Golf: Ryan Fox makes solid start at star-studded BMW PGA Championship

Ryan Fox plays his second shot on the 13th hole during Day One of the BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth Golf Club. Photo / Getty

By Joel Kulasingham at Wentworth

Ryan Fox has continued his recent run of form with a solid start at the BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth Club in Surrey.

The Kiwi world No 42 carded a three-under 69 for his first round - which included five birdies and two bogeys - to sit five shots behind the day’s leader Marcus Helligkilde of Denmark.

The event has a prize fund of US$9m ($NZ15.2m) and includes the likes of world number two Rory McIlroy, number three ranked Jon Rahm and FedEx Cup winner and world number four Viktor Hovland in the field as the entire European team are playing ahead of the Ryder Cup.

Fox, who is coming off a tie for third at the Irish Open last week, said he was relatively happy with his start - even if his game wasn’t quite where he wanted it to be.

“Score-wise it was actually pretty good,” he said after his round. “I kind of started really nicely. I had a couple of nice shots where it didn’t quite end up where I thought they were going to be and was scrapping for pars a little bit.

“And then played nice the rest of the front nine and a couple of bad shots on the back nine. I kind of hung on and made a nice birdie on 17; a little bit unfortunate to par the last with a three putt. For the most part there was enough good out there to warrant coming back.”

He said the key to this week will be tidying up his driver.

“I just need to drive it a little bit better. I didn’t drive it great today. Just giving myself a few more chances off the tee. If you do hit it in the rough here it’s pretty penal. Going to the range now to just try and iron out a couple things. It was close today. There were definitely some good signs.”

Rahm opened with a one-under 71 while McIlory was a shot back at even par. Hovland was the best of the trio sitting at three-under.

Fellow Kiwi Daniel Hillier had a day to forget, shooting a five-over 77 to sit close to the bottom of the leaderboard in a tie for 129th.

“Obviously not ideal to come in the way I did,” Hillier said after three bogeys, a double and just one birdie in his back nine.

“Not really much to say about the back nine, but the front nine was really solid. A lot of good stuff in there, so hopefully I can just get a good night’s rest and come back and make a few birdies.”

Hillier said he started to struggle with a minor shoulder issue during his round, but he was confident it wouldn’t keep him out from day two.

“My shoulder was playing up a little bit, but I don’t really want to make that an excuse. It just made it hard to commit to golf shots and just hit a few poor ones coming in. Hopefully get some treatment on that today and see how we feel tomorrow.”

Local favourite Matt Fitzpatrick and Scotland’s Richie Ramsay are two shots behind Helligkilde at six under, while eight players share a tie for fourth on five under.