World No. 1 Rory McIlroy admitted his was ‘bored’ despite muscling his way toward a rare back-to-back Stateside west and east coast victory toast.

McIlroy posted a second round 71 to move to four under par and only four shots behind the leading American duo of Kevin Na (69) and Jerry Kelly (TBC ) who head the $US 10m event by two

The four-time Major winning McIlroy was seemingly stuck in first gear for much of his round before three birdies in a four-hole stretch from the ninth hole of the TPC Sawgrass course got McIlroy into over-drive and headed towards the pointed end of the board.

World No. 1 Rory McIlroy admitted he got ‘bored’ during the course of a five-hour plus second round at the Players. (Photo – Fran Caffrey/www.golffile.ie)

He said: “I scrambled a lot, making a lot of good ups-and-downs, good pars, and on the back nine I felt I gave myself plenty of chances.

“But looking at my scorecard it was a game of two halves in some ways.

“Though to take five-and-a-half hours rounds of a PGA Tour event seems pretty normal, and that’s just the sort of day it was.

“I mean, I was pretty bored out there.  I am not sure how it looked for those watching on TV (smiling).”

However it was not boring for Masters champ Jordan Spieth with any talk of a new rivalry with McIlroy now on the back-burner after the Texan easily missed the cut with scores of 75 and 72.