On the first six holes of the first round in the BMW PGA Championship, Gonzalo Fernández-Castaño was close to getting himself into some serious trouble. He missed off the tee on three separate occasions, and we already know that from that point on in Wentworth, all you can do is buckle down and pray to make it out alive, trust that the trees that comb the fairways don’t like your ball and prefer to spit it out rather than swallow it up.
Wentworth showed mercy in this case, and Gonzalo wasn’t going to throw away the opportunity. He came out alive and hung in there for that partial score. The ball wasn’t exactly perfectly placed in the fairway, but at least it was playable. But in the midst of all the chaos, he managed to land an extraordinary eagle on the 4th hole, one of the seven from today. He not only got back on his feet, but also started to take steps forward.
From there, he started to play an elite game of golf. He made three birdies on the 9th, 10th and 16th holes, and the only thing he could have done better was to take advantage of the 17th and 18th holes. He played them by the book, just like he envisioned, placing the ball at the perfect distances to attack the green in three shots, but he wasn’t able to go down.
In any event, Gonzalo started the Wentworth off with 69 shots in the first round, and is currently in the top 15 of the tournament, one shot away from the top 10 and four from the leader. He’ll be playing on Friday morning.
