The weather gods did their damnedest to thwart the first round of the BMW PGA Championship, the European Tour's €4.75 million flagship tournament, but such ruinous intent – even with two weather delays as lightning bolts cleared the air – didn't materialise. If anything, the rain took some fire and firmness out of the West Course's armoury, its defences weakened.
Indeed, Thomas Bjorn, demonstrating that there is plenty of life left in those 43-year-old bones of his, rebounded from a nightmarish missed cut at last week's Spanish Open with an opening round 62, 10-under par, that enabled the Dane – a one-time resident of the Wentworth estate – to take a two-stroke lead over Shane Lowry.
Generally, the scoring was good on the softened course, combined with a number of kind pin placements. But not everyone benefited. Sergio Garcia, for one, battled his way to the finish in signing for a 73 but then withdrew from the tournament due to a knee injury. "I have an edema on the kneecap," he explained of the build-up of fluid, "I guess it just tightens up as I go."
And defending champion Matteo Manassero struggled to an 80, which included an ugly quadruple bogey nine on the 17th. Rory McIlroy, too, had his problems on the penultimate hole – running up a bogey six after visiting a rhododendron bush – but a closing birdie enabled the Northern Irishman to sign for a 68, his best score on the Burma Road since 2009. Emotional one It was quite a day, an emotional one, for McIlroy, who admitted that he had turned his phone off in recent days and given away his laptop to avoid social media and other contact with the wider world following his break-up with fiancée Caroline Wozniacki. "I'm sort of living like I'm in the 70s again, 60s," he said.
Indeed, the gods – or, perhaps, McIlroy’s own genius with a golf club in hand – brought favours to the 25-year-old in the form of two eagles in his round: the first came on the seventh, where he holed-out with a pitching wedge from 130 yards; and the second came on the 12th, where his five-iron approach from 203 yards finished 12 inches from the cup.
After a long day which had started in the gym and then a stop-start round which was late starting and then further delayed by the second weather delay, McIlroy – with a 68 in hand – was simply glad to have gotten through it.
Of how the break-up had affected him, McIlroy said: “Everyone goes through it, it is part of life, it’s shitty and it’s tough.” He added: I don’t think you’d be a human being if it wasn’t tough, especially when it’s a little slow out there and we were walking in between shots. But once I had my mind focused on the task at hand, it made it a little easier . . . if I can just keep my mind busy and just concentrate on my golf and my gym work and just keep myself going throughout the week, then hopefully make it a bit better for myself.”
As starts go, and in the circumstances, this wasn't a bad effort at all for McIlroy. Upturn in form Pádraig Harrington's recent upturn in form continued with a 69. "I scored better than I played," confessed Harrington afterwards, which is something he would take time and time again. "Look, the difference [in form] is I've started putting good, and it's easier to play golf when you're putting half decent."
The evidence of Harrington’s first round, which contained 25 putts, would indicate that he has turned a corner of sorts. He, finally, has momentum to bring week to week and round to round. Plus, he is grinding better; typified by a par save on the third, where he was bunkered off the tee, and by reducing a potential double-bogey on the seventh to a bogey.
Harrington has also changed his attitude, explaining; “I’m trying to care less. I’m trying to try less. I’m trying to be happier, luckier, more carefree [on the course] . . . not work so hard at it.
“All the things you wouldn’t tell somebody but I tend to do the opposite, do it a little over the top. I’ve to work hard to take it easy.”
He added: “I’ve done a lot of work on my putting. I’m reading the greens better. I’ve confidence in how I’m reading the greens. The more this goes on, the more confidence I’ll have in it. For a period there I had the yips and it came from a lack of trust.”
Bjorn, though, is the one setting the pace and with designs on claiming a title that has evaded him throughout his career. So far.
