Rory McIlroy shot a five-under-par, 66 in the second round of the Wells Fargo Championship at Quail Hollow in North Carolina.
Having carded a one-over-par 72 in the first round to leave him eight shots behind first-round leader Phil Mickelson, McIlroy now finds himself sitting inside the top-10 on four-under-par.
The 32-year-old started his second round on the back-nine and fought his way back into the tournament by picking up birdies at the 14th, 15th and 17th holes to leave him at two-under-par.
He picked up further birdies at the 1st and 3rd holes but dropped a shot at the par-three 4th hole. He bounced back with a birdie on his penultimate hole to move him to four-under-par for the championship.
“The one thing that I was really happy about coming in here this week was my iron play, I felt like I really found something last week,” said the world number 15 who missed the cut at The Masters last month.
“I didn’t get a chance to show it yesterday because I wasn’t finding the fairway very much, but today, just having some more opportunities to hit good iron shots and give myself birdie chances, I was able to show it a bit today and it was nice," said McIlroy who is in search of a third victory at Quail Hollow following success in 2010 and 2015.
“When you play the way I played through that stretch in March and into April, you’re going to feel like you’re not as close (to playing well ) as you probably are.
“But I worked hard after Augusta. I took a week off and reset, which I needed, but then I put my head down and worked hard and at least felt better about everything coming in here.”
