Scotland’s Grant Forrest brilliantly tamed the famed ‘Burma Road’ course on debut to post a three-under par 69 on the opening day of the BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth.
Forrest birdied the three par-5s in a haul of five birdies and only two bogeys to be just outside the top-10 in the STG 5.42m event on the West Course at Tour HQ in Wentworth.
The trio of England’s Tyrrell Hatton, South African Justin Harding and Spain’s Adri Aranaus head the field taking Route 66 around the Surrey layout and with Hatton grabbing an eagle and five birdies while Harding and Aranaus had six birdies.
Grant Forrest Tames the Burma Road on his BMW PGA debut
Open Champion Shane Lowry continued to show his fondness for the course and on the 10th year anniversary of his maiden showing, to be in a group sharing fourth with five-under par 67s.
Forrest was afterwards delighted with his showing in a morning round of rain squalls and blustery winds.
He said: “My game felt really good out there as it was playing quite tough, it was playing quite long and it was pretty windy today, so you needed to hit a lot of solid golf shots and I was able to do that so I am really happy.
“The hardest thing was controlling your ball but then we were fortunate as the greens are a lot softer and you bring your ball in a lot flatter.
“I’ve not been here before but usually when it’s firm you adapt and have to throw the ball up in the air a bit more so today was a bit more unpredictable.
“So, I controlled it well off the tee while there were quite a few cross-winds and that meant you could get a few shots spinning the wrong way so if you can do that you can attack at the right times.”
Three-time Wentworth winner Colin Montgomerie tweeted ahead of the event wishing all those well this week. Monty was undefeated three years running from 1998 to 2000 and then becoming only the second Scot to win the trophy.
Forrest was just six years old when Monty won for a third occasion at the start of the new millennium beating the trio of Lee Westwood, Darren Clarke and fellow Scot Andy Coltart.
And Forrest was three weeks shy of turning 11 years when Scott Drummond became the last Scottish-born winning in 2004.
Forrest said: “Wentworth has always been a special place and to finally get to drive into estate and stand on the opening tee has been fantastic.
“I really enjoyed it out there as it’s a great golf course and it was playing a lot different to the usual. It was almost helpful for me not having seen the course before but then having played it quite soft you are not going to think it normally plays like that.
“Overall, it’s a great place and I can just imagine it with rows and rows of spectators as it’s really special.”
Forrest came into the week lying 60th on the Race to Dubai and rekindling his start of the new 2019/20 wraparound new season form when he was fourth in Mauritius and then sixth in Dubai and T10th in Oman.
In recent weeks, Forrest shared 14th place in the Portugal Masters and tied 19th a week ago at the Renaissance Club.
He said: “It’s good time now to be hitting form as I didn’t play all too well when we first came back to competition. I had a decent result in Portugal and I also played quite nicely last week.
“So, I am trending in the right direction and these two Rolex Series weeks are worth a lot more points and they are a lot stronger fields, as well.
“It’s just a nice time of year to be playing well. For guys like myself it’s hard getting into majors at the moment but the way this year has been, these two Rolex events can make or break your season.”
Next best of the Scots is Richie Ramsay who posted a 71
Aberdonian David Law was two-under par with just one hole to play but doubled the 17th in a round of 72.
Stephen Gallacher, Robert MacIntyre shared 73s while David Drysdale and Marc Warren signed for 74s.
Scott Jamieson was left rueing a seventh hole triple-bogey in his score of 75.
