PHILIP REIDon how the young Ulsterman will need to get those birdies flying to mount a challenge at Wentworth

RORY McILROY doesn’t have to delve too far into the memory bank to know great things are possible when they appear least likely. In fashioning his maiden US Tour win at Quail Hollow earlier this month, the Ulsterman took the tournament by the scruff of the neck over the weekend and made it his own.

Now, he has a similar challenge in the BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth – and yesterday, despite a finishing run of double bogey-bogey-birdie in signing for a second round 69 (for 143, one-over) that promised so much more, there was a sense of the 21-year-old again seeking deliverance over the weekend in the European Tour’s flagship event.

“I’m hitting it well enough and I’m definitely putting well enough, so I just have to put it all together,” observed McIlroy, who will have to make up seven shots on leader Luke Donald – one of his playing partners for the opening two rounds – if he is to pull off another Houdini act.

McIlroy, though, has belief. At one point of yesterday’s round, he rolled in three successive birdies – hitting a six-iron to 15 feet on the third, a four-iron to 20 feet on the fourth and a six-iron to six inches on the fifth – only for his round to unravel with what he called a “stupid shot.” That came on the 15th, where he hit a rare poor drive which finished beside the hazard that runs down the right.

Rather than chipping back out to the fairway, he attempted to hit a seven-iron which shot off into the trees. An impossible shot? “Not really trying to do the impossible, just trying to make it an easier shot for the third shot in . . . in hindsight, it would have been easy to chip down the fairway.”

It cost McIlroy a double bogey,compounded by a bogey on the 16th after a poor drive. He at least got a shot back with a birdie on the 17th, to heighten hopes of a weekend charge.

Certainly, there’s a lot to play for heading into the weekend, a fact not lost on Damien McGrane. The Meath man shot a second round 71 for 140, two under par, but struggled with his putter on the new greens on which, he put it: “The ball makes up its own mind sometimes.”

“It was a battle, a fine line between being a couple under and couple over,” McGrane observed. This week, I’ve been making bogeys off good shots, which just shows you how fine a line it is with new greens. All you can do is keep grinding away and keep hitting the ball at the hole and trust what may.”

With just one top-10 so far this season, McGrane is intent on rising to the challenge presented by the toughened West Course over the weekend. “There’s no point having a challenge and then falling on your face. You have to get out there and get stuck in. It is a demanding course, and there is not many birdies to be had. They’ve taken away the opportunities and you have to snatch them when you get the chance,” he said.

On the first anniversary of his move into the professional game and competing in his first BMW PGA, Shane Lowry birdied the 18th for a 71 for 143, one over.

“I’m delighted, to be honest. I’ve been playing well coming into this week and it would have been a huge downer to miss the cut here. I feel like I can go out the weekend and shoot two rounds in the 60s and see what happens from there.

“It is good to get four rounds and see how I get on against everyone. I know I am as good as them and I just want to prove that,” he said.