Dec 5 (Reuters) - Rory McIlroy grabbed three birdies in his last four holes to make the cut at the Australian Open on Friday, while Portugal's Daniel Rodrigues and Denmark's Rasmus Neergaard-Petersen set the pace at Royal Melbourne on nine-under par.
A trio of home golfers are in hot pursuit of the joint leaders with Min Woo Lee shooting a six-under 65 to sit one shot back while major winners Cam Smith (65) and Adam Scott (66) were a stroke further back.
Smith, the 2022 British Open champion, posted
six birdies without a blemish on his second-round card.
Portugal's Rodrigues shot a seven-under 64, soaring up the leaderboard with a bogey and eight birdies on his card, while an eagle at the 14th helped Dane Neergaard-Petersen to a 66.
“Certainly I feel like I’ve proved over the last year or so that I have the level to compete out here and be in the thick of things on Sunday,” Neergaard-Petersen said.
McIlroy found himself outside the cut line after taking a fresh air swing in the bushes on the 14th and suffering a bogey, but the Northern Irishman hit back with birdies on 15, 17 and 18 to card a 68 and sit seven strokes off the leaders on two under.
"It's really making you think out there," said McIlroy, who completed the career Grand Slam with his win at the Masters this year.
"Seven is not too far back, tomorrow morning and get a good one, I can get back myself right back into the game."
(Reporting by Karan Prashant Saxena in Bengaluru; Editing by Peter Rutherford)
