AUGUSTA, UNITED STATES - Thongchai Jaidee became the first Thai to survive the cut and play in all four rounds of the Masters golf tournament.
Thongchai fired a two-under round of 70 on Friday to recover a bit from his opening round of 75. The two-round total of 145 put the Lop Buri ex-paratrooper in a tie for 33rd place, and guaranteed he would play on the weekend.
That was Thongchai's main goal going into his fourth Masters, one of the four "grand slam" tournaments on the annual golf calendar.
But as Thailand's Thongchai stepped up his game, Rory McIlroy's hopes of becoming just the sixth player to win all four Grand Slam titles dimmed further on Friday as he again failed to find his best game.
The world number one, winner of the last two majors -- the British Open and the PGA Championship -- could only manage another 71 and at two-under par for the tournament, he only just edged inside the cut for the weekend with a strong showing down the back nine.
The 25-year-old Northern Irishman will start Saturday's third round at Augusta National 12 strokes behind runaway leader Jordan Spieth and with a host of top players stretched out in between the two.
The best-ever comeback to win the Masters came in 1956 when Jack Burke was eight back at the halfway stage and won on the Sunday.
McIlroy dropped a shot at the first and his tournament hopes further nose-dived when he four-putted from the edge of ninth green for a double bogey and an outward nine of 40.
A birdie at the 10th gave the four-time major winner renewed hope and he followed with a superb approach to inside a foot for an eagle at 13 that took him back to level par.
A missed two-footer at 14 meant another dropped shot, but he canceled that out at the par-five 15th and ducked under par with superb back-to-back birdies at 17 and 18 as he came home in 31.