ROSS FISHER hit overdrive at Wentworth to win a £133,000 BMW with a spectacular albatross at the 18th – but Jon Rahm’s amazing par save at the same hole could prove even more valuable.
Rahm’s miracle escape after hitting his drive at the 523 yard finishing hole into a bush meant he finished the day the same way he started it, sharing the lead with home favourite Danny Willett.
The twenty footer he holed for his par meant the top two had shot matching 68s, to stretch their advantage over the rest of the BMW PGA Championship field from two shots to three.
World No 4 Justin Rose is among the trio of players sharing third place, but it is hard to look beyond the leading duo for the eventual winner – especially as the threat of awful weather today means low scores will be a lot harder to come by.
The fans around the 18th were certainly treated to their fair share of drama. Most of them left the course still buzzing about Fisher’s incredible hole out from 218 yards down the fairway.
The fact that Fisher, 38, is a product of the Wentworth junior system made his albatross even more popular. His fans flocked to admire the wing-doored i8 Roadster that was his reward for bagging the rarest of golfing birds.
His two on the par five lifted Fisher from four to seven under, and he beamed: “It was pretty surreal. I hit a four iron and I was just trying to hit it just a little bit right of the pin, and actually tugged it a bit left.
“I sort of looked away, and the crowd’s reaction told the rest of the story. You hear the massive roars and cheers, and you know it’s gone in.
“It’s pretty special to have my wife Jo and the kids, Harry and Eve, here, and our friends Sue, Jamie, their two girls.
“It’s the first experience for them coming to a golf tournament. And it was Sue’s birthday – happy birthday Sue, but winning a car with an albaross doesn’t happen every day! There will be a few drinks going on tonight, I would say.”
Willett, 31, also enjoyed a lot of love from the galleries, who know all about the slump he suffered after his 2016 Masters win.
But his victory at the European Tour finale in Dubai last year proved he is headed back towards the top tier.
And Willett says victory today would give him almost as much satisfaction as his Augusta triumph.
He said: “I’ve won all over the world, but never in England, and a victory on home soil would be just amazing.
“I was there when Shane Lowry won the Irish Open as an amateur and the crowd reaction was ridiculous. Rory McIlroy has won countless times, but winning at the K Club was obviously a career highlight.
“You do get some brilliant feelings when you’re competing in front of your own fans. And to get it done at such a massive stage as Wentworth would make it even more satisfying.
“It was nice that we shot some good scores, and did some fancy stuff in front of the home crowd. A few of them got a bit raucous – I think they’d had a few too many scoops – but nothing bad. Just loud.”
McIlroy made some noise of his own early on, matching his best ever score at Wentworth with a seven under par 65.
But at six under he is still nine back, and it would take something even more jaw-dropping than Fisher and Rahm’s efforts to have a say in today’s outcome.
