McIlroy retains advantage

Rory McIlroy continued to head the field after day two of the Honda Classic, with a second round 66 giving him a one shot lead over the chasing pack.

Among the early starters in Palm Beach, the Northern Irishman recovered from two bogeys in his opening three holes to sink six birdies and move to 11 under for the tournament.

That saw McIlroy, who held a one shot lead at the end of the opening day, retain the same advantage, with South Africa's Brendon de Jonge the nearest challenger on ten under after a 64.

McIlroy was struggling for form this time last year, but put his success in Florida down to regaining his confidence.

"When you hit a few good shots, your confidence can go up quite quickly but then you hit one bad one, it can sort of go down again and that's where I was sort of most of last year," he said.

"Now I feel I'm happy with where my swing is, and even if I do hit a loose shot, I can get over it much quicker and much easier because I have the confidence in what I'm doing."

England's Lee Westwood also made his mark on the leaderboard on Friday, mixing six birdies with one bogey for a second round 65 to sit seven under, four shots behind McIlroy.

Welshman Jamie Donaldson was a shot further back, with Thomas Björn and Luke Donald also in the top ten on a good day for The European Tour contingent.

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