The Punter's In-Play Blog: Gerrard up by two at the BMW PGA Championship

09:40 - September 19, 2026 - Wide open at Wentworth but Open winner, Fox, is a fair price

At the midway point of the FedEx Fall's first event, the inaugural edition of the Biltmore Championship, pre-event 180.0179/1 chance, Neal Shipley, leads by a stroke over Ben Kohles, and there's a gap of three strokes to the two men tied for third, Ricky Castillo and Max Greyserman.

I was quite tempted to play Shipley at almost 3/14.00 but after much deliberation, I've decided to leave the event alone for now.

Although a five-time winner on the Korn Ferry Tour, Kohles is yet to win on the PGA Tour and at 35, he may not have too many more opportunities.

He bogeyed the easy par five finishing hole to lose by a stroke after trading at long odds-on at the Byron Nelson two years ago and at 10 years his junior, Shipley may not feel the pressure as much as Kohles over the weekend.

Shipley won twice on the Korn Ferry Tour in 2025 but on both occasions, he came from miles off the pace, trailing by four and seven strokes with 18 holes to play.

He was tied for the lead at the halfway stage of the 2025 Korn Ferry Tour Championship but finished third, beaten by three, and that's the only time he's led or been tied for the lead at this stage so it's hard to gauge how he'll cope with the lead and I'm happy to leave the event alone for now.

Over on the DP World Tour, we've reached the halfway stage of the BMW PGA Championship and Ryan Gerrard shows the way after an eagle-birdie finish to his second round.

Here's the 36-hole leaderboard with prices to back at 9:30.

Ryan Gerrard -12 3.412/5
Adam Scott -10 7.613/2
Filippo Celli -10 40.039/1
Arron Rai -9 10.09/1
Manual Elvira -9 60.059/1
Rory McIlroy -8 6.611/2
JJ Spaun -8 22.021/1
Ryan Fox -8 30.029/1
Nacho Elvira -8 70.069/1
Ross Fisher -8 120.0119/1
Matt Wallace -7 36.035/1
Joaquin Niemann -6 38.037/1
-6 and 50.049/1 bar

Gerrard has been impressive and two-strokes is a nice lead, but we have to go all the way back to 2009 to find the last clear 36-hole leader to kick on and win the BMW PGA Championship.

Like Gerrad, Paul Casey led by two at halfway, but this is a notoriously hard place to make the running.

Here's a list of the last 10 winners, detailing where they sat after 36 holes.

2025 - Alex Noren - sixth, trailing by three
2024 - Billy Horschel - sixth, trailing by five
2023 - Ryan Fox - 10th, trailing by three
2022 - Shane Lowry - sixth, trailing by two (event played over 54 holes)
2021 - Billy Horschel - fifth, trailing by three
2020 - Tyrrell Hatton - third, trailing by one
2019 - Danny Willett - tied for the lead
2018 - Francesco Molinari - fifth, trailing by five
2017 - Alex Noren - 23^rd, trailing by six
2016 - Chris Wood 24^th, trailing by eight

The last two winners, Alex Noren and Billy Horschel, were both winning the event for the second time and course form stands up extremely well.

The pre-event favourite, Rory McIlroy, is bidding to win the title for a second time, having won from off the pace back in 2014, but the one I like at halfway is this year's Open winner, Ryan Fox, who won here three years ago.

Fox, who plays with Rory again today for the third day in-a-row, is no bigger than 22/123.00 on the High Street so the 30.029/1 available on the Betfair Exchange is more than fair.

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