The BMW PGA Championship has been held at Wentworth since 1984 — though it’s undergone a few name changes since then.
At its inception and until 1987, it was called the Whyte & Mackay Championship. Then, from 1988 to 2004, the Volvo PGA Championship, 2005 to 2006, the BMW Championship and finally, from 2007 to the present day, the BMW PGA Championship.
Regardless of the name changes, the event has been held at the iconic Surrey course for forty years, drawing some of the biggest names in golf and with them, consistently large crowds.
Now, the crowds are always to be expected but when you look at the current roster of tour events in England, it’s no surprise to see the BMW PGA Championship’s ticket sales skyrocketing.
As it stands, outside of the men’s and women’s Open Championship — when it’s hosted in England — there are only three tour events hosted in the country (excluding Clutch Tour).
- Aramco Team Series, London — Ladies European Tour (LET)
- British Masters — DP World Tour
- BMW PGA Championship — DP World Tour
When you consider that the DP World Tour — formerly the European Tour — is based in England (at Wentworth), why aren’t there more opportunities for tournaments on home soil?
For example, there isn’t a single Challenge Tour event in England. As the second level of golf, with players vying to secure a card on the DP World Tour, travelling the world can be a financial burden.
Obviously, the entire Challenge Tour isn’t made up of English golfers. But if you are an English golfer trying to make it onto the big stage, the closest you have to playing at home is either Scotland, Ireland or Northern Ireland. And for the rest, you’re paying out of pocket to travel Europe.
Nevertheless, with that tangent rant over, I can get onto the main reason behind the article’s heading. The fans.
If you’re a golf fan in England, your options for watching a tour event in the country are far and few between. Don’t get me wrong, it’s probably the same for most golf fans across Europe.
However, in the last 50 years, DP World Tour events in England have dropped from around 15 to just two — and that’s not including the Challenge Tour or LET.
Some of the bigger events removed from the schedule in more recent times include the Volvo World Match Play Championship and the English Open, the latter of which returned in 2022 as the Cazoo Classic before being scrapped once again.
So what does that leave us? The British Masters and the BMW PGA Championship, the last of the big dogs.
I’ve been attending Wentworth from the age of ten, taken along with my dad and then as I got older, with friends. I remember being there when Simon Khan won, Luke Donald (twice!), Paul Casey, Francesco Molinari, Shane Lowry… the list goes on.
I would stand on the hill between the 18th and the clubhouse, waiting for players to sign their cards and walk up, hoping for a picture, an autograph or if I was lucky, a golf ball. I still have pictures from years gone by with the likes of Retief Goosen, Robert Rock, Bernhard Langer and even a young Rory McIlroy from his Jumeirah days.
I was already an avid golfer, but being at the event excited me, it made me want to head straight out onto the course and play. But for those who might never have played golf or been introduced to it, the BMW PGA Championship provided a first-time opportunity to experience the game at one of the highest levels.
It has the potential to inspire a younger generation of golfers. Gives them the chance to meet their golfing hero or discover a new one. Without the bigger tour events in England, the experiences that I and many others had the privilege of, will be lost.
It’s for this reason why BMW PGA Championship is crucially important to golf in England. Providing golf fans with a chance to connect with the sport, and creating memories for young golfers who might one day grace the iconic stage of Wentworth.
