Trio tied for the lead at Wentworth

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  • May 26, 2017

Scott Jamieson, Thomas Pieters and Francesco Molinari are tied at the top of a tightly-packed BMW PGA Championship leaderboard.

Jamieson made a bogey and a double bogey in his first three holes but rallied superbly from there, racking up six birdies during a seven-hole stretch to sign for a two-under-par 70.

That was good enough for a share of the lead on seven under par, level with Molinari and Pieters, who had rounds of 70 and 69 respectively.

"It wasn't a great start," Jamieson admitted. "They are tough holes at the start. It's a tough stretch of the golf course, the first three holes, especially the way the wind was blowing today. The last thing you need to do in that situation is panic. Just try and take a wee minute to yourself and start again.

"It's obviously a massive tournament. That's why we play, so if I can just keep doing what I've been doing the first two days and hopefully I'm in a good place."

The leading trio are one shot clear of Max Kieffer, and two ahead of a potentially dangerous group that includes Henrik Stenson, Lee Westwood, Branden Grace and Byeon Hun An.

Ryder Cup star Pieters was pleased with his round on the challenging West Course lay-out.

"Much less stressful than yesterday. I hit a lot more greens today," he said. "Didn't make as many putts as yesterday but that's always going to happen. So I'm quite happy about today.

"You do need to think about kind of not linksy but you need to hit it in front of the flags sometimes and let it release and even with a wedge you have to play it for a couple bounces and then check. I love this type of golf where you have to think a lot more, other than just start throwing darts at the flag."

Molinari, meanwhile, will be counting on all of his Wentworth experience to help him over the weekend. The Italian has four top-10 finishes at the event.

"Hopefully a lot but obviously hopefully at the same time, the ending will be different," he said. "As you said, I've been in position before. I just need to keep doing what I did the last few days. The short game has been really sharp, which is important, especially on days like today. So again, I just need to rest and get the energies back and do the same another couple of days."

Further down the field, Justin Rose has the crowd cheering as he made a clutch eagle at the last to ensure he made the cut at two over.

South African Grace admitted he was distracted by the controversy surrounding his free-drop in a bunker at the 13th on Thursday, but still managed to grind out a 71 to lie just two shots off the pace.

Stenson equalled his effort after mixing three birdies and two bogeys.

Overnight leader Johann Carlsson looked to be crashing out of contention after four bogeys on the front nine, but managed to salvage a 73 that kept him within a couple of shots of the lead.

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