Golf:Rory McIlroy claimed a one-shot lead at the halfway stage of the Deutsche Bank Championship thanks to a second consecutive 65 at TPC Boston. Starting from the 10th, the USPGA champion birdied three of his first six holes before an eagle at the 18th completed a back nine featuring six threes.
Another followed for a birdie at the first and although he dropped shots at the next two holes, successive birdies at the fourth and fifth saw the 23-year-old from Northern Ireland finish 12 under par.
"Now that I'm in the tournament, I just want to play as well as I can and maybe reassess things going into the last day," world number one McIlroy said. "But I was very happy with the two scores that I've got already and know that I need to go out and play just as good tomorrow to give myself a chance going into Monday.
"I got off to a nice start and sort of just kept the momentum going. Everything seemed to work pretty well out there. I felt like I drove the ball a bit better today and hit more fairways, which gave me some more opportunities to make birdies, and I was putting well enough to take a few of those."
Former Open champion Louis Oosthuizen was McIlroy's closest challenger on 11 under after also carding a 65, while American duo Ryan Moore and Tiger Woods were another shot back after rounds of 68.
"I didn't make anything today," said Woods, who missed all four of his putts between seven and 10 feet and three-putted the par-three 11th.
Overnight leader Noh Seung-Yul could not build on his opening 62 as he carded a level-par 71 to remain at nine under alongside Jason Dufner (66), Chris Kirk (70), DA Points (65) and former Masters champion Charl Schwartzel (65).
Schwartzel tore a muscle in his abdomen the week of the US Open and after finishing 38th at Olympic Club, took the next three weeks off to let the injury heel.
He returned to competition at The Open at Lytham and this week's event is his seventh in succession.
"I had the injury at the US Open and it set me back quite a bit," Schwartzel told www.pgatour.com. "I came back, lost a bit of confidence, and am just seeing if I can play myself back into it. There's been great signs of it sort of from Wyndham, just finishing poorly on Sunday. Same thing at Bethpage, I was up there, finished poorly on Sunday.
"It's there. Once again, I can feel the game is great, so just a matter of finishing it off."
Second-round collated scores and totals, TPC Boston, Norton, Massachusetts, United States of America (USA unless stated, Irish in bold, par 71):
130 Rory McIlroy 65 65
131Louis Oosthuizen (Rsa) 66 65
132Tiger Woods 64 68, Ryan Moore 64 68
133D.A. Points 68 65, Chris Kirk 63 70, Seung-yul Noh (Kor) 62 71, Charl Schwartzel (Rsa) 68 65, Jason Dufner 67 66
134Bryce Molder 65 69, Charley Hoffman 67 67
135Dustin Johnson 67 68, Jeff Overton 64 71, John Senden (Aus) 66 69
136Phil Mickelson 68 68, David Hearn (Can) 67 69
137Ted Potter, Jr. 69 68, Greg Chalmers (Aus) 69 68
138Steve Stricker 69 69, Adam Scott (Aus) 69 69, Robert Garrigus 71 67, Ernie Els (Rsa) 69 69, Ian Poulter (Eng) 67 71, Tom Gillis 69 69
139Webb Simpson 69 70, Jonas Blixt (Swe) 67 72, Kevin Stadler 68 71, Matthew Every 71 68, Luke Donald (Eng) 67 72, Troy Matteson 72 67, Brandt Snedeker 69 70, Lee Westwood (Eng) 68 71
140Hunter Mahan 68 72, Bob Estes 71 69, John Merrick 68 72, Kyle Stanley 70 70, Bo Van Pelt 69 71
141Bud Cauley 68 73, Nick Watney 72 69, Pat Perez 69 72, Zach Johnson 70 71, Geoff Ogilvy (Aus) 72 69, William McGirt 69 72, Jason Day (Aus) 68 73, George McNeill 71 70, J.B. Holmes 72 69, Jim Furyk 69 72, Sang-moon Bae (Kor) 69 72, Dicky Pride 69 72, Johnson Wagner 70 71, Daniel Summerhays 71 70, Carl Pettersson (Swe) 71 70
142Aaron Baddeley (Aus) 68 74, Vijay Singh (Fij) 73 69, J J Henry 69 73, Scott Piercy 72 70, Blake Adams 69 73, Josh Teater 71 71, Tommy Gainey 72 70
143Brendon De Jonge 70 73, Scott Stallings 70 73, Martin Flores 72 71, Bill Haas 71 72, Marc Leishman (Aus) 72 71, Rickie Fowler 71 72, Harris English 70 73
144 Graeme McDowell 74 70,Matt Kuchar 70 74, Brian Harman 71 73, Mark Wilson 74 70, Keegan Bradley 71 73, Kevin Na 69 75, Sean O'Hair 70 74, Jimmy Walker 73 71, Roberto Castro 72 72, John Huh (Kor) 71 73, Jonathan Byrd 72 72, Pádraig Harrington 70 74
The following players failed to make the cut:
145Charlie Wi (Kor) 71 74, Ricky Barnes 71 74, Ben Crane 74 71, John Rollins 69 76, Justin Rose (Eng) 75 70, Ryan Palmer 71 74, Tim Clark (Rsa) 71 74
146Rory Sabbatini (Rsa) 71 75, K J Choi (Kor) 70 76
147Ken Duke 72 75, Greg Owen (Eng) 69 78, Martin Laird (Sco) 72 75, Bubba Watson 75 72, Graham Delaet (Can) 72 75, Charles Howell III 71 76
148Brian Davis (Eng) 75 73
149Michael Thompson 74 75
152Cameron Tringale 73 79
153Ben Curtis 79 74
