Rory motoring at Wentworth

Former champion Rory McIlroy found the spark he was looking for with his best ever opening round in the BMW PGA Championship, despite a final hole which was far from picture perfect.

McIlroy was distracted by a trigger-happy photographer on his second shot to the par-five 18th at Wentworth and needed a lucky bounce off a tree to avoid going out of bounds.

If looks could kill the photographer would have been in jeopardy — “I wouldn’t say dead,” McIlroy joked afterwards — and after almost holing the resulting pitch for an eagle, McIlroy’s mood was hardly improved by missing from 3ft for a birdie.