England’s Aaron Rai and Swede Joakim Lagergren will take a share of the lead into Friday at the BMW PGA Championship after each carding opening rounds of 66 at Wentworth Club.
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The pair shot six under par to begin their respective campaigns over the famous West Course, their performances among the morning starters enough to set the initial target after day one.
Rai, starting on the ninth with a two-tee start in play over the first two rounds of the Rolex Series event, birdied four of his opening six holes to find his groove, before his only blemish of the day came at the par four 16th.
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He quickly recovered with a gain at the 17th, later adding a further two birdies at the second and seventh, while an up-and-down from the drop zone at the eighth after finding the water off the tee avoided a closing bogey.
It marked a strong start for the World Number 18, who is hoping to build on a special year to date, having claimed his maiden Major at the US PGA Championship in May.
Lagergren too will be hoping to continue his early momentum in Surrey. The 34-year-old picked up three shots across his first five holes, giving one back just before the turn to go out in 33.
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A stellar eagle at the 12th offset any major damage, with a birdie on the 14th and at the last adding to an impressive first-round performance in his tenth appearance at the prestigious Rolex Series event.
Ryan Gerard was the next best of the morning groups, finishing one shot back thanks to a round of six birdies and a bogey. The World Number 21 was later joined by Australia’s Adam Scott, Sweden’s Ludvig Åberg and Spaniard Nacho Elvira, who all navigated windy afternoon conditions to reach five under par.
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Race to Dubai leader Patrick Reed, Champion Golfer of the Year Ryan Fox and eight-time PGA Tour winner Viktor Hovland are among those in a share of seventh at four under.
Player quotes
Aaron Rai: Really pleased overall. Conditions were pretty tricky. We had a lot of rain during that warm up. But by the time it started, the wind had stopped, so that helped to start really well. I felt like I got into the round fast and got a couple birdies early on and continued to just play well throughout the round and keep the momentum going when I was out of position. So, yeah, really good. Really good start.
We played it the last two days and hit driver both days (on eight). Wind conditions felt like it suited that shot though do it again but underestimated the strength of the wind and it was a little stronger than it was the previous two days and the fairway was a lot firmer than we expected. A really good tee shot but obviously ran out a lot more. Nonetheless, extremely pleasing to make par there. A bit of a difficult way to finish.
I think it’s always a little bit of a guessing game (the wind). A lot of holes are very tree-lined and the trees are very tall, as well, so it’s always swirling around.
