Rory McIlroy sits nine shots off the pace at the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship after a costly triple bogey on the 17th ruined an otherwise flawless round for the four-time major winner.
McIlroy still managed to post a five-under second rounc, however, his second consecutive 67 was marred by a six on the short 17th.
The County Down golfer made eight birdies in total and bounced back from the disappointment on 17 by getting a shot back to close out the round on the final hole.
"I played quite nice up to that point and I feel like I hit a nice shot into 17, just trundled into the bunker," said McIlroy.
"There wasn’t a lot of sand where the ball was and I just sort of made a mess of it from there, but bounced back well to birdie the last."
McIlroy came from 10 shots behind at halfway to win in Dubai in January, but admitted: "I need the golf course to toughen up a little bit to have a chance. There’s so many gettable holes out there.
"I shot 63 on that Saturday in Dubai and I’m going to need something similar, if not lower, to give myself a chance going into Sunday."
FULL LEADERBOARD
Shane Lowry, meanwhile, played his way back into the mix with an impressive six-under 66 to move to within a shot of McIlroy.
And it could have been even better for Lowry, who made bogeys on the first and third holes, which were cancelled out by an impressive eagle on the sixth hole as the Offaly man picked up four shots in three holes. Tom McKibbin shot 69 to get to seven under and a share of 35th place heading into the weekend.
Both McIlroy and Lowry will be buoyed by the fact that they are only four and five shots respectively off second place, with England's Paul Waring out on his own after carding a course record of 61 in the second round to open up
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