Sixteen-year-old McIlroy produced a remarkable effort in Dubai

Despite two double bogeys, the 16-year-old hit a second successive 72 which was only one shot too many.

Darren Clarke matched his opening 68 to stay in touch while Peter Lawrie is the top Irishman on nine under - a shot ahead of Clarke and Damien McGrane.

Clarke is five behind leaders Anders Hansen and Retief Goosen while Tiger Woods is among those on 11 under.

Nick Dougherty (66), Richard Green (69) joined Woods (66) on 11 under.

McIlroy produced an amazing effort effort and the 16-year-old's performance should still give him encouragement for his other forays on the professional circuit later this year.

The Holywood player recovered well from a double-bogey six on his third hole - the 12th - by picking up birdies on the 16th and 18th to turn in level-par 37.

It is disappointing to miss the cut but I still take a lot of positives out of this week Rory McIlroy

However, McIlroy then suffered a major blow by taking a double bogey six at the first - a hole he had also bogeyed on Thursday.

Birdies on the second and fifth got the youngster back to level par but a dropped shot on the seventh meant that his closing birdie still left him a shot outside the mark.

McIlroy played his final hole believing that a birdie would be enough to get him through to the weekend but quickly learned that he was one shot outside the mark.

"It is disappointing to miss the cut but I still take a lot of positives out of this week," McIlroy told BBC Sport.

"I played well but I had four double bogeys in the two days which wasn't very good.

"It's been a great experience. Standing next to Ernie (Els), Retief (Goosen) and Tiger (Woods) out on the range was pretty nice."

I'm putting very solidly and that's the only thing that is keeping me in touch Darren Clarke

McIlroy will play in the Quinn Direct British Masters at the Belfry in May and could gain invitations to other European Tour events during the season.

Top Irishman Lawrie shot a 66 which left him on the same mark as Soren Hansen who fired a 65.

Despite being in contention, Clarke was far from happy with his ball striking.

"I'm putting very solidly and that's the only thing that is keeping me in touch," said Clarke.

"I'm playing very poorly. Everything is going heavy left. It's not for lack of work on the range. I'm working hard but it's not happening at the moment."

Damien McGrane moved to eight under by matching Clarke's figures of successive 68s.

Gary Murphy missed the cut after adding a 75 to his opening 74.