Rory McIlroy six strokes off the pace at the Wells Fargo Championship

Rory McIlroy believes his game is showing signs of improvement, despite a disappointing finish to a promising second round at the Wells Fargo Championship.

The world No 3 picked up five shots in a four-hole stretch around the turn to briefly move within three strokes of midway leader Andrew Loupe, only to bogey his final two holes and close a three-under 69.

Having followed an eagle-three at the seventh with a hat-trick of birdies to make his move up the leaderboard, McIlroy bounced back from a blemish at the 12th to leave a kick-in gain at the 14th.

McIlroy, who struggled to an opening-round 73 on Thursday, then stuttered along the closing stretch, leaving his approaches in to the 15th and 16th short of the green before two-putting from 20 feet to bogey 17.

Worse was to come when McIlroy's second shot in to the last ended in the hazard, although a smart up-and-down ensured the two-time Quail Hollow champion would only drop one more stroke and stay within six of the lead.

"Obviously it's not nice to finish the way I did with two bogeys, but the rest of the card looks pretty good," McIlroy told Sky Sports. "I wish it was a little lower but it's a step in the right direction.

"I'm here for the weekend and hopefully I can put together a weekend like I have here in the past."

"I got it going in the middle of the round there and hit a lot of shots of much better quality than I hit yesterday, so I feel like I definitely improved on that.

"I worked on the range yesterday afternoon to try and work a couple of things out and it felt a little better out there for me today."

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McIlroy broke the course record to snatch a maiden PGA Tour title in this event in 2010, before going even lower on his way to a seven-shot victory last May.

Both victories saw McIlroy overturn a large deficit to force his way up the leaderboard over the weekend, with the Northern Irishman now looking for a repeat performance this time around.

"I'm here for the weekend and hopefully I can put together a weekend like I have here in the past," McIlroy added. "I've had a couple of really low weekends here.

"If I can draw on those memories then I can go out and get off to a fast start tomorrow then I'll be right back in the tournament."

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