PGA Championship: Rory McIlroy to 'have a shot' at chasing down ...

Rory McIlroy carded rounds of 71 and 69 to head into the weekend on level par, five strokes behind Scottie Scheffler, Corey Conners and Viktor Hovland; Watch the third round live on Saturday from 2pm on Sky Sports Golf

Rory McIlroy admitted he was surprised to be within five strokes of the halfway lead at the PGA Championship after battling back again to stay in contention at Oak Hill.

The world No 3 experienced another erratic day off the tee but enjoyed more success on the greens, with McIlroy bouncing back from an opening-round 71 to post a one-under 69 and get back to level par for the tournament.

McIlroy opened with five consecutive pars before finding water off the next two tees, leaving him having to make eight-footers on both to salvage bogeys, then produced an impressive up and down to scramble a par from the rough at the eighth.

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The Northern Irishman drained a 45-footer at the ninth to register his first birdie but missed a seven-foot chance at the next, although he was able to end a run of pars by holing from eight feet to birdie the par-four 14th.

McIlroy continued his bogey-free back nine in calmer conditions and finished his second round in style, pouring in from 15 feet at the par-four last, with the 34-year-old proud of his patience as he searches for an elusive fifth major victory.

"I need to be patient with the way I'm hitting it off the tee," McIlroy said. "It's that sort of golf course. I feel like with the way it's set up it's easy-ish to shoot 72 but pretty difficult to shoot 67.

"When I'm working on the range, I hardly miss a shot , then it's just trying to get it to go from the range to the golf course that I'm finding difficult. I stayed really patient today. I think my patience was rewarded with a couple of good breaks and a couple of birdies coming in."

Scottie Scheffler, Corey Conners and Viktor Hovland share the halfway lead in Rochester, with Bryson DeChambeau and Brooks Koepka part of the chasing pack, while McIlroy is hoping for more accuracy off the tee to bolster his hopes of contending this weekend.

"I think how terribly I've felt over the golf ball over the last two days, the fact that I'm only five back - yeah, not saying I could be up there with one of my best performances, but when I holed that putt at the last, I looked at the board, and I thought, 'I can't believe I'm five back'.

"I guess that's a good thing because I know if I can get it in play off the tee, that's the key to my success over the weekend. If I can get the ball in play off the tee, I'll have a shot."

McIlroy was playing alongside Collin Morikawa - who remained on one over after a second-round 70 - and defending champion Justin Thomas, who scrambled a final-hole bogey to salvage a three-over 73 and make the cut on the number.

"It was a grind again," Thomas said. "It was a fight. Just got off to a poor start. Just made two mistakes on five and seven I shouldn't make in those situations. For some reason I felt very calm after that, and I played some really good golf. I hit a really bad shot on 11 and then obviously the second shot on 18, but hung in there and fought tough."

Watch the PGA Championship throughout the weekend live on Sky Sports. Live coverage continues on Saturday from 2pm on Sky Sports Golf.