Shane Lowry was inspired alongside Rory McIlroy as he coupled sensational iron play with brilliant putting to hit the front in the Arnold Palmer Invitational at Bay Hill.

As an out-of-sorts McIlroy bogeyed the 18th but still shot a second successive 70 to lurk just four shots behind his close pal, Lowry (37) made an 18 footer to card a five-under 67 and lead by two shots in the clubhouse from overnight leader Wyndham Clark, who shot 71.

"Eight under for two rounds around here is pretty good, so I'm excited to have a late tee time here tomorrow and looking forward to the weekend," said Lowry, who was superb from tee to green and even better with the putter.

While he misread a four-footer and joked he had "a few choice words with myself" after a bogey six at the 16th, his birdie at the last brought his second round putting footage to 130 feet, and he admitted being drawn with McIlroy focussed his mind.

"When I saw the draw at the start of the week I was pretty excited about it," said the Offaly man, who feels he could be "dangerous" if he can regain trust in his driver after putting a new one in play this week.

"I know Rory's record around here, and I knew he was going to play pretty well, and I knew I was going to have to play well to keep up with him. And I'm happy with my couple of days' work."

Lowry led the field for approach play, and while he was still not 100pc comfortable with the driver, he was relentless with his irons and mentally ready for one of the PGA Tour's toughest tests.

"It's funny, when you have success, especially on a difficult place like this, it doesn't mean you come here the next year and you have a God-given right to go and play well," said the Offaly man, who finished third behind Scottie Scheffler last year after struggling in his five previous starts.

"You still need to play your game and execute. So I was kind of conscious of that."

He missed just four greens in regulation yesterday and after making five putts between 10 and 35 feet, he knows the recipe for success.

"If you can hit a load of greens out here, and then you're probably going to end up with four or five par putts that you need to hole at the right time, and if you can do that you can win the tournament," he said.

At the Joburg Open, Shaun Norris battled an ear infection but still carded a seven-under 63 to lead by a shot from France's Adrien Saddier on 11-under at Houghton Golf Club.

In China, Leona Maguire struggled from tee to green but made the cut on the mark in the Blue Bay LPGA.

The Co Cavan star (29) hit just seven greens in regulation as she added a 75 to her opening 73 to squeak in for the weekend on four-over, 11 shots behind Japan's Nasa Hatoaka and American Cassie Porter.

At LIV Golf Hong Kong, Tom McKibbin’s three-under 67 left him joint 14^th, four shots behind first round leader Paul Casey and his Legion XIII team ten off the lead in joint 10th.