The Co Down man carded a weather-delayed four-under 66 to share 30th place on four-under at Memorial Park, where he was two shots outside the projected cut line when play was suspended for two hours and eight minutes due to thunderstorms. He was nine shots behind Scheffler at that stage after the world number one fired a course record equalling eight under 62 in perfect morning conditions to set the pace at 11-under. But displaying the patience he knows he will need in the Masters, McIlroy missed just one green in regulation from there. He birdied the short 15th from 17 feet and then made a pitch and putt birdie four at the 16th to dip under the projected three under cut line before brushing in a 12 footer for another birdie at the 17th to give himself some wriggle room. His goal now is to keep plugging away at the weekend in Houston, where Scheffler’s brilliant round gave him a one-shot lead over Canada’s Taylor Penderith, with 52 players still to complete their second rounds. “I think I just have to play my own tournament and stay in my own little world, try to get the best out of myself,” McIlroy said of his mindset for his last two competitive rounds before the Masters and his deficit with Scheffler. “Whether that's good enough or not, that's not really up to me at this point; that's up to the guys that are in front of me on the leaderboard. “But if I can go out there and shoot a couple of good scores over the weekend, I'll be happy with my week's work.” McIlroy made a 22-footer for par at the first but birdied the second and third before his putter went cold and while he finished well, he did not feel he found anything in his game beyond patience. “Not really. I mean, I hit it a little better coming in. I holed a couple of putts, and that was it,” he said. “Again, it's the sort of golf course where it's easy to just make a ton of pars, not a lot of trouble out there, but you just need some putts to go in to obviously make birdies. “Started back off the suspension with a three-putt par on the eighth hole and hit some better shots coming in. “It was nice to see a couple of putts go in and get finished and obviously, get a couple more rounds here over the weekend.” He was pleased to make the cut comfortably as darkness fell and not have to return to the course at 7:30 am. “Yeah, it's pretty nice,” he said. “It was a little dicey there at the end. Maverick (McNealy) made a really good up-and-down for par to make the cut. I was saying to Harry I was just happy I had that shot cushion coming up the last because it was getting pretty dark. “Yeah, look, nice to finish, nice to finish the round the way I did and looking forward to hopefully an uninterrupted weekend and get another 36 holes. Just try to, you know, keep improving and keep getting a little bit better.” Seamus Power was a shot outside the projected cut on two-under after a 69, while Padraig Harrington was certain to miss out after a 71 left him on five-over. However, Leona Maguire scraped in for the weekend in the LPGA’s Ford Championship in Arizona, carding four birdies in a two-under 70 to make it on the four-under limit. The Co Cavan star was ten shots behind Lilia Vu, who shot a bogey-free eight-under 64 to lead by two shots from Thailand’s Jeeno Thitikul (64), world number one Nelly Korda (65), Denmark’s Nanna Koerstz Madsen (68) and England’s Charley Hull (69) on 14-under in Chandler.