The European Tour heads to Surrey, England this week for its flagship event, the BMW PGA Championship at the Wentworth Club. Filled with a star-studded field consisting of top players from all over the world, this is one of the most elite and biggest events on the European Tour. Much is up for grabs this week: a nearly million Euro paycheck, 64 WGC points and exemptions into this year's US Open and the next 3 Open Championships being given to the winner.
The tournament will be contested on the West course at Wentworth, originally designed by Harry Colt in 1926 and adjusted over the years. The 7284-yard par 72 course is not the longest on tour but nevertheless tough. It's tree-lined, forest-carved holes demand accuracy and good ball-striking. It is also among the favourite courses for many tour pros who have had the opportunity to play it.
Things are a bit different this year however, most notably the date. This is the first time that the tournament is being played in September, moving from its original slot in May as a result of the PGA Championship moving up to May. Given this, the weather may become more of a factor than in previous editions of the tournament. As of now, this doesn't appear to be the case for the first three rounds, but conditions could worsen for Sunday, which will no doubt make things interesting.
Perhaps a more interesting feature of this year's tournament is that GPS will be used to track slow play amongst the players. This is part of the European Tour's newly released initiative to combat slow play on tour. In particular, a tracking device will be placed on one player's golf bag in each group. Once a hole is completed, the information will be automatically sent to officials, who will be monitoring progress. Displays will also be available on each hole, to indicate tardiness, among other information. I am very curious to see what the results will, especially considering that we have an article on slow-play in the works. For more information, check out Golf Channel's article about it.
Personally, the BMW PGA Championship is one of my favourite tournaments to watch on the European Tour since it was the setting an amazing moment in golf, in my opinion. In the 2011 edition of the tournament, World Numbers One and Two, Lee Westwood and Luke Donald, respectively, had finished their final rounds tied for 1st place; a sudden death followed, on the par 5 1st hole of the West course. On the line was not only the tournament but also the title of World Number One. Donald and Westwood both started the hole well and both had roughly the same distances for their approach shots. Donald went first and landed his ball safely on the green, close to the flag. Westwood responded by landing his shot just inside Donald's but then watched his ball roll off the water-lined green into the water, resulting in Donald winning the tournament and the title. So much was on the line at that moment and Westwood, after seeing Donald's shot, knew he had to go for it. It was tense, yet exciting; that's why I'll never forget it. But moments like this seem to only happen at big tournaments like this. Luke also managed to defend his title the next year.
As always, we end off with our picks for this week. Given the requirements of fairway accuracy and ball-striking, we decided to make our picks for this week loosely based on these stats:
1) Matthew Fitzpatrick
2) Tommy Fleetwood
3) Rory McIlroy
Fitzpatrick ranks consistently as one of the more accurate players on tour and doesn't drive the ball too far (something that will benefit him this week). Fleetwood is also very accurate off the tee and is coming off a T8 finish a few weeks ago at the Omega European Masters. McIlroy is our last pick and frankly is always a safe pick when he's playing well. He also won the tournament in 2014.
The first round kicks off early Thursday morning (EST time) and is the start of what's sure to be an exciting tournament. Be sure to check it out!
-Nick
Toronto Golf Reviews
Can Matthew Fitzpatrick win the 2019 BMW PGA Championship this week? (PressClub Global BMW)
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