Tyrrell Hatton was lighting up the Rolex Series once again as he carded an opening 66 to establish a two shot lead midway through day one of the 2020 BMW PGA Championship.
The World Number 15 is already a two time Rolex Series winner and he made five birdies and an eagle en route to a six under par total and the clubhouse lead at Wentworth Golf Club.
Hatton produced one of the highlights of the 2019 season with a chip-in that kept him in the play-off at the Turkish Airlines Open and he was at it again in Surrey, holing his third at the par five fourth to help him move two ahead of fellow Englishman Aaron Rai, Dane Joachim B. Hansen, Australian Scott Hend and Austria's Matthias Schwab.
Scot Grant Forrest, Frenchman Benjamin Hebert, Swede Joakim Lagergren and English duo Robert Rock and Matt Wallace were three shots off the lead, one clear of a group made up of World Number Nine Patrick Reed, two time Rolex Series champion Lee Westwood and fellow Englishman David Horsey.
After Storm Alex last week and with rain around early in the morning, the West Course was playing long but receptive, and a five way tie developed at the top of the leaderboard.
Among it was playing partners Hatton and Reed, two players who had gone head to head in the singles at the 2018 Ryder Cup.
Both of them birdied the par three tenth after starting on the ninth and Hatton then took advantage of the par five 12th and 17th.
His birdie on the par five 18th had Hatton in the leading group but it was matched by Reed who then joined him by making a gain on the first and almost aceing the second.
Last week's winner Rai had also started on the ninth and he birdied his opener before making further progress on the 11th and 15th and getting down in two putts from off the front of the gettable par five fourth.
Reed broke out of the leading pack with a birdie from seven feet on the tough third but he was leapfrogged on the next as Hatton chipped in from the rough for that eagle to get to six under.
The leader went left into the heather off the seventh tee and had to chip out to surrender a bogey but responded with a beautiful approach into his closing hole and holed from 18 feet for a two shot advantage.
Reed had no such fortune, finding the water with his second and surrendering a double to slip four shots behind.
Schwab was the most successful of the players who started on the first, getting off to a flier with gains at the second, third and fourth.
Bogeys on the sixth and ninth stalled his progress but he picked up a shot on the 11th before capitalising on the 12th and 17th.
Hansen had a roller coaster day as he bogeyed the ninth and 11th, picked those shots back up with an eagle on the 13th, double bogeyed the next and got back to parity with gains on the 16th and 18th.
He was still level par after going birdie-bogey on the second and third but a hat-trick of gains from the fourth and a stunning approach to the eighth catapulted him up the leaderboard.
Hend bogeyed the 11th but that was his only blemish of the day as he picked up shots on the 12th, second, fourth and fifth before holing from ten feet on the eighth.
