2026 Truist Championship leaderboard: Rory McIlroy, Tommy Fleetwood charge into contention in Round 2

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TL;DR

Rory McIlroy improved his position at the Truist Championship with a second-round score of 67, moving into the top 10. He is now four shots behind leader Sungjae Im, who is at 9 under par.

Key points

Rory McIlroy shot a second-round 67.
He is four shots behind leader Sungjae Im.
McIlroy has won the Truist Championship four times.
He started the tournament with a 1-under 70.
McIlroy made five birdies in seven holes on the back nine.

Rory McIlroySungjae ImTruist Championship

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Rory McIlroy always comes into Quail Hollow with lofty expectations given his incredible record at the Truist Championship having won the event four times, but coming off a second Masters win in his last start, anything short of a weekend contending for a win would've been considered a disappointment.

After the first round, McIlroy found himself seven shots off the lead after a disappointing 1-under 70, but he made up for that in a hurry on Friday with a second round 67 that pushed him inside the top 10 on the leaderboard, four shots back of Sungjae Im's lead at 9 under.

It was another sluggish start to the round for McIlroy, who made the turn at even par for his round, but he caught fire after making the turn to make five birdies in seven holes thanks to some phenomenal iron play on the back nine.

Rory flag hunting 🎯

He hits an 8-iron to a few feet ⬇️ pic.twitter.com/ZPi3MiYs89

— Golf Channel (@GolfChannel) May 8, 2026

McIlroy's final birdie of the day came after a 395-yard drive on the 505-yard 16th hole, aided by a huge bounce off the cart path on the right, that gave him just over 100 yards to the front left hole location.

He paid off that break with a great wedge to below the hole and rolled in the birdie putt. While he grabbed a rare birdie on the start of Quail Hollow's Green Mile, it bit back on the 18th as he went bunker-to-bunker and couldn't get up-and-down for his par on the last.

Despite that last hiccup, it was more of the performance we expect from McIlroy, especially at Quail Hollow. After his round, he lamented the shots he left out there, including a few misses from close range on the greens, but was glad to see an improvement from Thursday and hoped to continue that trend on the weekend.

Playing in the group ahead of McIlroy on Friday was Tommy Fleetwood, who produced his second straight 67 to move into solo second at 8 under. It has been a surprisingly slow year for Fleetwood, who entered 2026 with lofty expectations after finally breaking through with a win at last year's Tour Championship. Instead, he's struggled to put himself in real contention this year, with his ball-striking lagging behind where it normally is in 54th on Tour in strokes gained approach entering the week.