McIlroy hits the front

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Rory McIlroy shot his second 65 on the trot to hold a one-shot lead after two rounds of the Deutsche Bank Championship.

Rory McIlroy shot his second 65 on the trot to hold a one-shot lead after two rounds of the Deutsche Bank Championship.

The world number one holds a slender lead at twelve-under, one shot clear of former Open champion Louis Oosthuizen.

Tiger Woods is lurking ominously a further shot back, tied with Ryan Moore on ten-under. Charl Schwartzel and Jason Dufner lead a group of five players who are three shots off the pace.

Starting on the back nine, McIlroy took the turn in 30 thanks to three birdies and an eagle but was stymied slightly on the home straight as bogeys at the second and third off set three further birdies.

“Now that I’m in the tournament, I just want to play as well as I can and maybe reassess things going into the last day,” said McIlroy.

“But I was very happy with the two scores that I’ve got already and know that I need to go out and play just as good tomorrow to give myself a chance going into Monday.

“I got off to a nice start and sort of just kept the momentum going. Everything seemed to work pretty well out there.

“I felt like I drove the ball a bit better today and hit more fairways, which gave me some more opportunities to make birdies, and I was putting well enough to take a few of those.”

Woods endured a frustrating day in which he shot a 68, a score which could have been a lot lower had he found his stride with the putter. Instead, he missed three puts under ten feet and three-putted the 11th.

For Schwartzel, who is findinf his feet following an injury lay-off after tearing a muscle in his abdomen shortly after the US Open, a strong showing on Sunday is crucial.

“I had the injury at the US Open and it set me back quite a bit,” he told the official PGA website.

“I came back, lost a bit of confidence, and am just seeing if I can play myself back into it.

“There’s been great signs of it sort of from Wyndham, just finishing poorly on Sunday. Same thing at Bethpage, I was up there, finished poorly on Sunday.

“It’s there. Once again, I can feel the game is great, so just a matter of finishing it off.”

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