A wet Wentworth yielded low scores and a long day in the opening round of the 2025 BMW PGA Championship with Ludvig Åberg and Tom Vaillant sharing the top spot on the leaderboard after posting matching 64s. Not all were able to finish their first strolls around the par 72 given the stop-and-go nature of the round, but the star grouping of Rory McIlroy, Jon Rahm and Shane Lowry were among those to sneak inside the clubhouse as the sun was setting above.
While Åberg is the name to occupy the attention at the top of the leaderboard at 8 under, the Swede found himself drafting off another European Ryder Cup teammate in Matt Fitzpatrick, who finished at a respectable 6 under to position himself two behind. The duo two played an imaginary four-ball in 13 under with two weeks to go until the 2025 Ryder Cup.
“We get along great. [Matt’s] a great guy,” Åberg said. “It’s very easy to be around him, and we can chat about all sorts of things that are not even golf related, so that’s always nice. Today was one of them days where we both played pretty well. Hopefully we can do that in New York in a couple weeks’ time, too.”
Fitzpatrick’s fellow countryman, Justin Rose, continues to drink from the fountain of youth posting another sensational effort. The recent FedEx St. Jude Championship winner, Rose rallied late with three birdies in his final four holes to sign for a 67. He stands there with Viktor Hovland, who experienced a similar finish to his round as the Norwegian notched a birdie-eagle finish on the final two par 5s that routes Wentworth.
“Felt a little bit tricky coming out. I don’t know if it was just the morning. Felt quite wet under foot,” Rose noted. “So took me a while to find my rhythm today but began to play much better on the back and had some good chances actually, coming in. Hit some good iron shots. Took advantage of 17, which is a good hole to get a good tee shot out there. And then, I think if I just look back at it, delighted at the start and maybe left a few out there in terms of birdies No. 4, No. 12, No. 18, which made it a great round. I think I got all that I deserved out of that.”
While the energy was good in the morning groups, it lacked a tad in the afternoon wave. Faced with adverse conditions and a weather delay, those out on the golf course later in the day did well to keep in touch with the early pace setters.
Lowry looked out of sorts for a bit, but he proved to be the low man in the popular trio. After playing his first 11 holes in even par, the 2022 championship winner carded five birdies across his final seven holes to pull within ear shout of the leaders. As Lowry thrived, Rahm tried his best to match him.
Similarly disappointed with his early play, the Spaniard surged after dropping four strokes across his first 11 holes. He clawed into red figures thanks to a turkey of birdies on Nos. 15-17 and was able to save par after finding the water on the par-5 finisher to ensure it would remain that way.
At the bottom of the water hazard lining the 18th green, Rahm’s golf ball was joined by that of McIlroy. Rory was unable to save his par and put a sour taste in the Northern Irishman’s mouth given the quality of his round throughout the day. Reaching 4 under with two par 5s to play, McIlroy missed a short birdie chance on No. 17 and made bogey from the middle of the fairway on No. 18 to finish at 3 under.
Other notables to enjoy solid first rounds include Aaron Rai, Marco Penge, Harry Hall and Hideki Matsuyama who all find themselves at 4 under. LIV Golf members Patrick Reed and Tom McKibbin did one worse with Adam Scott and Tyrrell Hatton finishing at 2 under.