England’s Matt Baldwin will take a two-shot lead into the third spherical of the BMW PGA Championship after equalling the event report over the primary two rounds at Wentworth in Surrey.
He shot 66 after his opening 65 for 13 below par, matching the midway report set by Eire’s Paul McGinley in 2008.
Baldwin, 38, was working as a supply driver solely three years in the past and says he had been near quitting the game on a number of events.
“I had three or 4 months working at Amazon driving a van, simply to see me by the winter earlier than the Problem Tour began in 2022,” mentioned Baldwin.
“I realized loads from that. I realized that there are different issues that I might do in life, however I additionally realized that I actually needed to play golf.”
Denmark’s Niklas Norgaard is second on 11 below par, with France’s Antoine Rozner a shot additional again.
Northern Eire’s Rory McIlroy is tied-fourth on 9 below after including a spherical of 68 to his opening-day 67.
Play was suspended for 77 minutes due to the specter of lightning earlier within the day, with Baldwin having simply holed from 25 ft for par on the sixteenth earlier than the siren sounded.
Baldwin performed junior golf with fellow Englishman Tommy Fleetwood, who’s six pictures behind on seven below.
“I do not assume we ever misplaced. We performed numerous golf rising up, graduated the identical yr from Problem Tour and clearly performed slightly bit out right here,” mentioned Baldwin.
“Our paths have gone barely totally different however hopefully I can catch him up.”
McIlroy, in the meantime, got here into the week on the again of a heartbreaking loss in the Irish Open, the place he narrowly missed out on a primary skilled win on residence soil to Rasmus Hojgaard.
“It is actually essential [to play well] but in addition it is good. I would not have appreciated the week off to simply wallow in self-pity if I hadn’t performed,” mentioned McIlroy.
“To return again out and get straight again on the golf course, and play a few strong rounds to offer myself an opportunity at one other actually huge event, means loads to me, I assumed it was essential to do this and fortunately I’ve.”