Saturday 21 November 2015 10:10, UK
Rory McIlroy tightened his grip on the Race to Dubai crown despite not being at his best during the second round of the DP World Tour Championship in Dubai.
McIlroy stayed on course to finish the season as European No 1 for the third time in four years after carding a workmanlike 68 on day two, putting him two clear of closest rival Danny Willett and one ahead of Justin Rose.
The world No 3 birdied the second and fifth before dropping his second shot of the tournament at the next, and picked up further gains at 10, 13 and 15 to reach eight under for the week - four adrift of halfway leader Andy Sullivan.
"Considering where I am on the leaderboard, I'll take it now," said McIlroy. "It has played a little tricky out there with the wind conditions and the direction of the wind changing a little bit. It caught me out today a couple of times.
"But eight under par is a good position going into the weekend and not too far off the lead, and I'm happy with my couple of days' work. Two solid rounds of golf, although I felt like yesterday it could have been a lot better, and today I felt like I hit the ball a little better but it wasn't quite as scrappy.
"There was a little portion of the end of the front nine where it was scrappy still and I missed a few greens, but I made a couple of really good up-and-downs on the eighth and ninth which got me going. Even though I wasn't hitting it my best, I was able to scramble and save par and that's the important thing.
The back nine I felt like I played quite nicely and made a few birdies. I don't think I've taken advantage of the par-fives quite the way I would have liked to, but if I can do that over the next couple of days and keep giving myself plenty of chances, I should be close on Sunday.
"The good thing is I'm giving myself plenty of chances and I've only made a couple of mistakes over 36 holes. If I can keep giving myself chances over the next 36, I should be right there."
McIlroy started the season-ending event with a slim lead of just over 1,600 points over Willett, but he insisted he was just concentrating on his own game rather than be distracted by where Willett was on the leaderboard.
"I'm treating it like a normal event because I'm just here to win and I know if I win, then everything else will take care of itself," McIlroy added. "Just trying to focus on my own game and focus on myself and if I can do that, hopefully things work out the right way.
"I just have to go out and try to put another good, solid round of golf in and give myself a chance going into Sunday. I'm not going to approach it any differently. I'm just going to try to go about my business and keep control of my emotions and thoughts and if I can do that, then I feel like that's the best way for me to approach it."
Willett matched McIlroy's 68 on the opening day, but the Yorkshireman lost ground on the Race to Dubai leader after four birdies and two bogeys in an "average" 70 in the second round.
"We played some good golf, and only holed one reasonable putt, a 15-footer for par at the last," said Willett. "Apart from that, I hit a couple stiff and that's about it. I hit some nice golf shots and didn't really capitalise, so hopefully we can get it rolling over the weekend.
"But six under at halfway is not too bad. The scoring is obviously going to be pretty low so we have to go pretty deep at the weekend," added Willett, who is relishing being in the heat of the battle for the Race to Dubai.
"It's just good fun, and is a good position to be in," he said. "It's better than pitching up here in 59th or 60th place and not playing great and playing early every day. We are in there with a shout and we keep putting some decent numbers up, and we just have to wait for another run on the greens."
