The PGA Tour has THE PLAYERS. The European Tour has the BMW PGA Championship.
The BMW PGA may be my favorite ET event after THE OPEN. Part of that is the flagship aspect, the fact that it's the Tour-specific trophy for the ET. But it goes a bit deeper than that.
Just as THE PLAYERS has TPC Sawgrass, the Pete Dye layout that has become a legendary course for determining champions, the BMW PGA has Wentworth. Wentworth is located not far from Windsor Castle in England, where it was built in 1922. It was originally designed by Harry Colt (who designed 115 courses all over the world just on his own) and has been 'tweaked' in recent years by Ernie Els.
And boy, you talk about a legend! It hosted the World Match Play Championship for 45 years -- where they crowned champions like Palmer, Nicklaus, Player, Weiscopf, Faldo, Ballesteros, Woosnam and Els -- as well as the 1953 Ryder Cup and the 1956 World Cup. This is a course with a pedigree!
This is the kind of course a flagship event deserves, so I always look forward to this event.
It doesn't hurt that this is a Rolex Series event either. This year it's the third one (and the second in a row), and it's got the kind of loaded field you'd expect. Defending champion Danny Willett will be there of course, as will Race to Dubai leader Patrick Reed. We get Lee Westwood, Tommy Fleetwood, Shane Lowry, Justin Rose, Ian Poulter, Tyrrell Hatton, Martin Kaymer... the list goes on.
Great field, amazing course... and 64 world ranking points to the winner. What more can you ask?
GC's live coverage begins Thursday morning at 6:30am ET and continues for six hours. Given how the pandemic has shaken up the schedules on the various tours, this event could have an even bigger effect on the OWGR than it ever has. I love it!
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