Viktor Hovland thrills fans at BMW PGA Ch'ship with eagle on 18 at Wentworth

Viktor Hovland eagled the last hole of the first round at the BMW PGA Championship to reach the top of the leaderboard alongside Tommy Fleetwood and Andy Sullivan.

Hovland, who was in the final group alongside Rory McIlroy on Sunday at The 150th Open Championship, made four birdies in his first 12 holes of the DP World Tour's flagship event.

After making more birdies on the 16th and 17th holes on the West Course, Hovland hit what he described as the "perfect 4-iron" into the famous 18th hole at Wentworth.

He rolled in the eagle to hit the top of the leaderboard on 8-under-par. Englishmen Tommy Fleetwood and Andy Sullivan also carded 64s to share a three-way lead after 18 holes in Surrey.

"That was a good way to finish the day - I hit a lot of really good iron shots, and I just kept giving myself a lot of looks," Hovland said.

"I made some birdies early, but I really didn't get that momentum that I was looking for. But I kept staying patient, and finally, I made some putts coming in. 

"To be honest, I really haven't played that well recently. I've been putting really well, and I feel like I'm making good gains around the greens, but I just haven't been hitting it as well as I've normally been hitting it. But I feel like that's starting to come around a little bit."

Between coming tied second at the Arnold Palmer Invitational in March and coming tied fourth at St Andrews in July, the young Norwegian failed to make more than one top-10 on the PGA Tour.

Despite experiencing an unexpected slump, Hovland picked up his third win in America at the start of the season at the World Wide Technology Championship at Mayakoba.

He shot three out of four rounds in th 60s at East Lake at the end of August to finish tied 15th in the FedEx Cup standings and he has a good chance to win his third DP World Tour title this week.

The tour is yet to decide if play will continue this weekend following the death of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth.