You could say it was the charge of the fading light brigade at Wentworth. Well, not quite a charge, more an impatient, harrumphing shuffle you’d get in the snaking check-in queue at the nearby Heathrow airport.
As darkness descended on the West Course, and play creaked and groaned to a conclusion on day two of the BMW PGA Championship, there were four groups queued up on the 18th tee in scenes that were broadly equivalent to the chaotic logjam that must have greeted Noah as he tried to get everything loaded on to the bloomin’ Ark.
Forget various beasts going in two-by-two, though. The flustered DP World Tour officials were just trying to get as many golfing three-balls as possible home and dry.
The sight of a yawning Padraig Harrington perched on a fold up chair and just about dozing off as he waited to clatter his final drive summed up the general farce. “It was a s***show,” said Rory McIlroy of the chaos on the last tee which hadn’t been helped by an 80-minute fog delay earlier in the day. McIlroy birdied the 18th to finish on the projected cut mark of one-under.
By the time he was putting out, the huge scoreboard overlooking the final green resembled a Super Trouper beaming down on the main stage. Lights are gonna find me and all that.
That tenuous Abba reference was perhaps rather fitting, however, as Sweden’s rising star, Ludvig Aberg, rose to the top of the hit parade in the twilight.
As the race to get into the clubhouse and avoid an early morning return intensified, Aberg, playing in that marquee group with McIlroy and Viktor Hovland, conjured the kind of finish that grandstands were invented for – yes, even ones in near darkness – as he birdied his last three holes in a six-under 66. That left European golf’s most talked about player sharing the lead on 10-under with his compatriot, Sebastian Soderberg, who romped up the order with a fine 64.
“It was kind of a weird finish,” said the 23-year-old Aberg, who illuminated his card with a chip-in for birdie on the 14th “We were just trying to get done as soon as we could to avoid an early morning.”
Not that long ago, Aberg could’ve walked around Wentworth and nobody would’ve batted an eyelid. His rise, however, has been so rapid he could get a sponsorship deal with NASA.
Having secured a wild card for the European Ryder Cup team for the forthcoming contest with the USA in Rome, the recently crowned European Masters champion, who only turned pro in June, is now in the hunt to land the DP World Tour’s most cherished title. Nothing – not even a frantic dash to the finish last night – seems to faze the unflappable Swede.
“I thought it was great,” he said of another good day at the office. “It showed that even though I wasn't as sharp off the tee as I would want to be, I was still was able to find a good score.” That tends to be a hallmark of a very special talent.
Soderberg, meanwhile, responded to a bogey on the first with a sizzling surge which really got going with four birdies in a row from the ninth. The 32-year-old then finished with a flourish and, having birdied the 17th, he cracked an approach from over 200-yards on the last to 15-feet and trundled in the eagle putt. “It was a pretty great finish,” he said with a justifiable sense of self-satisfaction.
Tommy Fleetwood hit a 66 to lurk on nine-under alongside the spurned Adrian Meronk, the Pole who was extremely unfortunate to miss out on a Ryder Cup pick but continues to use that rejection as inspiration.
Scotland’s in-form Connor Syme, meanwhile, arrived at the last at nine-under and in with a chance of nipping into a share of the lead. However, his wedge to the green, from what appeared to be from a divot, flew into the bunker and he racked up a costly double-bogey seven. Syme, who had eagled his 12th hole, eventually signed for a 70 and dropped to seven-under. The Fifer, with three top-10s in his last three starts, is still well in the hunt, though.
Richie Ramsay, one shot off the lead after round one, slithered back to five strokes off it with a one-over 73. He finished alongside Calum Hill on five-under with Robert MacIntyre and David Law both on three-under.
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