Willett And Rahm Tied After 36 At BMW PGA

On a day of tough scoring, two players distanced themselves from the pack.

Willett And Rahm Tied After 36 At BMW PGA
(Image credit: Getty Images)

On a day of tough scoring, two players distanced themselves from the pack.

Willett And Rahm Tied After 36 At BMW PGA

Danny Willett shot seven under par on Friday to co-lead the BMW PGA Championship with Jon Rahm who eagled the 18th to join him at 11 under par.

Willett got off to a hot start in his second round with a birdie at the 1st and another at the 3rd.

He then eagled the par-5 4th and birdied the par-3 5th to be five under after five holes.

The 2017 Masters champion got to eight under for the round after three more birdies at 9, 11 and 12.

He dropped a shot at the par-3 14th before parring his way home to sign for a seven under par round of 65, climbing from four to 11 under.

"It's my 10th straight year, and playing with Westy, I think it's his 26th. It's one of them places where you get to, you love coming back," Willett said.

"The crowds are amazing. They always are. I've had a couple nice finishes around here and the crowds help you along and really get behind you, and it's a fantastic spectacle for golf.

"This is our Tour's main tournament, our biggest tournament of the year, and it's always nice to come back; it's even nicer to come back playing quite well and being up there.

"Yeah, hopefully an exciting weekend to come."

The Englishman was joined atop the leaderboard by Jon Rahm after the Spaniard eagled the 18th to add a 67 to round one's 66.

Watch: Rahm's eagle at 18 -

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Rahm, playing in the BMW PGA Championship for the first time, began with back-to-back bogeys to drop to four under before making four birdies in a row.

The four-time European Tour winner, who has won three Rolex Series events, dropped a shot at the 10th before birdies at 11 and 12.

World no.6 Rahm has had 14 top-10s from 21 starts this year including two wins (one was Zurich Classic pair event with Ryan Palmer). (Photo by Harry Trump/Getty Images)

His eagle at 18 will likely see him in the final couple of groups on Saturday.

"No matter how much time off I have or I don't, it's always great to get off to a start like this," Rahm said after his round.

"Being out there after 36 holes, 36 to go, it's important to have a chance, especially on a course that I've never seen before and a tournament this important.

"It is the Rolex Series and it is the PGA here in Europe, it's the Flagship Event, so it's a tournament we all want to win.

"There's a lot of history here and a lot of legends on the walls, so it would be great to join that great list of players."

The pair sit two ahead of Justin Rose, Christiaan Bezuidenhout and Henrik Stenson at nine under.

Billy Horschel and Paul Casey sit further back at seven under.

Horschel, like Rahm, is playing at Wentworth for the first time and matched the 65s shot by Willett today and Matt Wallace on day one.

Speaking of Wallace, the Englishman was one of many golfers who struggled on Day 2 as the wind picked up.

Many top players posted big scores like Tyrrell Hatton and Lee Westwood who shot rounds of 79 and 78 respectively. Both of those scores were common and there were even scores that eclipsed the 80 mark too.

Rory McIlroy on the other hand battled all day to squeeze into the weekend on the cut mark of +1. After shooting 76 yesterday he came back with 69 showing the same resilience he showed at Royal Portrush.

Tommy Fleetwood also narrowly made the weekend after a second round 75.

Notable players to miss the cut - Lucas Bjerregaard, Lee Westwood, Thomas Bjorn, Tyrrell Hatton, Luke Donald, Eddie Pepperrell.

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Elliott Heath
News Editor

Elliott Heath is our News Editor and has been with Golf Monthly since early 2016 after graduating with a degree in Sports Journalism. He manages the Golf Monthly news team as well as our large Facebook, Twitter and Instagram pages. He covered the 2022 Masters from Augusta National as well as five Open Championships on-site including the 150th at St Andrews. His first Open was in 2017 at Royal Birkdale, when he walked inside the ropes with Jordan Spieth during the Texan's memorable Claret Jug triumph. He has played 35 of our Top 100 golf courses, with his favourites being both Sunningdales, Woodhall Spa, Western Gailes, Old Head and Turnberry. He has been obsessed with the sport since the age of 8 and currently plays off of a six handicap. His golfing highlights are making albatross on the 9th hole on the Hotchkin Course at Woodhall Spa, shooting an under-par round, playing in the Aramco Team Series on the Ladies European Tour and making his one and only hole-in-one at the age of 15 - a long time ago now!


Elliott is currently playing:


Driver: Titleist TSR4

3 wood: Titleist TSi2

Hybrids: Titleist 816 H1

Irons: Mizuno MP5 5-PW

Wedges: Cleveland RTX ZipCore 50, 54, 58

Putter: Odyssey White Hot OG #5

Ball: Srixon Z Star XV