Rory McIlroy was headed straight for the practice range despite moving into a clubhouse share of third place in sauna-like conditions on day two of the Tour Championship in Atlanta.

McIlroy posted back-to-back bogeys at the start of his round and was then three-over for the day with a bogey a five before rebounding with three second half birdies in a score of a level par 70 to remain at two under par.

“It’s the second day in a row I have fallen behind early and while I was able to get it back a little bit and that’s at least made me happy,” he said.

“But then at the same time I felt like I left a few out there, as well.

Rory McIlroy indicating he was headed straight for the practice range post his second round at East Lake.

“So I do feel an evening on range here is in order as I do need to sort it out a little, and hopefully not make as many mistakes out there tomorrow.

“My putting was quite good even though I missed a couple but I held some nice ones, too.

“I was just not comfortable with my swing all day and even in the warm-up on the range this morning it didn’t feel that comfortable so I do need to go now and work on my driving.”

McIlroy has long-time coach Michael Bannon with him this week to help in that regard and with the Tour’s stats revealing he hit just half of the 14 fairways in regulation and compared to just six fairways a day earlier.

And this is even though McIlroy’s averaging 308 yards off the tee for both rounds of the season-ending event.

But then McIlroy also struggled then in hitting greens in regulation managing to find 10 of the 18 East Lake greens and four less than Thursday’s effort.

“I feel as though this course can give a low score over the weekend but you really have to be in control of your golf ball, and you do hit fairways.

“So you can shoot something low and you only have to look at what Dustin is doing having shot four under on day one and he’s about the same today.”