Sweden’s Ludvig Åberg closed with three consecutive birdies to add to six earlier ones and a single bogey and for an 8-under 64 at the BMW PGA Championship and a share of the lead.

“I felt like once I got on the greens, I was rolling the putter really nice and tried to be aggressive with the speed. I managed to make a lot of putts, which is nice,”said Åberg.

“Any time you shoot that kind of score, I think you need to be good on the greens, and that was what it was today.”

Tom Vaillant had earlier set the clubhouse target with his own 64 having made two bogeys. The Frenchman is currently 124th on the Race to Dubai Rankings and had his best result of the season, T17, at the Omega European Masters two weeks ago.

“It was a nice round. It was a wake-up at 03.50, and then it was very nice. I played well,” said Vaillant. “I tried to stay patient and give myself opportunities because I know I’m playing well the last couple of weeks.

“So it showed that I can go low, so that’s nice.”

South African Casey Jarvis fired five consecutive birdies from the 14th as well as three earlier birdies and one bogey for a 65 and solo third place at 7-under.

https://twitter.com/DPWorldTour/status/1966148505875132796

England’s Matt Fitzpatrick is tied in fourth place at 6-under having made two bogeys. Tied alongside him are Scotland’s Richie Ramsay who made one bogey, Sweden’s Joakim Lagergren who eagled the par-5 12th and also made one bogey as well as a bogey-free Antoine Rozner from France.

Northern Ireland’s Rory McIlroy who won last week’s Irish Open and leads the Rankings made two bogeys including one at the final hole to close with a 69 and a share of 34th place at 3-under.

Play was suspended for over an hour in the afternoon due to thunder and lightning in the area leading to an overnight suspension due to darkness and will at 07:45 on Friday morning.

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