Ludvig Åberg and Sebastian Söderberg share a one-shot lead after Day Two of the BMW PGA Championship as the Swedish duo produced a pair of big finishes in the twilight at Wentworth Club.
Related: Marcus Helligkilde takes early lead at BMW PGA Championship
Early starters Thomas Detry, Masahiro Kawamura and Adrian Meronk set the target at nine under in the fourth Rolex Series event of the season and it looked like they would lead the way into the weekend but the Swedish duo had other ideas.
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Söderberg made a hat-trick of gains from the tenth but the 32-year-old was still two shots off the lead before he birdied the 17th and eagled the last to card a 64 and get to ten under. In fading light, Åberg birdied his last three holes to sign for a 66 and join his countryman at the summit.
Home hero Tommy Fleetwood then completed a birdie-birdie finish to card a 66 of his own and joined the group a shot off the lead.
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Austria’s Sepp Straka and Englishman Aaron Rai are in the clubhouse at eight under alongside Dane Marcus Helligkilde, who had four holes left to play and will be one of 24 players returning to complete their rounds on Saturday after an earlier fog delay.
Åberg claimed his maiden DP World Tour victory in Switzerland two weeks ago, and his place in the European Ryder Cup Team for the upcoming contest in Rome is another step in a remarkable rise for the former college superstar and Amateur World Number One who only turned professional in June.
Söderberg was also a winner up the mountain in Crans-Montana in 2019 and is on target for his best finish in the Race to Dubai Rankings in Partnership with Rolex thanks to four top tens this season, including a tie for second in the opening Rolex Series event in Abu Dhabi.
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Play was suspended at 7:30pm due to darkness with round two to resume tomorrow at 7:20am. Round three of the BMW PGA Championship will not start before 10:20am on Saturday and will be a two tee (holes one and nine), three ball, U draw.
Player Quotes
Ludvig Åberg: Definitely pleased with the way I hit my irons and my wedges. I felt like as soon as I got myself in the fairway, you know, I felt like I had some control on the flight today and the trajectory I was really pleased with that for sure.
Like I said yesterday, for me to play with those two guys (Hovland and McIlroy) has been a lot of fun and a new experience for me. I’m trying to take everything I can and learn from it because obviously they have done so much so successfully in this game, and I’m trying to pick up some things that they are doing as well.
It was a little bit nerve-wracking both yesterday and today, but I’m proud of the way I handled it and looking forward to the next couple days.
Normally I would have putted it (for the chip in on 14) but I had my pitch-marker right in behind so I couldn’t putt it. So, I had to chip it over and came out a little bit hot. Luckily it went in. It was quite a cool experience.
Sebastian Söderberg: Just really solid off the tee for the most part and started hitting my irons pretty good and got a few pretty good looks. Yeah, pretty great finish.
Generally you have to be good off the tee. It’s tough to get close to pins and make birdies if you’re in the rough and then if you miss it in the wrong spots around the greens, some really tough up-and-downs. For the first two days, I managed to miss on the right side for the most part and got up-and-down.
It’s going to be a lot of fun. It kind of feels like it came from nowhere. Struggling a little bit last week on the weekend and has not felt great at the start of this week. Just trying to find some contact with my irons and they have kind of been going everywhere. So I guess some of that work finally paying off and starting to hit some quality shots.
It’s a huge tournament. The whole Ryder Cup squad is here. It’s going to be a lot of pressure and I’m going to try to enjoy it as much as I can.
Tommy Fleetwood: Even though I was one under through four, which is actually a good start around this golf course, I just felt a bit frustrated with how that had gone. Today just played really, really well. A lot of greens and a lot of mid-range chances and I hit plenty of good putts, but sometimes they don’t go in.
17 felt really good just to hole one and finish in the dark and making a birdie. It was a very, very good day on a course that you know can be very tricky.
I just stayed patient. I knew I was hitting it well. Kept hitting the right shots off the tee and just giving yourself looks, and hopefully by the law of averages, hit some decent putts and some will go in, and maybe there’s still my fair share out there over the weekend.
