If Rory McIlroy’s game is still a work in progress then the finished article should be quite something. We all know what that can be like, of course.

When the Northern Irishman gets all the cogs, pistons, cranks and pulleys going in perfect, well-oiled unison, there is not a finer sight in golf.

By his own admission, he’s not been firing on all cylinders of late, but this expertly crafted seven-under 65 on day two of the BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth was another shift up the gears towards achieving peak performance. If he really gets going, the greenkeepers may have to deal with scorch marks on the West Course.

At 12-under par for the tournament, McIlroy is perched majestically at the top of the leaderboard, three shots ahead of England’s Sam Horsfield and Sebastien Gros of France. The rest face the kind of sizeable reeling in job that would have had Captain Ahab turning his boat around and heading for the harbour in futility.

Not that McIlroy is getting complacent about his lofty position with plenty of golf still to play. “I could go out and shoot two 65s over the weekend and still get beaten,” he conceded. “You can’t expect to win, you just control what you can do.”

McIlroy was certainly in control yesterday. In fact, his three-ball was pretty canny in general. None of the players in a group which also included the defending champion Alex Noren (68) and Lee Westwood (69) dropped a shot. Having watched McIlroy’s round at close quarters, Noren, who is handily placed on a seven-under tally heading into the weekend, stated that it was “the best round of golf I’ve ever seen.” Given that Noren shot a sparkling course record 62 on the final day here 12 months ago to win, that was quite the statement.

Of course, nothing is ever perfect in this game. As the great Bobby Jones said back in ye day: “No-one will ever have golf under his thumb. No round ever will be so good it could not have been better.” This 65 may have equalled McIlroy’s best round over the West Course – he had a 65 in round three back in 2009 – but there were one or two shots left out there.

The world No.8 hit cracking approaches into the first three greens but couldn’t convert the opportunities. For the second day in a row, he also failed to birdie either of the closing par-fives at 17 and 18.

All in all, though, it was a very good day at the office and one which had the galleries in raptures, particularly on the 15th green when he trundled in a raking birdie putt of some 35-feet.

“They are never the ones you expect to hole as you’re trying to get up there with good speed and if drops, it drops,” he said of that particular gain. “That one was pretty much perfect and it was a bit of a bonus.”

The late-early draw he was afforded for the first two days has suited McIlroy to a tee as he seeks the second BMW PGA win of his career and a second tour title of the 2018 campaign.

“I do like late-earlies,” he said with a smile. “If you can shoot a really good score on Thursday, you can go out again early [in round two] and get a bit of a rest afterwards. And if you shoot a crap one on Thursday you can go home! But late earlies are great though. “I shot a good score on Thursday, got a bit of dinner and got to bed and then you’re straight up and at it the next morning. I like the momentum you can bring with you to the first tee. This was one of the best rounds of golf I’ve played this year, ball-striking-wise. But there are still a couple of loose shots in there.”

That will at least give the chasing pack some hope going into the third round. Horsfield is one of the men spearheading that offensive as the 21-year-old, who won last season’s qualifying school final by eight shots, moved up the order with a six-birdie 68.

“Any time you’re playing on the weekend and you’re up there near Rory, you’re going to be doing pretty well,” said Horsfield, who was runner-up in the tour’s Tshwane Open back in March.

Tommy Fleetwood, Europe’s No.1 last season, mounted a robust assault as he unleashed a mighty late salvo to barge his way into the thick of it with a trio of closing birdies in a 66.

A bogey on the 15th had put a blip on a card that featured four earlier birdies, including a chip-in on the 13th, but he responded with gusto. The Southport man chipped another one in for birdie on the 16th, made a fine up-and-down for a four on 17 and almost made an eagle on 18 as he finished with great aplomb.

“I would have loved to have holed that one on 18,” said Fleetwood after his surge to the line. “Walking up 18 with the amphitheatre and everyone around, you want to make that massive roar.

“I wanted that eagle and come off buzzing, but three birdies to finish? I’m not going to complain about that.”

The race to catch Rory is on.