weekend's play.
Collated second-round scores (Iris in bold, GBR unless stated, par 70):
133 Rory McIlroy 64 69, Alvaro Quiros (Spa) 64 69
134Richie Ramsay 68 66, Panupol Pittayarat (Tha) 69 65
135Danny Lee (Nzl) 70 65, Pariya Junhasavasdikul (Tha) 70 65, Miguel Angel Jimenez (Spa) 65 70
136Peter Hanson (Swe) 68 68, Martin Wiegele (Aut) 67 69, Soren Kjeldsen (Den) 70 66, David Horsey 64 72, Marcus Fraser (Aus) 67 69
137Kiradech Aphibarnrat (Tha) 68 69, Darren Beck (Aus) 66 71, Berry Henson (USA) 69 68, Y.E. Yang (Kor) 68 69
138Juvic Pagunsan (Phi) 68 70, Stephen Dodd 70 68, Peter Lawrie 69 69, Rafael Cabrera Bello (Spa) 69 69
139David Howell 69 70, Gareth Maybin 66 73, Jason Knutzon (USA) 73 66, Jbe Kruger (Rsa) 72 67, Paul Lawrie 69 70, Ian Poulter 71 68, Bernd Wiesberger (Aut) 72 67, Gregory Havret (Fra) 70 69
140Robert Jan Derksen (Ned) 72 68, Ben Fox (USA) 70 70, Rhys Davies 71 69, Chris Rodgers 72 68, Wen-chong Liang (Chn) 71 69, Jose Manuel Lara (Spa) 70 70, Thongchai Jaidee (Tha) 72 68, Scott Barr (Aus) 69 71, Peter Karmis (Rsa) 72 68, Jyoti Randhawa (Ind) 70 70
141Richard Bland 72 69, Christian Cevaer (Fra) 69 72, Soren Hansen (Den) 72 69, Nicolas Colsaerts (Bel) 71 70, Danny Willett 75 66, Thaworn Wiratchant (Tha) 69 72, Chawalit Plaphol (Tha) 75 66, Scott Hend (Aus) 71 70, Stephen Gallacher 69 72, Shun yat jason Hak (Hkg) 69 72, Keith Horne (Rsa) 72 69, Danny Chia (Mal) 73 68, Kunal Bhasin (Ind) 68 73, Pádraig Harrington 70 71
142Ben Leong (Mal) 75 67, Kwanchai Tannin (Hkg) 70 72, Colin Montgomerie 73 69, Oliver Fisher 68 74, Jose-Maria Olazabal (Spa) 73 69, Anthony Wall 70 72, John Daly (USA) 74 68, David Drysdale 73 69, Prayad Marksaeng (Tha) 72 70, Richard Green (Aus) 71 71, Michael Jonzon (Swe) 71 71, Gregory Bourdy (Fra) 73 69, James Kamte (Rsa) 73 69, Anirban Lahiri (Ind) 69 73
----------The following players failed to make the cut--------------
143Rick Gibson (Can) 70 73, Oliver Wilson 73 70, Matthew Zions (Aus) 73 70, Nick Dougherty 72 71, Andrew Dodt (Aus) 73 70, Mark Brown (Nzl) 73 70, Mardan Mamat (Sin) 71 72, Simon Khan 73 70, Brett Rumford (Aus) 72 71, Tony Carolan (Aus) 73 70, Justin Rose 74 69, Digvijay Singh (Ind) 72 71
144Rahil Gangjee (Ind) 75 69, Jeev Milkha Singh (Ind) 73 71, Scott Strange (Aus) 72 72, Matteo Manassero (Ita) 72 72, Wen-Tang Lin (Tpe) 72 72, Himmat Singh Rai (Ind) 73 71, Sujjan Singh (Ind) 69 75, Antonio Lascuna (Phi) 72 72
145Jeppe Huldahl (Den) 75 70, David Gleeson (Aus) 70 75, Ross Fisher 74 71, Richard McEvoy 78 67, Mars Pucay (Phi) 72 73, Lian-Wei Zhang (Chn) 74 71, Shiv Shankar Prasad Chowrasia (Ind) 74 71, Pablo Larrazabal (Spa) 72 73, Mohd. Siddikur (Ban) 75 70, Marcus Both (Aus) 76 69, Kodai Ichihara (Jpn) 71 74, Alejandro Canizares (Spa) 72 73, Pablo Martin (Spa) 75 70, Mark Foster 72 73, Edoardo Molinari (Ita) 70 75
146Timothy Tang (Hkg) 73 73, Rikard Karlberg (Swe) 75 71, James Morrison 78 68, Anthony Kang (USA) 76 70, Gary Boyd 74 72, Gaganjeet Bhullar (Ind) 75 71, Thammanoon Sriroj (Tha) 70 76, Tim Stewart (Aus) 74 72, Rory Hie (Ina) 76 70
147Yih-Shin Chan (Tpe) 71 76, Christian Nilsson (Swe) 71 76, Gavin Flint (Aus) 73 74, Joonas Granberg (Fin) 73 74
148John Parry 76 72, Sung Lee (Kor) 75 73, Shinichi Mizuno (Hkg) 73 75
149 Michael Hoey 78 71
150Wen-hong Lin (Chn) 73 77
151Zaw Moe (Kor) 78 73, Namchok Tantipokakul (Tha) 77 74
152Ter-Chang Wang (Tpe) 76 76, Rick Kulacz (Aus) 72 80, Woon Man Wong (Hkg) 79 73, Unho Park (Aus) 80 72, Chih-bing Lam (Sin) 76 76, Chinnarat Phadungsil (Tha) 76 76
153 Damien McGrane 77 76, Daniel O'neil (Aus) 76 77, Yongle Huang (Tpe) 76 77
154Seuk-hyun Baek (Kor) 74 80, Iain Steel (Mal) 77 77
155William Fung wai kuen (Hkg) 77 78
166Ka yiu Cheng (Hkg) 86 80
173Ronald Totton (Hkg) 83 90
WD: Bradley Dredge 78
RTD: Shiv Kapur (Ind) 75
