McIlroy makes his move

Rory McIlroy stormed into contention at the Qatar Masters with a brilliant bogey-free six-under-par 66 to sit just two shots adrift of overnight leader Johan Edfors.

Dubai-based Swede Edfors began the day with a two-stroke cushion over Worksop’s Lee Westwood and Charl Schwartzel, but could only pick up one stroke by the turn.

That allowed South African Schwartzel, world number eight Adam Scott, Scotland’s Andrew Coltart and Sweden’s Henrik Stenson to close the gap to one.

Former champion Scott, playing alongside McIlroy, made his move with a flawless seven-under 65, while another former winner Coltart was five-under with three to play.

Stenson, who finished second alongside Westwood in Abu Dhabi last week, picked up four strokes over the 12 holes of his second round.

McIlroy was joined on eight-under by Ross McGowan, two-under with seven to play, and a resurgent David Howell, a hole behind.

However, Westwood’s challenge suffered a setback after carding two bogeys over the opening nine holes of his round to slip to five-under overall.

McIlroy, 18, made a dream start after chipping in for an eagle three at the 591-yard first before quickly picking up another stroke with a long putt at the par-three third.

He missed another chance from seven feet at the next but reached the turn in four-under 32 after judging a 40-foot uphill putt at par four seventh to perfection despite finding rough off the tee.

It could have been even better for the Walker Cup star had an eight-foot birdie putt at the par-three eighth not come up agonisingly short.

But after again coming close at the par-five ninth, McIlroy began the back nine with a birdie four.

McIlroy missed several birdie chances from around 20 feet coming home and only picked up another stroke at the par-four 16th, while he avoided his bogey fate of the last two days at the last despite hitting his second shot behind the temporary television studio.

“It was great way to start and then I holed a long one on the third, missed a chance on four from seven feet but then holed another long one at the seventh to keep it going,” he said.

“I made a couple on the back nine with no blemishes on the card so it was a pretty good day.”

On his playing partner Scott he said: “We definitely played off each other and raised our game and made it look a bit easy with not a bogey between us.

“Adam is a fantastic player and when I saw the draw I was very excited to play with him. I was up with him for much of the round but he got me on the last.

“I have to go out tomorrow and play the same game, take it one shot at a time. I probably need a pretty similar score to stand a chance.”