McIlroy Looking Even Better on Day 2

JP and Rory on Friday

Rory McIlroy continued to dazzle in the US Open Championship at Congressional Country Club.

The 22 year old, trying to keep the trophy in Northern Irish hands following Graeme McDowell's victory last year, entered the record books in dramatic fashion when he sank a 113 yard pitch for an eagle two at the eighth hole.

Having already added birdies at the fourth and sixth to his opening six under par 65, the shot made McIlroy the first player in the event's 111-year history to reach ten under during the second round.

Playing partner Phil Mickelson stood and applauded as the ball spun into the cup to take the World Number Eight into an almost unimaginable seven stroke lead over the game's greatest players.

And that chasm expanded to eight after he hit his approach to four feet at the 467 yard 14th.

McIlroy, a few months younger than Jack Nicklaus was when he lifted the first of his 18 Majors in 1962, would be the youngest person to lift the trophy since another legend of golf - amateur Bobby Jones - in 1923.

Scoring records were there for the taking along the way.

The biggest halfway lead in the event was the six that Woods held at Pebble Beach in 2000 - en route to a Major record 15-shot victory - and in all Majors it was the nine of Henry Cotton at Sandwich in 1934.

Meanwhile, McIlroy had "only" to par the last four holes to break the 36-hole record total in the championship by Ricky Barnes at Bethpage Black two years ago.

And playing them in one under would enable him to match the Major record of Nick Faldo at Muirfield in 1992.

One thing he would not want to be reminded of, though, was what happened to Gil Morgan at Pebble Beach in 1992.

In a championship that started in 1895, nobody reached ten under until Morgan did it at the third hole of his third round.

The American led by seven at 12 under after seven holes of his third round, but then dropped eight shots that day, finished with an 81 and came 13th, eight strokes behind Tom Kite.

Tiger Woods is the only other person to have reached 12 under at any point at the US Open Championship, but McIlroy was poised to join them.

It was also only last July that he followed an opening 63 in The Open Championship at St Andrews with an 80 in strong winds, but he was almost lapping the field here.

The birdie on the fourth was thanks to a 25 foot putt and the four at the long sixth came when he drove into thick rough, laid up short of the water and then pitched to within six feet of the flag.

After 32 holes he was still bogey-free for the week, although for that he had needed to make an eight footer at the treacherous 11th after pulling his approach into a bunker.

Former Masters Tournament champion Zach Johnson matched McIlroy's outward 32 to move into a share of a distant second place with Korean Y E Yang - one of the day's later starters.

England's Robert Rock, meanwhile, was up from joint tenth overnight into a tie for seventh by remaining one under over his first ten holes - a remarkable effort considering he had visa problems and did not arrive at his hotel until 3.30am on Thursday after a taxi ride of around 1,000 dollars from Newark Airport in New Jersey.

Sergio Garcia, who like Rock had to qualify, was alongside him with four to play.

Mickelson was playing much better than he had in the first round, turning in 33 and then coming back from a bogey at the 11th with a 25 foot birdie on the 14th.

But despite improving from three over to level par he had lost ground on McIlroy.

A towering iron on the long 16th rolled up to around 10 feet from the cup and gave McIlroy a chance for a second eagle.

He did not make it, but by tapping in for birdie he had equalled the championship record by reaching 12 under.

McIlroy was now nine in front - and that from a player who had yet to tee off in the second round.

Mickelson also two-putted for birdie and had leapt from 62nd overnight into a tie for eighth.

McIlroy wasted no time becoming the first player in US Open history to reach 13 under, making a 12 footer at the 437 yard 17th.

Now seven under for the day he was ten ahead, but had the 523 yard par four 18th to come. Not that he needed to worry - he birdied it in the first round.