Rory McIlroy's roller-coaster ride continued in the €8 million WGC-Cadillac Championship as he went in pursuit of leader JB Holmes, as the world number one - who finished his first round Thursday without a par in his final six holes - started birdie-birdie-bogey-bogey in a second round played in warm sunshine.

Holmes’s opening round of 62 resulted in some tricky pin placements for those in the elite field attempting to conquer the Blue Monster course and the 18-hole leader fell victim himself on his opening hole where he visited the water hazard in running up a bogey six.

McIlroy - who complained of a lack of aggression in his game after an opening 73, some 11 strokes behind Holmes - hit the ground running in his second round with birdies from three feet and ten feet on the first and second holes respectively. But the Ulsterman then pushed this tee shot into the lake on the third and three putted the fourth for back-to-back bogeys.

Shane Lowry, who opened with a 71 on Thursday, was forces to show his battling qualities in rescuing a par on the opening hole - where he pushed his tee shot into a fairway bunker and then hit the lip with the recovery shot, only advancing it 20 yards into rough - and reached the turn in 37, without managing a birdie, to be level par for the tournament.

Graeme McDowell had headed off to the range to work on his game following a double-bogey finish to his first round 73 but, after claiming a birdie on the second, then suffered back-to-back bogeys on the third and fourth to drop to two-over.