Matthew Baldwin produced a flawless seven under par round of 65 to lead the BMW PGA Championship by one shot at Wentworth Club.
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The Englishman may have started the day under the radar at the third Rolex Series tournament of the 2024 DP World Tour season, but the 38-year-old managed to keep his card clean and held his nerve to roll in his seventh birdie at the last to take the outright lead.
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It is Baldwin’s first round one lead since the 2018 season as he sits one clear of Denmark’s Niklas Nørgaard and Belgian Thomas Detry.
The Dane had set the daunting clubhouse target of six under after mixing seven gains and one dropped shot as he continued his love affair with English golf courses. The 32-year-old claimed his maiden DP World Tour title at the Betfred British Masters earlier this month and maintained his recent fine form in Surrey.
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Eleven players were at five under for the day, including four-time Major Champion Rory McIlroy, Rolex Series winner Victor Perez, Ryder Cup stars Robert MacIntyre and Shane Lowry and former winners Billy Horschel and Matteo Manassero.
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Defending champion Ryan Fox battled to one under, while Germany’s Hurly Long recorded the 26th hole-in-one of the season when he aced the 197-yard fifth hole with a seven iron.
Player quotes
Matthew Baldwin: It was lovely. I feel like my game is pretty strong for a while, and to actually put it into a performance is nice, a nice positive.
I struggle with it a little bit, especially first tee nerves. Actually it was quite quiet when I teed off but at the end of the day, to stand on the first tee and hit a good tee shot feels great.
I think keeping my patience levels up. I was fortunate that I got off to a good start, and the greens were good. So you could hole putts. It wasn’t the case of having to hit it stone dead to make birdies. You know, there were some tucked pins that you had to be careful and things, and miss it in the right spots, and I think I did that pretty well.
Thomas Detry: I feel like it’s out there. Certainly on this golf course, there’s a couple of good chances. If you get off to a good start, like on one, that’s a tough hole, birdied that one, and after that, hole number four, very short par five and there’s couple of chances here and there. It’s nice to be early par early. I was four-under through nine.
I thought the back nine was a little tougher with the wind from the north, northeast. Pretty much the whole back nine, so ten, the par three, we usually hit nine-iron, eight-iron and today was a low, punch six iron. The course is definitely playing trickier. Those last couple holes I managed to play well, three under.
I was surprised how many people were out yesterday. It always has a great vibe. Feels like we are catching the last breath of summer as well. End of September in England is always a little bit iffy, but today and tomorrow, looks great, and looking forward to seeing a lot of people out there.
