Former Amazon delivery driver Baldwin leads at Wentworth as McIlroy chases

Matthew Baldwin's story is an inspiring one.

Matthew Baldwin considered giving up golf only two years ago after spending half a decade on a seemingly fruitless mission to win back his card on the European Tour, now the DP World Tour.

"Now I'm in a good place, mentally and physically, and enjoying what I'm doing" 💪

Matthew Baldwin on his impressive lead at the BMW PGA Championship 📈 pic.twitter.com/lVMrhf6cVi

— Sky Sports Golf (@SkySportsGolf) September 20, 2024

The future looked bright for the naturally gifted 26-year-old who qualified for The Open in 2012, where he finished tied 23rd.

In the years that followed, he played twice in the US Open and competed with the world’s best in the Race to Dubai.

However, form and fitness let him down as he entered his thirties and, soon after, the Southport native lost his tour card.

Proving that the line between big-money wins on the tour and barely scraping the barrel is scarily thin, Baldwin became an Amazon delivery driver in the winter of 2021 to make ends meet.

The 38-year-old reflected on this experience during a press conference at Wentworth this weekend, where sits atop the BMW PGA Championship leaderboard at -13 - two shots ahead of Niklas Norgaard Moller in second place.

"I had three or four months working at Amazon driving a van just to see me through the winter before the Challenge Tour started in 2022," he told the media.

"I remember pulling up to a block of flats, jumped out the van, got in the back and all of a sudden I feel like I’m moving and I’m like ‘oh no, I forgot to put the handbrake on’.

"So I’ve ran around the side, yanked the handbrake up, it still wouldn’t stop, yanked it more, it eventually stopped about this far short (inches) of a blue Fiesta.

"I learned a lot from that," Baldwin added. "I learned that there are other things that I could do in life, but I also learned that I really wanted to play golf."

Determined to get back on tour, Baldwin returned to Qualifying School - an experience he described as 'horrible' - and at the end of 2022 he overcame six years in the doldrums with a fourth-placed finish at the Challenge Tour final.

Baldwin had secured a DP World Tour card again.

Four months later, aged 36, he was a champion, winning the SDC Championship in South Africa.

Now, two years on from that breakthrough moment, the Englishman leads the way at Wentworth and is playing some of the best golf of his career.

Baldwin is in pole position to claim the first prize of £1.15million after adding a 66 to his opening 65 yesterday, matching the tournament record set by Paul McGinley in 2008.

It can't be easy to look over your shoulder and see Rory McIlroy lying four shots behind and last week's Irish Open winner Rasmus Højgaard just five shots behind at -8, but Baldwin must surely feel that his tough experiences of recent years can help him maintain the composure and determination to hold out at the top until Sunday evening.

There's no doubt that after hearing the story of his incredible journey, the home crowd will be fully behind him when he tees off at 11:05 this morning.