VIRGINIA WATER – Rory McIlroy lost the club head on his 9-iron and then lost a chance to take the first-round lead by going out of bounds on the last hole in an eventful 5-under 67 at the BMW PGA Championship on Thursday.
The No. 3-ranked McIlroy was two strokes off the lead held by No. 363-ranked Matthew Baldwin in the flagship event on the European tour, having bounced back well from the pain of being denied victory at his home Irish Open last week.
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McIlroy had already produced a rare back-handed putt next to a water hazard to help salvage a par at No. 8 by the time he overcame a bizarre incident on the par-5 No. 12, which saw the head of his 9-iron detach from the shaft and fly down the fairway after McIlroy took his second shot.
The Northern Irishman said he didn’t even see the ball reach the green and settle inside 7 feet from the pin to set up one of his seven birdies.
“It was a bit of a weird feeling,” McIlroy said. “Obviously you’re expecting the weight of the club to just pull through and there was nothing there.”
McIlroy got the 9-iron fixed and had it back in the bag by the 16th hole, ahead of two par 5s that complete the West Course at Wentworth. He made par at No. 17 despite hooking his drive into the trees but dropped a shot at the last when he hit his second shot to the right of the green and into the trees, the ball eventually reaching a pathway that was OB.
A bogey dropped McIlroy out of a share of the lead at the time with Denmark's Niklas Norgaard (66), who won the British Masters this month for his first European tour title.
Baldwin was among the afternoon starters and went one better than Norgaard, with a tap-in birdie at No. 18 completing a bogey-free 65.
A tie for 12th at the Czech Masters last month and a tie for 18th at the British Masters was a return to form for the unheralded Baldwin after four straight missed cuts across June and July.
“It was lovely,” the Englishman said. “I feel like my game is pretty strong for a while, and to actually put it into a performance is nice.”
Thomas Detry, also playing in the afternoon, shot 66 to share second place with Norgaard.
McIlroy was playing four days after a runner-up finish at the Irish Open to Rasmus Hojgaard, who closed with three straight birdies to beat the local hero on Sunday.
“The nice thing about disappointments is that if you have something in this next week, it’s nice to keep busy and keep your mind focused on something else,” the 35-year-old McIlroy said.
McIlroy was in a tie for fourth in a large group that contained fellow Ryder Cup players Shane Lowry and Robert MacIntyre, 2021 champion Billy Horschel as well as Victor Perez of France, who also bogeyed No. 18 — after hitting his second into the water in front of the green — to drop out of the lead.
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AP golf: https://apnews.com/hub/golf