Rory McIlroy was feeling like his game was far away. That was four days ago. He looked much better in the BMW Championship with a 64 to be part of a five-way tie for the lead at Bellerive.

The world number two laboured to an eight-over finish at last week’s St Jude Championship.

‘Big course’ like Bellerive will help his cause as he looks to learn from recent mistakes

McIlroy could only improve his total by one shot on Friday with a 69.