Willett And Rahm Tied After 36 At BMW PGA

On a day of tough scoring, two players distanced themselves from the pack.

Willett And Rahm Tied After 36 At BMW PGA

Danny Willett shot seven under par on Friday to co-lead the BMW PGA Championship with Jon Rahm who eagled the 18th to join him at 11 under par.

Willett got off to a hot start in his second round with a birdie at the 1st and another at the 3rd.

He then eagled the par-5 4th and birdied the par-3 5th to be five under after five holes.

The 2017 Masters champion got to eight under for the round after three more birdies at 9, 11 and 12.

He dropped a shot at the par-3 14th before parring his way home to sign for a seven under par round of 65, climbing from four to 11 under.

"It's my 10th straight year, and playing with Westy, I think it's his 26th. It's one of them places where you get to, you love coming back," Willett said.

"The crowds are amazing. They always are. I've had a couple nice finishes around here and the crowds help you along and really get behind you, and it's a fantastic spectacle for golf.

"This is our Tour's main tournament, our biggest tournament of the year, and it's always nice to come back; it's even nicer to come back playing quite well and being up there.

"Yeah, hopefully an exciting weekend to come."

The Englishman was joined atop the leaderboard by Jon Rahm after the Spaniard eagled the 18th to add a 67 to round one's 66.

Watch: Rahm's eagle at 18 -

Rahm, playing in the BMW PGA Championship for the first time, began with back-to-back bogeys to drop to four under before making four birdies in a row.

The four-time European Tour winner, who has won three Rolex Series events, dropped a shot at the 10th before birdies at 11 and 12.

His eagle at 18 will likely see him in the final couple of groups on Saturday.

"No matter how much time off I have or I don't, it's always great to get off to a start like this," Rahm said after his round.

"Being out there after 36 holes, 36 to go, it's important to have a chance, especially on a course that I've never seen before and a tournament this important.

"It is the Rolex Series and it is the PGA here in Europe, it's the Flagship Event, so it's a tournament we all want to win.

"There's a lot of history here and a lot of legends on the walls, so it would be great to join that great list of players."

The pair sit two ahead of Justin Rose, Christiaan Bezuidenhout and Henrik Stenson at nine under.

Billy Horschel and Paul Casey sit further back at seven under.

Horschel, like Rahm, is playing at Wentworth for the first time and matched the 65s shot by Willett today and Matt Wallace on day one.

Speaking of Wallace, the Englishman was one of many golfers who struggled on Day 2 as the wind picked up.

Many top players posted big scores like Tyrrell Hatton and Lee Westwood who shot rounds of 79 and 78 respectively. Both of those scores were common and there were even scores that eclipsed the 80 mark too.

Rory McIlroy on the other hand battled all day to squeeze into the weekend on the cut mark of +1. After shooting 76 yesterday he came back with 69 showing the same resilience he showed at Royal Portrush.

Tommy Fleetwood also narrowly made the weekend after a second round 75.

Notable players to miss the cut - Lucas Bjerregaard, Lee Westwood, Thomas Bjorn, Tyrrell Hatton, Luke Donald, Eddie Pepperrell.

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