Molinari Goes up by Two at BMW PGA Championship; McIlroy Cards 71


Francesco Molinari fired a 7-under 65 to take a two-stroke lead at the BMW PGA Championship. The European Tour major began Thursday at the Wentworth Club in England.

The 32-year-old Italian posted two birdies on the front nine and another five on the back for a two-shot margin over Sweden's Robert Karlsson. Molinari has been playing well of late, coming in second at the Spanish Open last week.

"It is a great start but you don't win the trophy on the first day," said the three-time winner in Europe. "I like the course; I think it rewards accuracy more than others, which suits my game."

Playing in the morning wave, Karlsson had six birdies and a bogey. "It was nice to put a good round together," said Karlsson, who had five top-10s last year but has not played well this year. "I've been struggling a little bit lately so it was nice to keep it going through the whole 18 holes. It was good.

"It's important around here to keep the ball in play and it became the main focus. I've had some good runs but I haven't played 72 holes well, but hopefully this is the start of a good run. There are many, many holes to play but I'm happy with today's round and keep improving on it."

Trailing Molinari by three are Spaniards Jorge Campillo and Miguel Angel Jimenez, England's Chris Wood, South Korea's Y.E. Yang and Scotsman Marc Warren.

Defending champion and world No. 1 Rory McIlroy is coming off a resounding, seven-stroke win at last week's Wells Fargo Championship in North Carolina. The 26-year-old Northern Irishman wasn't nearly as hot as he was at the PGA Tour event, where he carded 27 birdies and dropped just six shots en route to setting a new tournament record of 21-under 267.

McIlroy opened with a 1-under 71, carding four birdies and three bogeys. Also shooting 71 was last week's winner in Spain, England's James Morrison.

"Physically I am all right - I got back to my hotel at 4:30 p.m. yesterday and did not leave it until 6:30 this morning - but mentally I could feel myself getting a little angry out there," said McIlroy, who's looking for his third victory in four events; he also won the WGC-Cadillac Match Play in early May.

"Acceptance of bad shots is the thing I have been doing so well and I feel like my patience was wearing a bit thin today," he added. "I felt I was standing still at 1-under, but looking at the leaderboard it was not so bad."

Four behind Molinari are Pablo Larrazabal, Tommy Fleetwood, Nicolas Colsaerts, Peter Lawrie, Thomas Bjorn and Jerome Lando Casanova.

The shot of the day was made by England's Andrew Johnston, who won a BMW M4 with an ace on the 10th hole.

For all the scores, visit http://www.europeantour.com/europeantour/season=2015/tournamentid=2015038/leaderboard/index.html?showLeaderboard=Y.