Edoardo Molinari, the statistical brain of the European Ryder Cup team, played the first two rounds of the Hero Dubai Desert Classic with Matthew Baldwin. He did it again, less than a month later, at the Qatar Masters. Maybe that was just a coincidence, a chance. Or maybe not. Maybe they, the boys of the newly baptized by Ten Golf as ‘Ryder Command’, Captain Donald and his men, saw something in the Englishman that no one else noticed. Who knows if Baldwin was on their radar. It doesn’t matter. If he was, good for them in light of what he’s doing at the BMW PGA Championship. If he wasn’t, no one should doubt that he is already more than noted in the command’s logbook.
Baldwin (-13) is the relentless leader of the Wentworth tournament. This Friday he presented a card of 66 strokes and has matched the best result in the history of the tournament after 36 holes. It’s not a small thing. Only Paul McGinley in 2008 managed to reach that -13 or, in other words, 131 strokes. By the way, McGinley did not win the tournament. He crashed in the third round with a card of 79 strokes and ended up lifting the trophy Miguel Ángel Jiménez after defeating Oliver Wilson in the playoff. Both finished the tournament with -11, two strokes worse than McGinley. For lovers of superstition, hopefully this can mean that a Spaniard wins this week. That victory of Jiménez was the last one of ours in Wentworth.
To round off the superstition, however, one of the Spaniards present this week should end this day with the -7 that Jiménez had 16 years ago. Right now, with the day yet to be completed, it seems highly unlikely. Already finished, the best Spaniards are Ángel Hidalgo (-4) and Adrián Otaegui (-4), with a stroke over Adri Arnaus (-3), author of the best Spanish round of the day with a brilliant card of 67 strokes, and two over Rafa Cabrera Bello (-2), who also secured the cut, despite a painful bogey on the last hole. Santi Tarrio (-1) will have to wait until the end to know if he makes the cut. At the time of writing this chronicle the result of -1 was struggling to get in. Great birdie from the Galician, by the way, on the 18th to give himself at least a chance. Pablo Larrazábal (+1) has been left out. The note of ours is again need to improve, at least if they want to have a chance to win on Sunday.
Baldwin continues to write his particular fairy tale in a tournament that historically had not given him well. He did not make the cut until his fifth visit to Wentworth, just last year. However, in these first two days he has excelled at golf. On Thursday he missed only two greens all day and today he has continued on the same line, with only three greens missed. The statistic of one bogey in 36 holes says it all. The few times he has had to recover he has done it wonderfully. His first and only bogey came on today’s 11th, precisely when executing a very poor chip that stayed almost four meters from the flag. On the contrary, it is worth highlighting the putt of more than seven meters that he has put in the hole 16 to save par.
Be that as it may, the 38-year-old English player, who achieved in 2023 in South Africa his only victory in the DP World Tour, has also not put many long putts to be up there. That putt has been the most important. The rest of his birdies have come with opportunities between two and five meters. Solid as a rock.
At the top of the table, following Baldwin’s trail, is the French Antoine Rozner (-10), followed by Billy Horschel (-8). With a result of seven under par, six strokes from the lead, already with a curious gap, is Tommy Fleetwood, and one stroke further back is a significant group of players with Eddie Pepperell, Thriston Lawrence, Alex Noren, Si Woo Kim or Rasmus Hojgaard, among others.
