sept6 roseonsong

England’s Justin Rose got off to a flying start in the BMW Championship at Coghill G&CC, Chicago, today after opening his account with a superb round of 65.

Rose was on fire from the word go and went on a stupendous birdie fest – he shot 29 for the front nine and after 11 holes was amazingly -8. He saved his best putt of the day when he holed out from 30 yards for yet another birdie at the par 4 9th. Afterwards he turned round to the rather sparse gallery and smiled: “Some days they just go in.”

They certainly do and Rose continued his birdie barrage at the start of the back nine, holing out from 15ft to go -7. He then just missed an eagle putt from just off the front of the 11th green so had to settle for ‘just’ another birdie.

He was playing near-flawless golf at this point but Cog Hill has a demanding finishing stretch and Rose dropped his first shot at the par 5 15th and then disappointingly bogeyed the par 4 18th – the result of another indecisive approach shot.

But overall Rose was understandably delighted with his day’s work which put him one behind early frontrunner Jonathan Byrd (-7) and level-pegging with Colombian Camilo Villegas.

“I can’t reflect too much on the ones that got away – I’d definitely have taken a 65 first thing this morning. It’s a good start and hopefully a platform to build on,” he said.

“But I knew it wasn’t going to be easy coming in – there are some tough par 4s on the back nine and also the wind got up a bit.”

Favourite Tiger Woods made a solid start and is ominously lurking just behind the leaders at -4.