Rory McIlroy loses ground on the lead after frustrating 69 at BMW Championship

Rory McIlroy admitted he found it "hard to stay patient" after failing to reproduce his stunning first-round form on day two at the BMW Championship.

McIlroy was disappointed to miss out on the chance to post a 59 on the opening day at Aronimink, settling for a 62 and a share of the overnight lead with Tiger Woods, and the Northern Irishman struggled for accuracy off the tee on Friday morning.

After starting with five straight pars having birdied each of those holes in the previous round, McIlroy holed from 12 feet at the sixth but then made mistakes at eight and 12 to slip to seven under and six adrift of leader Xander Schauffele.

But McIlroy bounced back with an excellent tee shot to three feet at the short 13th, and a superb second to inside 15 feet at the par-five 16th set up an easy two-putt for another gain which got him back under the card for the round.

Cast-iron pars at the two closing holes left him four off the pace heading into the weekend, and the 29-year-old will hope to avoid too many missed fairways as he bids to win the tournament for the second time.

"I didn't hit as many fairways and I got some really bad lies in the rough," he said. "As undulating as the greens are and where they tucked the pins away today, you couldn't really get to them. That was one thing.

"And I just didn't hole any putts. I missed a couple of short ones, and I thought they were a little slower today for some reason. I felt like I couldn't get the ball in the hole and when I did I was reading too much break.

"I sort of battled the first sort of 12 holes and then it was nice to make a couple birdies on the way in.

"It was hard to stay patient. I had two good chances the first two holes and didn't make them, and I had it to three feet on the fifth hole and missed that as well. I finally got one to go on six and felt like at least I got something going.

"It's hard to stay patient whenever you know what you've done yesterday, also what was under today. I didn't want to lose too much ground and I should have been a few better but, hopefully, that's it."

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