Rory McIlroy to embrace the conditions after claiming Scottish Open halfway lead

Rory McIlroy vowed to handle whatever the weather could throw at him after claiming a narrow lead at the halfway stage of the £7million Genesis Scottish Open.

McIlroy added a second round of 66 to his opening 64 at the Renaissance Club to reach 10 under par, a shot ahead of Ryder Cup team-mate Tyrrell Hatton and South Korea’s Tom Kim.

It is the fifth time in his PGA Tour career – the event is co-sanctioned with the DP World Tour – that McIlroy has started a tournament with two scores of 66 or better.

The world number three has a runners-up finish and three wins from those previous four occasions, the most recent being his 2014 Open triumph at Royal Liverpool, venue for the final major of the year next week.

“I hit the ball really well tee to green, gave myself a ton of looks (at birdie),” McIlroy said. “Honestly it felt like four under was probably the worst I could have shot out there.

“But you know, it’s swings in roundabouts. I holed a couple of long ones on Thursday to shoot a good score and then missed a couple today, but overall really pleased with how the last two days have went.”

Saturday’s tee times have been brought forward by several hours due to the forecast for afternoon thunderstorms, with winds gusting up to 40mph predicted for Sunday.

“I don’t really have any expectations,” McIlroy added. “It would be silly of me to try to pick a potential target score to get to.

Tee times for tomorrow's Genesis Scottish Open have been brought forward to approximately 7-9am. #GenesisScottishOpen | #RolexSeries

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“So really just embrace the conditions and just sort of make the best of them.

“I know that I’m playing well enough tee to green to give myself some looks and hang in