Francesco Molinari recovered from a shaky start to maintain his lead at the BMW PGA Championship on Friday while title holder Rory McIlroy missed the cut for only the third time in 45 events.
McIlroy’s back-nine 42 was riddled with errors and a miserable three-putt effort from 20 feet at the last hole meant he plunged to a six-over 78 and a five-over tally of 149.
Italian Molinari began the second round with a two-stroke cushion over the rest of the field, but his chipping was not up to scratch early on and it led to bogeys at the first and third.
Photo: Reuters
However, five birdies over the remaining 15 holes gave him a three-under 69 and a 10-under aggregate of 134 on another warm and sunny day at Wentworth Golf Club.
South Korean An Byeong-hun soared into contention after an eight-birdie 64 pushed him into second place, one behind Molinari. In joint third on 136 were Argentine Emiliano Grillo (65) and Thailand’s Thongchai Jaidee (66).
Paul McGinley, last year’s triumphant European Ryder Cup captain, tipped Molinari to do well at the start of the week and the triple European Tour winner did his best to live up to the Irishman’s expectations.
“I enjoy playing here,” McGinley told reporters at the tour’s flagship event. “There’s a bit of good Italian karma with Costantino Rocca winning in 1996 and Matteo Manassero in 2013. The start is really tricky here. My chipping wasn’t good enough to save par at the first and third, but I managed to steady the ship and made a few birdies coming in.”
Four-times major champion McIlroy is in the middle of an untypically busy schedule of five tournaments in a row that is to culminate in the Irish Open event he hosts at Royal County Down next week.
“I’m a little disappointed I’m not going to be here for the weekend,” said McIlroy, who has already won twice this month in the US.
“I’d still rather be here, but it’s not all bad getting to go home for the weekend. I’m probably in need of a little bit of a rest,” he added after missing the cut by four strokes.
South Korean An, making his PGA Championship debut, blitzed his way to a front-nine 30 before making further inroads on par at the 10th, 12th and 17th to tuck in just behind leader Molinari.
“That was definitely one of my best rounds,” he said. “I hit 17 greens [in regulation] ... and I didn’t have any putts over 30 feet. The players were saying this is one of the best events on the tour and definitely the atmosphere, course set-up and conditions are all spectacular.”
World No. 6 Justin Rose (72) was down the field on 143, but fellow Englishman Luke Donald, who won here in 2011 and 2012, was only six strokes behind Molinari after returning a second successive 70.
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