Lawrie moves into Wentworth lead

Ireland's Peter Lawrie this afternoon moved into the lead at the BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth.

The Dubliner was on 10 under after 11 holes, with Luke Donald just a shot off the pace on nine under.

It comes after England’s James Morrison ran up an early triple-bogey eight and saw his four-shot overnight lead disappear.

The former England Youth cricketer – he played with Alastair Cook and Tim Bresnan – had gone round in a sparkling 64 yesterday to take charge of the European Tour’s flagship event.

But in a nervy-looking start, the 27-year-old world number 236 bogeyed the first after hitting his second into sand and then found all manner of trouble on the long fourth.

It is rated the easiest hole on the course, but not for Morrison.

In the right rough off the tee he hooked out of bounds, hit his fourth shot back into the trees, duffed a chip and by taking three more fell one behind.

Donald, needing a top-eight finish to go back to world number one after Rory McIlroy’s second successive missed cut, was also bunkered on the first, but saved par from 12 feet.

He was then on in two at the fourth and two-putted to move to nine under, while Drysdale, 291st on the rankings and yet to win a Tour event, made a 12-footer on the short second.

Course re-designer Ernie Els was moving into the picture, birdies at the fourth and sixth helping him to reach five under with four to play.

The best early score was a 69 from Ian Poulter that took him to three under, while Lee Westwood had a 70 that included six birdies, but also a 30-foot putt for a triple-bogey seven on the 13th, where he twice left shots in a fairway bunker and had a penalty drop in between.

There were some horror stories in the windy conditions. South African James Kingston had an 85, England’s Steve Webster and Chris Wood shot 81 and 80 respectively, and America’s 2003 Open champion Ben Curtis finished with two triple-bogey eights for an 81.