Rory McIlroy got off to a flying start in the BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth, but his round unravelled to leave fellow major champion Aaron Rai as the early clubhouse leader.
McIlroy was five-under through 10 and in the outright lead before some waywardness off the tee proved costly coming home, making three bogeys over his final six holes.
US PGA champion Rai – playing alongside the Masters winner, and Open champion Ryan Fox in the marquee group – was typically more solid. He also had five birdies in his first 10 holes, with one bogey, and two more coming home saw him post a six-under 66. It left him three strokes ahead of McIlroy and two ahead of Fox.
McIlroy, who covered the course in 60 during Wednesday’s pro-am, is trying to reel in Patrick Reed to win a record-equalling eighth Race to Dubai title. The Northern Irishman looked intent on making a statement here, with the American in the preceding group.
Starting at the ninth, all but one of McIlroy’s first five birdies came from inside two-and-a-half feet, a 20-footer on the par-five 12th the only exception, with three in a row from the 16th from a combined five feet five inches.
He left an eagle attempt frustratingly short at the 17th, and another for birdie at the second, but things started to go awry from there.
McIlroy bogeyed the third and sixth, but a good recovery at the fourth saw him make birdie, and he salvaged par at the seventh.
However, from deep rough after another poor drive at the eighth, he hacked into the pond guarding the green and dropped his third shot of the day to finish with a three-under 69.
Rai drove into the same pond at the eighth but chipped up to save par.
Reed had briefly held a share of the lead with a fifth birdie before he too fell foul of the 395-yard par-four eighth to finish on four-under, joined by Fox and Viktor Hovland.
Fresh from his win at the Irish Open in Doonbeg last weekend, Shane Lowry finished on one-under.