SHANGHAI • Rory McIlroy was all smiles after capping a roller-coaster round with an eagle yesterday to move within a stroke of the halfway lead at the WGC-HSBC Champions in Shanghai.
Coming off his strongest season in years, the Northern Irishman matched his opening-round five-under 67 to get to a 10-under 134 total in China, where he hopes to gain ground on the world's top-ranked golfer, American Brooks Koepka.
The world No. 2 goes into today's third round a stroke behind leader Matthew Fitzpatrick of England, who jumped into the lead with a late blitz of sweet putting at Sheshan International Golf Club.
McIlroy started hot, with four straight birdies on the front nine, but then struggled to hold things steady through several tense holes in the middle of his round.
Still, he was gunning for the lead down the stretch before pulling his tee shot badly on the par-four 16th, losing it deep in the forest as he ended up dropping a shot.
But two holes later, he lashed a perfect drive down the fairway of the par-five 18th, followed by a 218-yard iron that settled a couple of feet from the pin.
A grinning McIlroy then strode to the green for the kick-in eagle.
"Delighted with the first two rounds," he said.
"To put myself right in contention going into the weekend is something that I wanted to do.
"It's something that I haven't done a lot of over the last few weeks.
"It was obviously nice to finish the way I did, especially after the mess I nearly made at No. 16."
His consistent strong play saw him take home the FedEx Cup and the PGA Tour Player of the Year award, success which has motivated him to recapture golf's top ranking after a four-year wait.
Although he has yet to take home the winner's cheque of US$1.7 million (S$2.3 million) in China, he now has the best score in relation to par of any player in the tournament since 2009, at 81-under.
Separately, defending champion Xander Schauffele continued to battle through a bad flu to keep alive his hope of becoming the event's first back-to-back winner.
The American was in a three-way tie for third with South Korea's Im Sung-jae and Australian Adam Scott, with all carding 69s to lie two shots behind Fitzpatrick.
Overnight leader Li Haotong of China, who had fired up the crowd with an opening-round 64, was more subdued yesterday after shooting an even-par 72, three shots back of the leader.
Shanghai features 15 past Major winners including McIlroy, Justin Rose, Bubba Watson, Sergio Garcia and Jordan Spieth.
AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
