Former world number one Rory McIlroy showed off his powers of recovery as he looked to boost his chances of finishing the season as European number one for the third time in four years in the Turkish Airlines Open.

McIlroy has a lead of 271,214 points over England's Danny Willett on the Race to Dubai, but cannot afford to relax with each of the four Final Series events worth more than 1.3million points to the winner.

The 26-year-old is playing three of the four and has targeted at least one victory to end an injury-affected season in style, his last win coming six weeks before suffering the ankle injury which ruled him out of the Scottish Open and the defence of his Open and WGC-Bridgestone Invitational titles.

McIlroy feels his putting has been holding him back since he returned to action but found the perfect solution to the problem by chipping in for a birdie on the par-five 11th at Montgomerie Maxx Royal on Thursday, having started from the 10th.

However, a number of other chances then went begging before an errant drive on the 18th finished at the base of a tree, forcing the four-time major winner to turn his wedge around and play a left-handed pitch back onto the fairway.

McIlroy's third shot came up short of the green but he pitched to eight feet and holed out for an adventurous par, before two-putting from the back of the green on the par-five first for his second birdie of the day.

Another birdie on the third took McIlroy to three under par and within three of the lead held by England's Chris Wood, who had covered the back nine in 33 and holed from 40 feet for eagle on the fourth.

Wood was one shot ahead of compatriots Lee Westwood and Richard Bland, Spain's Rafael Cabrera-Bello and Denmark's Lucas Bjerregaard, who finished second to Justin Rose in the Hong Kong Open on Sunday.

Ireland's Shane Lowry, who is fifth in the Race to Dubai and was playing alongside McIlroy, was four under, with Willett joining McIlroy on three under with a birdie on the fourth.

McIlroy carded his fifth birdie of the day on the seventh and eventually signed for a bogey-free 67 to lie three shots behind Westwood and South Africa's Jaco van Zyl, who were both eight under with four holes to play.

"I feel like my game came together a lot more on the back nine," said McIlroy, who only played the course for the first time in the pre-tournament pro-am.

"I was trying to find my rhythm for the first few holes and made a good par save on 18 which gave me some momentum going into the back nine, so overall I'm pretty pleased."

Lowry had to settle for a 68 after dropping shots on the eighth and ninth, with Willett another shot back on three under after four birdies and one bogey.

"I would have taken four under at the start but it's a bit disappointing," Lowry said. "It was a pure lapse of concentration on eight and a sloppy tee shot on nine left me a lot of work to do."