Steve Palmer's BMW PGA Championship first-round predictions and free golf tips

Golf tips, best bets and player analysis for the first round of the BMW PGA Championship at the West Course on the DP World Tour.

Where to watch

Sky Sports Main Event and Golf, 9am Thursday

Best bets

Aaron Rai to win 9.55am threeball
2pts 6-4 Betfair, Power

First-round preview

A thunderstorm threat lurks over the afternoon session of the BMW PGA Championship first round, with potential for electricity at Wentworth from 2pm onwards, but many of the best players in the field will hope to be in the safety of the clubhouse by then.

Tournament favourite Rory McIlroy tees off in a marquee morning group with US Open hero Matt Fitzpatrick and defending BMW PGA champion Billy Horschel, scheduled on the first tee of the famous West Course at 8.30am.

Following the McIlroy group will be Shane Lowry, Justin Rose and Tommy Fleetwood, so enthusiastic early galleries seem certain in Surrey for what is expected to be a dry, calm morning. The later threeballs - including the Jon Rahm, Viktor Hovland, Tyrrell Hatton contest at 12.40pm - are in more danger of a weather delay.

First-round threeball punters are pointed towards Aaron Rai for the best value. The 27-year-old Wolverhampton man can outscore Ian Poulter and Jason Scrivener.

Rai posted five top-20 finishes on the PGA Tour last season, as well as sharing ninth place in the Irish Open in July, and he showed an obvious comfort at Wentworth on his way to 14th place in last year's BMW PGA.

Poulter, booed on the first tee at the Open in July for his LIV Golf switch, has zero top-tens from four LIV starts, as well as a generally unimpressive Wentworth record, while Scrivener has been poor since blowing a big winning chance in the Scandinavian Mixed in June.

Rai is a typically precise driver who can stay out of serious strife along the tight, tree-lined fairways of Wentworth. Poulter finished 17th of 48 runners in LIV Golf Boston on Sunday, then trekked to Surrey, where he got a much colder welcome than normal.

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