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Rory McIlroy retains Honda Classic lead

Rory McIlroy remains one shot clear at the top of the leaderboard at the halfway stage of the Honda Classic in Florida.

Rory McIlroy has retained his one-shot lead at the halfway stage of the Honda Classic in Florida.

The 24-year-old Northern Irishman built on his opening-round advantage on Friday, hitting a second-round 66 as he came from back two early bogeys to reach 11-under-par.

"When you hit a few good shots, your confidence can go up quite quickly but then you hit one bad one, it can sort of go down again and that's where I was sort of most of last year," BBC Sport quotes him as saying.

"Now I feel I'm happy with where my swing is, and even if I do hit a loose shot, I can get over it much quicker and much easier because I have the confidence in what I'm doing."

South Africa's Brendon de Jonge is second on the leaderboard thanks to a six-under-par 64, while Russell Henley of the USA is three shots behind McIlroy in third.

England's Lee Westwood is tied for fourth place with American Russell Knox, while world number one Tiger Woods just made the cut with a shot to spare.

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