Shane Lowry hit a round of 65 to move into a three-way share of the lead with John Catlin and England’s Sam Horsfield on 10 under par at the halfway stage of the DP World Tour Championship.

Race to Dubai leader Collin Morikawa is eight under after a second straight 68.

The reigning Open champion is aiming to become the first American to win the European Tour’s season long prize.

Despite having hit only five fairways, former world number one McIlroy led on 11 under standing on the 18th tee but then hit his drive into a fairway bunker and compounded the error by attacking the pin with his third shot as his ball bounced into the greenside creek.

McIlroy’s subsequent drop trickled into thick grass and he was unable to get up and down for a bogey as his 10-foot putt slide by.

While he had struggled off the tee for most of the day, McIlroy said he had no hesitation in hitting his driver at the last.

“I hit a good drive down there yesterday. It’s a comfortable tee shot for me,” the 32-year-old told Sky Sports.

“It was playing slightly back into the wind. I hit that tee shot really well. I didn’t expect it to go as far as it did and get up the face of the bunker.”

McIlroy, who will be paired with Morikawa on Saturday, added: “The third shot… I hit a really good shot. That part of the fairway where the ball was quite sort of thatchy and it just off a little spinny into the wind.

“I didn’t feel like it deserved to end up in the water and it was a tricky up and down from there.”

Denmark’s Jeff Winther, who earned his first European Tour win at last month’s Mallorca Open, birdied five of his opening seven holes to move into a share of the lead before McIlroy had started his round but the four-time major winner had regained a two-shot by the seventh following three birdies of his own.

‘I’m just running on fumes’ – Lowry

A charging Lowry – helped by a chip-in eagle at the 14th – and Horsfield, after his five straight birdies from the sixth, joined McIlroy on 10 under.

Horsfield, whose two European Tour wins came in a three-week period in the summer of 2020, moved into a solo lead by birdieing the 14th but back-to-back bogeys on 16 and 17 saw him drop back to 10 under.

McIlroy regained the lead by holing a 15-foot birdie putt at the 16th before his last-hole mishaps saw him fall one behind the lead trio.

After his fast start, Winther dropped three shots in his closing eight holes to drop back into the pack at five under as Morikawa shared sixth spot with Germany’s two-time major winner Martin Kaymer.

Lowry finished fourth in the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship immediately after making his Ryder Cup debut in September, but has since finished 54th in a 78-man field in Las Vegas and missed his last two cuts.

“I felt like I left it all at Whistling Straits and then I came back out and I’m just running on fumes,” said 2019 Open champion Lowry.

“Thankfully I’m near the top of the leaderboard this weekend and it will give me something to go out and fight for.”