McIlroy denies nerves | 'Monumental effort' from Tiger

Rory McIlroy denied that nerves got the better of him as he carded a second-round 71 to drop to four under, five shots off the lead at halfway stage of the PGA Championship in Southern Hills.

McIlroy held the clubhouse lead at five under overnight but by the time he teed off, that had been taken by Justin Thomas (-6), with Will Zalatoris (-9) then stretching ahead after carding a bogey-free 65.

McIlroy, meanwhile, lost further ground as he dropped a shot at the second and three-putted for bogey at the seventh.

The two-time PGA champion recovered somewhat on the back nine, registering a first birdie of the day when holing a putt from 10 feet at the 12th, with a run of pars down the closing stretch leaving him on four under alongside Abraham Ancer and Davis Riley.

"I didn't get off to the best of starts," McIlroy told reporters. "That bogey on two, and then, from there, I didn't give myself enough realistic chances for birdies.

"After that, I played solidly on the way in; to play the last 11 holes one under was respectable, not to make another bogey.

"I gave myself a few more chances on the back nine and just couldn't quite capitalise on a couple of them. But those up-and-downs on 16, 17, and 18 I think were really important. It just keeps me a little closer to the lead and doesn't really feel like I've got such a mountain to climb as if I had have maybe dropped one or two over those last three holes.

"There's a long way to go, a lot of golf left. We're going to see a completely different golf course the next two days because of the wind direction. It's going to play completely differently and that makes it very interesting."

When asked if nerves played a factor in his underwhelming round compared to Thursday, McIlroy