A tough opening round at the BMW PGA Championships as the weather proved to be challenging throughout the day whilst the threat of thunder even halted play for approximately 1 hour 30 minutes in the early evening. However, it was South African James Kingston (-6) who carded a superb round of 66, including 7 birdies and 1 bogey, to take a one shot lead into the second round over Mikko Ilonen (-5).
It was a good start to the tournament for some of the victorious European Ryder Cup 2012 winning team members as Lee Westwood and Martin Kaymer both finished on -2 after their opening rounds. Paul Casey (70) will be pleased to come back from an injury plagued season to post a score of -2.
After a controversial week continues for Sergio Garcia (E), who has been in a spat with Tiger Woods, an eagle at the last hole to score 70 will boost his confidence going into the second round. Ernie Els (E) and Justin Rose (E) will both feel slightly disappointed coming off the 18th hole as Els finished with a bogey whilst Rose with a double bogey.
There were some poor starts from Rory McIlroy (+2) and Graeme McDowell (+2) as both struggled to combat the tough conditions. McDowell went along nicely with a single birdie and bogey at 10 and 11 respectively but an unwelcome double bogey at 18 meant the Northern Irishman posted a round of 74. McIlroy looked to be in a commanding position as 4 birdies and a bogey left him on -3 going onto the 13th tee. Sadly, a run of 5 bogeys on the last six holes means that McIlroy will be 7 shots behind the leader going into round 2.
It was a sorry start for hotly favoured Luke Donald (+6) and his compatriot Ian Poulter (+4). An eagle and a birdie was not enough to save Poulter's round as seven bogeys left the Englishman down the leaderboard. Similarly, Donald could not recover from a poor start which left him going into the back nine +5. From there it only got worse as a further bogey summed up Donald's disappointing day.
Expect another hard day tomorrow in the second round as similar weather conditions are likely to continue making it tough to score low.
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