Matthew Baldwin built on his overnight lead, firing seven birdies and his first bogey of the tournament for a 66 to take a two-shot lead at 13-under into the weekend at the BMW PGA Championship.

“Incredibly pleased. Incredibly proud of how I’ve played so far,” said the Englishman. “There’s a long way to go. Keep doing the same things, should be a good week.

“Just playing sensible golf, really, I guess. I’m trying not to hit it too close, which obviously then forces you, sometimes you can get short-sided and things like that.

“I think my putting has been very good. Mentally I’ve been very good. I have a tendency to get in my own way. So I allowed myself to hit good golf shots and good putts and things like that has been great.”

“I had three or four months working at Amazon driving a van just to see me through the winter before the Challenge Tour started in 2022,” Baldwin added.

“I learned a lot from that. I learned that there are other things that I could do in life, but I also learned that I really wanted to play golf.”

Dane Niklas Nørgaard made an eagle, four birdies and a bogey to close with a 67 and take solo second place at 11-under.

France’s Antoine Rozner carded a flawless 65 featuring five consecutive birdies from the 14th to move into third place at 10-under.

Northern Ireland’s Rory McIlroy and Italy’s Matteo Manassero both carded 68s for a share of fourth place at 9-under.

Play was suspended for an hour and 17 minutes at Wentworth due to lightning strikes in the area. As a result fifteen players will finish their second rounds on Saturday morning starting at 07.10 local time. Round 3 will not start before 09:00, as a two tee start (Holes 1 & 9).

Related: Aaron Rai-ses to the occasion at the BMW PGA Championship

Aaron Rai enters round three of the BMW PGA Championship at six-under-par despite a frustrating bogey-bogey finish.

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