The DP World Tour heads back to England this week for the flagship event of the season as the stars of European and now worldwide golf descend on Wentworth in Surrey for the BMW PGA Championship, the latest Rolex Series tournament of the year.
It was a global star who left this part of the world smiling last year when Billy Horschel came over and won the title pretty emphatically. He has committed to the tournament once again and will be looking to make a successful defence of the title.
Recent Winners
2021 – Billy Horschel
2020 – Tyrrell Hatton
2019 – Danny Willett
2018 – Francesco Molinari
2017 – Alex Noren
2016 – Chris Wood
2015 – Byeong-Hun An
2014 – Rory McIlroy
2013 – Matteo Manassero
2012 – Luke Donald
The Course
The West Course at Wentworth is the home of this tournament and with the touches it has had done to it over the last 10 years it is now a stunning facility. The one thing that hasn’t changed around here is the tightness of the track. It is a treelined course with some undulations on the opening nine and some tough holes on the back nine. The track finishes with two of the best par 5s on the European Tour.
The course itself is a par 72 which measures 7,267 yards so it isn’t overly long but after an intensely hot summer there have been some heavy showers around in the week leading up to the event so it could play that full yardage. We’re looking for good drivers of the ball this week and those with a wonderful iron game. These greens aren’t the easiest to find and they are full of undulations so the leaderboard tends to be packed with good approach players. The two main statistics tend to be greens in regulation and scrambling so those who are more comfortable with the irons in hand should be favoured.
The Field
The field this week is absolutely lit. There will be a lot made of the field because it has 17 LIV players teeing it up with the DP World Tour powerless to stop them but those who haven’t sold their soul to the devil who tee it up here include the defending champion Billy Horschel and the newly crowned FedExCup champion Rory McIlroy. This tournament has attracted superstars of the game this week including Jon Rahm, Adam Scott and Justin Rose.
The US Open champion Matthew Fitzpatrick has a tee time this week as does Viktor Hovland while the English trio of Tyrrell Hatton, Tommy Fleetwood and Jordan Smith will be looking to pick up silverware on home soil. Shane Lowry has a wonderful scoring record here and he’s in the field as are relatively recent champions Francesco Molinari and Danny Willett. Thomas Pieters, Adrian Meronk, Ryan Fox and Lucas Herbert are all players prominent in the Race to Dubai rankings who will tee it up this week.
Market Leaders
It is three years since Rory McIlroy played this tournament but the 2014 champion is a 6/1 favourite to follow up his triumph at the Tour Championship with another here. I would imagine he’ll be fired up to win this week because his comments in recent times have highlighted he hates the idea of the LIV players being here so he’ll want to deny them their moment in the spotlight. The only concern would be whether that makes him strive too hard. If it doesn’t he looks a worthy favourite.
This will be just the second time Jon Rahm has teed it up on the West Course at Wentworth but he was the runner up to Danny Willett the last time he did so and he is 8/1 to go one better than that here. Rahm has gone ok over the last couple of months without ever truly contending but the soft nature of this course and the fact it plays longer than it used to will certainly bring out the strengths of his game. He’s a little shorter than I’d like but it would be no surprise if he were to win this week.
Matthew Fitzpatrick is a 12/1 favourite to win at Wentworth for the first time in his career. The US Open champion has a couple of top 10s around here in six starts but you feel with the game he has he should have done better here than he has done. There are similarities between this place and Woburn where he won the British Masters but for whatever reason he struggles to put four decent rounds together. He’s a class act right now though and is a fair price at 12/1.
Shane Lowry is the only other player in the field who is shorter than 20/1. He is 18/1 to finally get his hands on this title this week. Lowry has four top 10s in this tournament and has finished in the top 20 in the last four years but hasn’t been able to get his hands on the title. He was the last man out of the field at the Tour Championship last month so might have the bit between his teeth as a result of that. He knows Wentworth very well but in a field this stacked might be a little on the skinny side price wise.
Main Bets
Adam Scott finished T14 here last year but he was in a much better position than that at the halfway mark but having played the tournament for the first time since the changes were made to the course five years ago he will now have a better idea of what to expect over the weekend and I think he will contend here once again. He finished fifth in the first two play-off events stateside recently where his short game was immaculate at times. He putted well throughout those weeks and that is important because we know the quality of his tee to green game. Scott finished in the top 15 of the last two majors and given that he played all three FedEx events he has been operating at a high level. Down half a grade or so the Australian can remind us all of his class this week.
Abraham Ancer would be one of the least popular winners of a sports event ever should he take this tournament down but I think it could very well happen. I’ve always thought this course would be right up the street of the superb tee to green prowess of the Mexican so it is a shame it has taken the quest for ranking points for him to come over and play. There is obviously the competitive edge argument with all the LIV golfers this week but Ancer is clearly only here for ranking points so he is going to give this a good go. This is a player who finished in the top 11 in the last two majors he played and he fired a couple of 65s in Boston last week so despite the lack of competitive reps he is still hitting the ball well and even on debut here he should be heavily in the mix.
Outsiders
Danny Willett is a former champion around here and he arrives at Wentworth with two top 10 finishes in his last four starts. In those tournaments he ranked third and seventh for scrambling and they are big statistics this week. Willett also picked up five strokes on the field from tee to green in those events so twice recently every part of the bag has been working. Willett tends to regularly show up in the bigger events and with some form behind him and softer conditions widening the fairways which will be no bad thing I’m expecting a big showing from the former Masters champion at a more than fair price.
Victor Perez was second here in 2020 and having got back in the winning enclosure during 2022 I think he can go well here again. We know the Frenchman is a really good driver of the golf ball but the rest of his game has been shaping up well. He finished in the middle of the field here last year but an opening 76 basically ended any chances he had of being in contention before his tournament had begun. I’m convinced this is a good track for the Dutch Open champion though and if his short game can be at the level it was when he won in the Netherlands, or even close to it, then he is entitled to be right there this week.
I took Marcus Helligkilde to win the European Masters a couple of weeks ago and although he wasn’t much of a feature there he got back to contending again in Denmark last week. We can probably forgive him in Switzerland where he was T29 because at altitude it isn’t always easy to play normal golf. Either side of that he was fourth in Northern Ireland and eighth last week and playing well in his home tournament tells me he can handle the profile of this one. He is on debut here which isn’t ideal but he does everything right. In the two tournaments he’s gone well in he has been 5-17 in strokes gained tee to green, 14-23 around the greens and 11-8 for strokes gained putting. He’s up in grade here but I’ll pay to see how well he goes. He wouldn’t be the first Dane to take to this place like a duck to water anyway.
Tips
Back A.Scott to win BMW PGA Championship (e/w) for a 1/10 stake at 29.00 with William Hill (1/5 1-8)
Back V.Perez to win BMW PGA Championship (e/w) for a 0.5/10 stake at 81.00 with William Hill (1/5 1-8)
Back them here:
Back A.Ancer to win BMW PGA Championship (e/w) for a 1/10 stake at 36.00 with Sky Bet (1/5 1-8)
Back M.Helligkilde to win BMW PGA Championship (e/w) for a 0.5/10 stake at 126.00 with Sky Bet (1/5 1-8)
Back D.Willett to win BMW PGA Championship (e/w) for a 0.5/10 stake at 67.00 with Betway (1/5 1-8)
Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2022
