Thanks a ‘ton’ states Bradley

BLAIRGOWRIE golfer Bradley Neil has thanked Li Haotong for what he described as “a fun time in practice” at the BMW PGA event at Wentworth.

It helped the 22-yearold record a fine first round.

Bradley was threeunder-par after six holes of that first round. That included an eagle at the fourth.

However, before his round ended, he had dropped two shots to end on a two-under-par 71.

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

He was distracted by a trigger-happy photographer on his second shot to the par-five 18th 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.

After almost holing the resulting pitch for an eagle, McIlroy’s mood was hardly improved by missing from three feet for a birdie.

However, a fiveunder-par 67 was still one shot better than he managed in the first round on his way to victory in 2014, with Lucas Bjerregaard setting the clubhouse target on seven under, a shot ahead of Dean Burmester and Darren Fichardt.

“It’s a tough enough golf shot without something going off at the top of your swing but it happens,” McIlroy said of the incident on the 18th, for which he received a swift apology from the snapper. “It’s fine. I’m sure he didn’t mean to do it.

“It’s a really good start. I played better than I have done the last couple of weeks.”

KEVIN Na secured a one-shot lead with a round of eight-under 62 on day one of the Fort Worth Invitational.