Tournament host Rory McIlroy failed to make the halfway cut at the Dubai Duty Free Irish Open, the event he won in fine style last year.
Early wind and rain gave way to calm conditions at Portstewart Golf Club and the softened-up surfaces once again allowed for low scoring, as overnight leaders Benjamin Hebert and Daniel Im carded rounds of 67 to get to 13 under.
World Number 11 Jon Rahm also carded a 67 to sit a shot back, one ahead of New Zealander Ryan Fox, who signed for a 66 in the third of the Rolex Series events with a prize fund of seven million dollars. Hideki Matsuyama – the World No 2 – was in the clubhouse at nine under, alongside fellow Japanese Hideto Tanihara, with England’s Anthony Wall also at that mark after seven holes of his second round.
Tournament host and defending champion Rory McIlroy was set to miss the cut after a 73 left him one over par. McIlroy could not find any momentum, despite his usual brilliance off the tee. Starting the day level, the Northern Irishman was turned in one under with birdies at 13, 14 and 17, with dropped shots at 12 and 16 halting his progress towards the cut line.
He began his final nine holes with three pars before finally sinking a putt of substance for birdie on the par 5 fourth, even if that came after an ordinary putt off the green. Playing alongside Matsuyama and Rahm, he failed to find the putting surface on the short sixth hole, which led to a bogey and the damage was done when he made double on the eighth.
Joining McIlroy on the sidelines this week are South Africans Hennie Otto (-2), George Coetzee (+2) and Darren Fichardt (+5), with nine others still to complete their second rounds.
Starting from the tenth, Rahm opened with a birdie and while he dropped a shot on the 12th, he took advantage of the back-to-back par fives, eagling the 14th and birdieing the 15th.
Im also birdied the tenth and added further gains on 17th and first, before dropping a shot on the third, and when Rahm birdied the 18th with an approach to three feet, he led on his own.
A bogey on the first dropped Rahm back to ten under, and that was a three-way tie as Hebert bounced back from a bogey on the 11th with a hat-trick of gains from the 12th.
A Rahm birdie on the second edged him back ahead, but Im birdied the sixth and despite a heavy-handed third on the par four seventh, Im had the lead, thanks to an impressive putt.
A poor second shot and a three-putt on the fourth from Rahm handed Im a two-shot lead, but Rahm responded from 18 feet on the next before Im birdied the ninth to set the target, with his 47 putts over 36 holes the lowest total of the season so far.
Rahm then took advantage of the par five seventh to cut the lead to one and put himself in an excellent position heading into the weekend.
Matsuyama was level par for his round after 13 holes, but birdied four of his last five to fly up the leaderboard, while countryman Tanihara was bogey-free in carding the round of the day so far with a 65.
Photo: Warren Little/Getty Images
