Friday 30 January 2015 17:17, UK
Rory McIlroy vowed to continue his aggressive tactics at the Omega Dubai Desert Classic as he takes a one-shot lead into the weekend.
The world No 1 believes he was not quite firing on all cylinders during the second round at The Emirates, but that didn't stop him powering to the top of the leaderboard as three straight birdies capped a flawless eight-under 64.
McIlroy's immense length was an obvious advantage in perfect scoring conditions, and he almost eagled the 351-yard par-four second after driving the green.
He birdied three of the first five holes and picked up two more shots at 10 and 11, and he could have had Ernie Els' course-record 61 in his sights had he not lipped out from four feet at the 12th and missed from inside 10 feet at the next two holes.
But McIlroy converted an excellent approach to the 16th and got up-and-down for another birdie at 17 before snatching the outright lead over Marc Warren with a confident 12-foot putt for a four at the last.
"It was good. I hit a couple of loose shots early on but found my rhythm and after that I played pretty well and converted most of my chances," he told European Tour Radio.
Set up nicely
"You can't ask for much more: bogey-free, eight birdies. I've set myself up nicely for a good run at it in the next couple of days.
"I saw a stat yesterday that since the first round of The Open, I've played 45 rounds and a third of them were 66 or better, which just shows you the level that I am at.
"I've put the work in and I've worked hard; I continue to work hard and this is the result, which is nice.
I am very comfortable and a lot of the parts of my game are in good shape, but the conditions out there are absolutely perfect so I would expect the scoring to stay low for the weekend
"I am very comfortable and a lot of the parts of my game are in good shape but the conditions out there are absolutely perfect so I would expect the scoring to stay low for the weekend and I am going to have to carry on playing like this.
"It is the best place to be, one shot ahead, but you just got to go out and be aggressive and try to make as many birdies as you can.
"I'm going to need something similar over the weekend to stay in the same position, as there are so many people close to the lead, it is so bunched up, you can't play defensively on this course."
Live coverage of the Dubai Desert Classic resumes on Saturday morning at 9am on Sky Sports 4 - your home of golf.
