Rory McIlroy moved a huge step closer to a sensational title defence at The Masters after taking a historic six-shot lead into the weekend at Augusta National.
A year on from completing the career Grand Slam with play-off victory over Justin Rose, McIlroy continued his push for more major success with a brilliant round-of-the-day 65 on Friday afternoon.
McIlroy broke the lowest 36-hole score by a defending champion as he moved to 12 under, the biggest halfway lead in the tournament's history, with the 36-year-old now firm favourite to join Jack Nicklaus, Sir Nick Faldo and Tiger Woods as a back-to-back winner of The Masters.
The defending champion birdied six of his last seven holes to charge clear of Sam Burns and former Masters winner Patrick Reed, while Rose and Shane Lowry posted second-round 69s to share fourth place with fellow Ryder Cup teammate Tommy Fleetwood.
"This course, it enables you to get on runs," McIlroy told Your Site. "I certainly didn't imagine birdieing six of the last seven, but I've always felt like when you're feeling it around here, you can get momentum, and the crowd gets on your side and you can just keep it rolling. This afternoon was one of those afternoons."
Tyrrell Hatton charged into tied-seventh with a six-under 66, while Bryson DeChambeau - who played the final group last year and was among the pre-tournament favourites - missed the cut after triple-bogeying the final hole of his two-over 74.
McIlroy held a share of the overnight lead after equalling the second-lowest round by a defending champion at The Masters, with the world No 2 quickly taking control of the tournament after firing three consecutive birdies from the second.
The defending champion gave the chasing pack hope when he missed from six feet to save par at the fifth, failed to take advantage of the eighth - the only par-five he has failed to birdie this week - and then started his second nine with bogey.
McIlroy briefly found himself level with Reed, who followed a first-nine 34 with a birdie at the par-three 12th, only for the Northern Irishman to reclaim the solo advantage and spark another birdie charge with a seven-foot birdie on the same iconic hole.
He took advantage of the par-five 13th and 15th - just as he did on the opening day, with McIlroy firing a stunning tee shot to kick-in range at the par-three 16th to move four clear of the pack.
Reed bogeyed the last to fall back to six under with Burns, who finished his one-under 71 with three birdies in his last five holes, with Fleetwood also on that score until closing his three-under 68 with a bogey.
McIlroy recovered from an errant drive at the 17th to finish just short of the green, where a sensational 30-yard chip-in pulled him further ahead, before a closing eight-foot birdie signed off a memorable Friday in style.
The lead matches the same halfway advantage McIlroy held at the 2011 US Open, which he went on to win and claim a maiden major, with every player this century who held a 36-hole buffer of six or more shots all going on to win.
"I so desperately wanted to win here just so I could come back each and every year, and thankfully I was able to do that last year," McIlroy added. "So, doing that, when I miss fairways, it's fine. When I miss greens, it's fine. I feel like I'm sort of playing with the house's money, which is a nice feeling to have.
"If I can just keep thinking well and making good decisions with whatever is put in front of me, and really just keep putting one foot in front of the other - hopefully do that for the weekend and everything works out."
Just 19 of the 54 players who made it through to the weekend are under-par at the halfway stage, with world No 1 Scottie Scheffler on level-par - and 12 off the pace - after a two-over 74.
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