Rory McIlroy: Victory at The Open 'not out of my hands' despite being nine behind leader Brian Harman

Rory McIlroy believes he still has a good chance to end his nine-year drought at The 151st Open despite falling nine strokes off the halfway lead at Royal Liverpool.

The four-time major champion, who won the Claret Jug when The Open was last held at Royal Liverpool in 2014, mixed three birdies with two bogeys to post a second-round 70 and move under for the tournament.

McIlroy is chasing a second win in as many weeks, following his success at the Genesis Scottish Open on Sunday, with the former world No 1 pleased with his halfway position despite sitting a long way back from clubhouse leader Brian Harman.

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"I might be nine back, but I don't think there's going to be a ton of players between me and the lead going into the weekend," McIlroy said. "Depends what the conditions are tomorrow. Obviously depends what Brian [Harman] does, as well.

"Right now it's not quite out of my hands, but at the same time, I think if I can get to three, four or five under par tomorrow going into Sunday, I'll have a really good chance."

McIlroy made the dream start with a 12-foot birdie at the first but missed an opportunity from inside five feet at the third, then got up and down from a greenside bunker to take advantage of the par-five fifth.

The 34-year-old capitalised when his wild chip from the rough hit the pin to scramble a par at the ninth, seeing him turn in 33, only to bogey the 11th and fail to convert another birdie chance from inside eight feet at the next.

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McIlroy made an impressive par-save at the 14th and bounced back from bogeying the par-five next by rolling in from 10 feet to avoid dropping a shot at the 17th, then recovered from a wayward drive off the par-five 18th tee to lay up and finish with an eight-foot birdie.

"Important, certainly important to me," McIlroy said about birdieing the final hole. "I got off to a great start. Was a couple under through nine, then gave those shots away on two of the... sort of... easier holes on the course at 11 and 15. But it was nice to at least get one of them back on 18 there.

"It played tough. It played really, really tough - 10 under par [from Brian Harman] is unbelievably impressive out there. We'll see what the weekend holds, but after two days I'm actually pretty happy with my two days' work."

Harman set the clubhouse target after carding an eagle and four birdies in a sensational six-under 65, with the American set to take a commanding lead into the weekend as he chases a maiden major title and first PGA Tour success since 2017.

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"Brian [Harman] is a pretty laid back, unflappable sort of a guy, so I think he'll be okay," McIlroy said. "Yeah, he has been playing great.

"He has been doing some good work with Justin Parsons, and yeah, he's been up there on leaderboards over the last few weeks. He was up there last week, I think, as well.

"I don't know him that much, but obviously I've played a bit with him on [PGA] Tour, and I think his ball flight and the way he plays the game definitely suits this style of golf."

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