Rory roars off the grid in pursuit of Love

Davis Love hailed Rory McIlroy as a talent as prodigious as Tiger Woods as the Holywood hotshot roared off the grid with a four under 66 in the Honda Classic.

As Pádraig Harrington mounted a late comeback to card an even par 70 to keep alive his chances of qualifying for next week’s WGC-Cadillac Championship, McIlroy was in an eight-man tie for second place, just two shots behind Love.

After firing a hole-in-one, five birdies and just one bogey in a course-record equalling 64, Love confessed America is waiting to see which of its young guns will step up and act as the anti-McIlroy at September’s Ryder Cup.

Asked who could challenge McIlroy at Medinah, 47-year-old Love said: “That’s like saying who is going to be the next Tiger or the next Jack Nicklaus.

“The next Rory? He’s one of the best players in the world. He’s very mature at a young age, a lot like Tiger. But I see willingness to do whatever it takes to be a top player. He works hard and says and does all the right things. Looks like he’s really working out in the gym. He’s soaking it all in and doing everything he can to be a great player.

“I think that determination or that little bit of something extra that drives you, I think he’s got it, like Tiger has.”

McIlroy hardly put a foot wrong as he took advantage of soft, calm conditions to fire five birdies and a solitary, three-putt bogey from 50 feet.

“Any time you shoot 66, you have to be pretty happy,” McIlroy said.

“It was pretty stress free out there. I put myself in a couple of tricky positions but I was able to get them up and down.”

Woods endured another tough day on the greens, racking up 34 putts, as he opened with a one over par 71.

“I hit a lot of pure putts today,” Woods said. “They rolled over a lot of edges. I felt like I played a lot better and I putted a lot better. I just didn’t score.”

Harrington can still qualify for next week’s World Golf Championship if a victory were to catapult him into the top 10 in the FedEx Cup standings.

Three over par with eight to play, he pulled his game together over the closing stretch with a birdie at the 11th, followed by two more from five feet at the 15th and 20 feet at the 17th to match Lee Westwood and share 40th place after his 70.

The Dubliner is now seven under par through the water-strewn Bear Trap (holes 15-17) for nine rounds, which is better than any other player who has played here since 2007.

But he preferred not to jinx himself by talking about it afterwards, joking: “I don’t know if I do or I don’t have a good record through there, so let’s not dwell too much on it.

“A 70 is okay. I could have done a lot better at the end. I feel like I left a couple of shots out there but obviously I got a very poor start.”

Graeme McDowell had five birdies, four bogeys and two double bogeys in a three over par 73 that left him tied for 103rd with Darren Clarke.