HSBC Champions 2016: Friday Leaderboard Scores and Highlights

Japan's Hideki Matsuyama produced a brilliant seven-under par round of 65 on Friday to move to 13 under overall and three shots clear at the top of the leaderboard at the 2016 WGC-HSBC Champions in China.

Defending champion Russell Knox and American Bill Haas lie in a tie for second on 10 under heading into the weekend's action, while Francesco Molinari, Richard Bland and Daniel Berger are tied for fourth place on eight under.

Rory McIlroy made a significant move up the leaderboard during Friday's action, making seven birdies in a round of 66 to move to seven under par.

Here is what the leaderboard looks like after a wet and windy second day of play at Sheshan International in Shanghai:

#	Nat	Player	Score	Round 2
1	JPN	Hideki Matsuyama	-13	65
T2	USA	Bill Haas	-10	67
T2	SCO	Russell Knox	-10	68
T4	USA	Daniel Berger	-8	70
T4	ENG	Richard Bland	-8	68
T4	ITA	Francesco Molinari	-8	69
T7	ENG	Paul Casey	-7	70
T7	ENG	Ross Fisher	-7	68
T7	NIR	Rory McIlroy	-7	66
T7	CHN	Xin-jun Zhang	-7	69

For the full leaderboard, visit the European Tour website.

Friday Recap 

Matsuyama sat two off the lead after Thursday's opening day and did not have the best of starts to his round on Friday as he carded a bogey five on the first.

However, birdies on two, three, seven and eight saw him to nine under and, despite a bogey at the ninth, he went out in 34 to put himself firmly in the mix at the top of the leaderboard.

The 24-year-old then kicked on impressively with three consecutive birdies from the 10th and, after a four on the par-five 14th, he moved two shots clear at the top of the leaderboard.

A closing birdie on 18 saw him return a quite brilliant 65 and he is now in the driving seat with the weekend to come, per the European Tour:

Haas and Knox are his closest challengers and both built well on their excellent opening rounds, the American matching his 67 on Thursday in the second day of action.

Scotsman Knox, meanwhile, bogeyed just the third on his way to a four-under 68, and only a frustrating missed birdie putt on the last prevented him from going into the weekend in second place on his own.

World No. 3 McIlroy endured a frustrating Thursday as he failed to truly find any rhythm, but Friday's round of 66 put him in contention near the top of the leaderboard. 

The Northern Irishman picked up shots at the par-five second, the fifth and the seventh to go out in 33 and holed a 15-foot putt at 11 to start the back nine in fine fashion.

Back-to-back birdies at 13 and 14 included another good putt dropping, before an unlucky bounce on the short 16th put McIlroy in trouble and condemned him to a first bogey of the day, per the European Tour:

He missed a makeable birdie putt on 17 to get the shot back, but then finished strongly with a four on the par-five 18th after an excellent approach to move back to seven under. 

United States Ryder Cup trio Rickie Fowler, Dustin Johnson and Patrick Reed all endured tough second rounds.

Fowler was in solo second place after the first day of action, but carded a 73 on Friday after making three bogeys in his first five holes.

He remains in contention on six under, but Reed's round of 75 dropped him to nine over for the tournament, and he just did not have the luck with him, per the PGA Tour:

Meanwhile, world No. 2 Johnson carded a second consecutive two-over round of 74, a double-bogey six on the 10th, which didn't help his cause.