Ramsay takes route 66 at Wentworth

Scot’s round includes Seve-like escape on the 18th as he takes the early clubhouse lead

Scotland’s Richie Ramsay in action during the  BMW PGA Championship at  Wentworth. Photograph: John Walton/PA Wire.
Scotland’s Richie Ramsay in action during the BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth. Photograph: John Walton/PA Wire.

Scotland's Richie Ramsay went from a share of last place to inside the top 10 as the BMW PGA Championship resumed today, partly thanks to a "Seve-like" escape on the 18th at Wentworth.

Ramsay made the halfway cut with nothing to spare on two over par after rounds of 71 and 75 in miserable conditions which claimed notable scalps in defending champion Luke Donald and Ryder Cup team-mates Rory McIlroy, Graeme McDowell and Ian Poulter.

But the 29-year-old from Aberdeen made the most of a welcome improvement in the weather on this morning to card a six-under 66 that equalled the lowest round of the week and took him to four under for the tournament.

Former US Amateur champion Ramsay carded four birdies and one bogey on the front nine and picked up three more birdies on the 15th, 16th and 17th, but arguably saved his best until last.

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"It was a Seve-like par," Ramsay said of his five on the 18th, a reference to the kind of escapes often conjured by the late Seve Ballesteros.

“I was playing great and went to be aggressive with my tee-shot down the right but pushed it and caught the trees. It ended up right in the middle of the bushes but I took an unplayable lie some 100 yards back and hit a rescue club over the ditch.

“I hit it a bit far into the rough and had a tree to go over but hit it to three feet. It was a great way to finish because it could have been a high number.”

Fellow Scot Greig Hutcheon, playing on his own as the odd man out of the 71 players to make the cut, had completed a 67 to lie just one behind Ramsay on three under, three behind halfway leader Francesco Molinari.

And veteran Spaniard Miguel Angel Jimenez, making his 600th appearance on the European Tour, was also three under after four birdies in the first 10 holes of his third round.