CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- Rory McIlroy was so good Friday he didn't need much luck.
He got it anyway.
"I hit two tee shots left," McIlroy said after the second round of the Wells Fargo Championship, in which he's tied for fifth, 3 shots back of co-leaders Robert Streb and Webb Simpson. "Tee shot on 12, I hit left, and [it] bounced back off the tree onto the fairway. On [hole] 3 as well. Same thing. Hit it left and bounced back off the tree into the fairway."
It was clear from the start it would be that kind of a day for the world's No. 1 player. On McIlroy's first hole, the 600-yard par-5 10th, he sank a 30-foot birdie putt from the primary rough.
"It's always nice to start the day with a putt like that," McIlroy said after finishing a bogey-free 67. "Always nice to see the first putt of the day go in."
At times Friday, McIlroy's approach was unconventional, but almost everything he did worked. He tried to reach the short par-4 14th with a driver. He did and then some, rolling it 30 yards past the hole. He tried a risky flop shot into a tiny landing area on No. 16. Perfect. He missed five fairways but somehow managed to hit the green each time.
You get the picture.
"There's always a little bit of luck involved when you're trying to win a golf tournament," McIlroy said. "And thankfully, it went my way today."
What must concern the rest of the field at Quail Hollow Country Club is this: Even when the luck of the Irishman runs out, McIlroy is playing like the world's best player. Friday marked his 17th straight stroke-play round of par or better. He won the WGC-Cadillac Match Play two weeks ago and might have won the Players Championship last week, had he putted better. Now he is.
"It was pretty much stress-free out there," said McIlroy, who will be in the third-to-last pairing at 1:20 p.m. ET Saturday. "Any time you can play a round of golf with no bogeys, you're doing something right. The way I hit it today, I felt like I could have shot 63 or 64, but realizing 67 is still a good score and puts me in a great position going into the weekend."
McIlroy got his first PGA Tour victory here five years ago. That weekend, he shot a final-round 62. No one is expecting that, but with the way he is playing -- and a little luck -- no one would be surprised.