Masters 2012: Rory McIlroy in the Hunt with Second-Round 69

Rory McIlroy is in the hunt at the Masters once again.

He went out early in the morning on Friday and fired a stellar 69 and is at four-under-par heading into the weekend. McIlroy is currently one back of co-leaders Fred Couples and Jason Dufner, who are at five-under par.

Rory started his round on a high note with three birdies on the front nine to shoot a front-nine 33. McIlroy stumbled on the 10th with a bogey but took care of business on the par-five 13th and 16th holes, carding birdies.

Another stumble on the par-four 17th dropped McIlroy back to four-under, and he closed with an even-par 36 on the back nine.

Overall, McIlroy has been playing some solid golf throughout the first two days and is within striking distance heading into Saturday's moving day.

Of course, the golfing world still remembers his Sunday collapse on the back nine at Augusta National last year. McIlroy shot a final-round 80 and threw his chances at the green jacket down the drain.

Then again, that was a year ago, and between last year's meltdown and this year's Masters, McIlroy has won a U.S. Open and ascended to world No. 1.

Now, McIlroy has more poise, more confidence, more experience and is looking for redemption after last year's breakdown.

He's got the game to do it and is only one shot back from being at the top of the leaderboard again.

Here's the current leaderboard heading into Saturday's round:

T1	Fred Couples	-5
T1	Jason Dufner	-5
T3	Rory McIlroy	-4
T3	Lee Westwood	-4
T3	Bubba Watson	-4