‘BMW PGA Championship matches everything The Players has to offer’

Let’s all say a massive thank you to golf bosses in America for the biggest favour they have ever done the European Seminar.
It was but, in a stroke, they elevated the status of the BMW PGA Championship.
By changing the PGA Championship to May to leave August apparent for its FedExCup, the interests of golfing effectively forced the BMW PGA to move to September. In doing so, they helped the European Tour resolve all the negatives that have afflicted the championship for years.
For the very first time lately, the championship has been all good news for lovers, sponsors, and those players, and the result was a showcase event to coincide with some in the history of Wentworth.
And in my estimation, the Wentworth occasion has, after its autumn rebirth, instantly risen to a place in golf only below the majors in a slot formerly reserved to the PGA Tour’s Players Championship.
Many in America could marvel at that given the strength of the area every year at Sawgrass, but they be underestimating the significance of Tony Finau, Patrick Reed, also Billy Horschel being at Wentworth last week. That trio may turn out to be an improvement party for a lot more after the positives begin to feed back across the Atlantic to come.
In modern times, the European PGA Championship has been respected by Americans although not recognized as a world event and you may understand why. For a start, the European Tour has struggled to acquire its own players to tee up within their flagship tournament, never mind attract players from around the planet.
There really are a variety of factors, the majority of them related to Wentworth’s position on the golfing calendar, squeezed to a May that then included the Players Championship and Jack Nicklaus’s Memorial Tournament. That week in May, ancient in the UK period made it difficult for the path we’ve come to expect at tournaments.
Players were critical of their greens and also with the extra complication of frequent redesigns of this program, the build-up to the tournament every season was plagued by controversy. Without a doubt, this event’s picture was ruined and although it was a highlight on the European Tour it seemed to be boxed in one way or another.
It wasn’t assisted four decades ago when the then chief executive, Keith Pelley, said it was the flagship event of the Union because its trophy fund lagged in Dubai.
Next came rumblings of discontent in the Wentworth Club itself when a new regime created tensions with associates and . All of the negative baggage – calendar-related or not – seems to have been left in the aged May slot because the championship rode high on a wave of optimism.
September provides the European Tour lots of freedom within the schedule and that’s something they use year to avoid any clashes from the build-up into the Ryder Cup in America. All in all, the enforced reboot of the BMW PGA Championship has, using the PGA Tour’s flagship, The Players , encouraged comparisons because of me.
Apart from the obvious disparity in strength of fields as things stand, Wentworth matches what Sawgrass offers and occasionally more, and I say this as somebody who’s very long considered the Players Championship as my favourite event.
On location alone, Wentworth, 15 minutes from Heathrow and around London’s edge, trumps Sawgrass easily. Ponte Vedra is over two hours north of Orlando and its own airport, Jacksonville, isn’t just an airline hub. Remember, for every superstar who arrives at his private jet, then there are thousands of others who need to get to championships on commercial airlines.
It is true that Wentworth has a 17th hole which can wreck any card as fast as the par-three at Sawgrass, although the classes are different and not possible to compare like-for-like.
Additionally, much as I really like the 18th in Sawgrass, I believe Wentworth has a more dramatic stadium arena on its hole. Feedback about the two 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 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 in Sawgrass as well and also the Players Championship is considered to be the jewel at the PGA Tour’s crown, however the European Tour has burnished its gem and – handed a few years in its own new September slot – it might be a sparkling just as brightly.

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