Rory McIlroy says he's combined the "good, the mediocre and the pretty poor" in his first two rounds at the Memorial Tournament.

Golf's world number one trails the leaders by seven strokes into the weekend at two-under-par after

"I don't know what it was," McIlroy said on Sky Sports after his round in Ohio. "It was a few birdies and an eagle thrown in there and a few mistakes. There's some good in there, obviously, some mediocre, and there was some pretty poor shots.

"But I battled back well. I was three over through two holes, got off to a terrible start, but I battled back and hung in there and ended up shooting a reasonable score. It would have been nice to finish a couple better if I had have taken advantage of that par-five at the end.

"And the three-putt on nine leaves a bit of a bitter taste, but I came back well, and that's all you can ask for. My goal was to try to get back to even par for the day. I didn't really put a time frame on it when I wanted to get back to even par, but if I got back to even par for the day, and I did that, and I went a little bit beyond that.

"That's all I was thinking of, there were plenty of holes left. Obviously there's three par-fives, a few chances, and if you hit it in the fairway you're going to have a few wedges because the course is firming up a bit. I knew I had chances out there, I just needed to stay patient."

American duo Ryan Palmer and Tony Finau hold a one-shot lead over Irish Open champion Jon Rahm at nine-under.

Graeme McDowell and Shane Lowry both missed the cut.