Rory ​McIlroy with run of birdies at Travelers Championship

The six-under scorecard around TPC River Highlands also featured a double bogey on his penultimate hole – one day after a memorable maiden PGA Tour hole-in-one at the same test.

“I hit my 8-iron really good,” said McIlroy on pgatour.com of the eighth-hole tee shot, which was set up at 177 yards yesterday. “But it got hit by a little bit of wind.”

Entering the day, eight shots off the lead, McIlroy finished in a tie for seventh ahead of the afternoon players.

McIlroy, reflecting on the comparisons with his opening round, described Friday as “it was better, way better on the greens”.

On his final hole, following the double bogey, he posted par.

“No, not at all,” said McIlroy, having been asked was his bold line a reaction to the double bogey. “I felt like it was a pin where you could be aggressive with the tee shot and get it up there.”

He added: “I feel ok...for being my fourth week in a row, I feel OK.”

Thursday’s hole-in-one on the 214-yard eighth was an early highlight of his Travelers Championship bid.

"Five-iron to 215 yards, slightly back into the wind off the right," said McIlroy, as reported on the Sky Sports website. "As hole-in-ones go, I've had them in the past where it has been an okay shot and you get a little lucky.

"That was the best shot of the day that I hit.

"Obviously a bonus for it to go in the hole.

"But it was really cool.

“I played pretty averagely up until that point and felt like that hole-in-one got me going a little bit."

It marked McIlroy’s first ace in competitive play since an Abu Dhabi appearance on the European Tour in his 2015 campaign.

Denny McCarthy was enjoying a four-stroke lead before the afternoon groupings of the Travelers Championship as he followed up his opening-day 60 with a 65 for 15 under overall and top spot.

And Northern Ireland’s Tom McKibbin, a recent winner in Germany at the Porsche European Open, was on course to make the cut at the BMW International Open before he found the water three times on the par-four 16th and racked up an 11 that ended his week in Munich.