Let us all say a big thank you to golfing bosses in America for its favour they’ve ever done the European Seminar.
It was not something they intended, however, at a stroke, they have dramatically elevated the status of this BMW PGA Championship.
The interests of golf forced the BMW PGA to proceed to September by changing the PGA Championship to May to leave August clear for the FedExCup. In doing so, they unwittingly helped all the negatives that have affected the championship for decades are resolved by the European Tour.
For the first time lately, the championship was all good news for sponsors, those players, and fans, and the outcome has been a showcase event to match some in the history of Wentworth.
And in my estimation, the Wentworth occasion has, after its powerful fall rebirth, instantly climbed only.
Many in America may scoff at that given the strength of the field each year but they would possibly be underestimating the importance of Tony Finau, Patrick Reed, also Billy Horschel being at Wentworth weekly. That trio may turn out to be an improvement party for many more to come once the positives start to feed back across the Atlantic.
In modern times, Americans have respected the European PGA Championship although not recognized as a world event and you may understand why. For a start, the European Tour has struggled to acquire its very own players to tee up in their own flagship tournament, never mind draw players from around the planet.
There were a range of factors, most of them related to Wentworth’s place on the golfing calendar, squeezed into a May that then comprised the Players Championship and also the Memorial Tournament of Jack Nicklaus. This week in May, early in the united kingdom season made it hard for the path we have come to expect at tournaments.
Players were frequently critical of the greens and also with the added complication of redesigns of this course, the build-up to the tournament each year was plagued by private and public controversy. Without doubt, the image of the occasion was damaged and even though it was a highlight over the Tour it appeared to be boxed in one way or another.
It was not helped four decades ago when the new chief executive, Keith Pelley, said because its trophy fund lagged behind the DP World Tour Championship in Dubai it was the flagship event of the European Union.
Next came rumblings of discontent at the Wentworth Club itself when tensions were created by a new regime with members and together the Tour, that has its headquarters . Now the negative baggage – calendar-related or not – appears to have been left in the May slot that is aged because the championship has been still riding high on a tide of optimism.
The Tour is given plenty of liberty by september within the program and that is something they utilise year to prevent any clashes from the. All in all has, using the PGA Tour’s flagship , invited comparisons because of me.
Aside from the clear disparity in strength of subjects as matters stand, Wentworth matches everything Sawgrass offers and sometimes more, and I say this as somebody who’s long considered that the Players Championship as my event in world golf.
On location alone, Sawgrass is, trumped by Wentworth, 15 minutes from Heathrow and on the border of London . Ponte Vedra is more than just two hours north of Orlando and its own airport, Jacksonville, isn’t exactly an airline hub. Bear in mind, for each and every superstar who arrives in his personal jet, then there are hundreds and hundreds of other people who need to get to tournaments on airlines.
It is true that Wentworth has a 17th hole which could wreck any card just as quickly as the par-three in Sawgrass, although Clearly, the classes are different and impossible to compare like-for-like.
Also, much as I love the 18th I think Wentworth includes a stadium arena on its hole. Feedback about the 2 courses are subjective, but what cannot be contested is that Wentworth has a background of.
Between the BMW PGA, the old World Matchplay Championship and also the 1953 Ryder Cup, the famous senior course in Surrey has hosted Sam Snead, Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus, Gary Player, Lee Trevino, Seve Ballesteros, Greg Norman, Sir Nick Faldo, Bernhard Langer, Ian Woosnam, Colin Montgomerie and Tiger Woods.
To be fair, a number of them possess their own history at Sawgrass as well along with also the Players Championship is considered to be the gem in the PGA Tour’s crown, however the European Tour has burnished its own gem and – handed a few years in its own new September championship – it might be a sparkling as brightly.
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