McIlroy loses ground after one‑under 69 in second round at BMW Championship

Rory McIlroy fell away from the lead after carding a one‑under 69 in the second round of the BMW Championship in St Louis on Friday and is due to return for round three on Saturday.

The Masters champion opened the tournament with a six‑under‑par first round and had shared the lead with Wyndham Clark after that opening day. McIlroy’s second‑round 69 left him five shots adrift of Clark, who finished on 12 under following a flawless round. Clark leads by one stroke over Gary Woodland and, at 32 years old, is the only player without a bogey through the first two rounds.

The second‑round leaderboard read: -12 W Clark (US), -11 G Woodland (US), -10 JJ Spaun (US), -9 S J Im (Kor), C Gotterup (US), -8 P Cantlay (US), M Thorbjornsen (US), -7 C Morikawa (US), R McIlroy (NI), R Henley (US), M McNealy (US). Selected others included -4 J Rose (Eng), -3 RMacIntyre (Sco), M Fitzpatrick (Eng), -2 A Fitzpatrick (Eng), T Fleetwood (Eng), -1 A Rai (Eng).

Overnight leader McIlroy said he would be heading to the driving range after falling away from the lead. "I feel like conditions were pretty similar to yesterday," he told the Golf Channel after his round. "The wind was coming out of a different direction, but still very scorable. The greens are soft, maybe the ball's got a little bit more run out on the fairways, but you'll still see guys shooting pretty good scores today.

"I didn't quite hit it as good as I did yesterday, so probably an afternoon on the range for me. I'm proud of how I just hung in there. A lot of good par putts on the back nine, especially. The only bogey I had was with a mistake on the par‑five eighth hole, but I made some really good par saves coming in and that sort of kept me in it."

McIlroy will resume play in round three on Saturday.