{"id":1253847,"date":"2024-09-19T17:23:11","date_gmt":"2024-09-19T17:23:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/golftoday.co.uk\/?p=1253847"},"modified":"2024-09-19T17:33:32","modified_gmt":"2024-09-19T17:33:32","slug":"why-the-bmw-pga-championship-is-vitally-important-to-golf-in-england","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/golftoday.co.uk\/why-the-bmw-pga-championship-is-vitally-important-to-golf-in-england\/","title":{"rendered":"Why the BMW PGA Championship is vitally important to golf in England"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The BMW PGA Championship has been held at Wentworth since 1984 \u2014 though it&#8217;s undergone a few name changes since then.<\/p>\n<p>At its inception and until 1987, it was called the Whyte &amp; 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.<\/p>\n<p>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.<\/p>\n<p>Now, the crowds are always to be expected but when you look at the current roster of tour events in England, it&#8217;s no surprise to see the BMW PGA Championship&#8217;s ticket sales skyrocketing.<\/p>\n<p>As it stands, outside of the men&#8217;s and women&#8217;s Open Championship \u2014 when it&#8217;s hosted in England \u2014 there are only three tour events hosted in the country (excluding Clutch Tour).<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"text-decoration: underline\"><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/golftoday.co.uk\/what-is-the-aramco-team-series-and-how-does-it-work\/\">Aramco Team Series<\/a><\/strong><\/span>, London \u2014 Ladies European Tour (LET)<\/li>\n<li>British Masters \u2014 DP World Tour<\/li>\n<li>BMW PGA Championship \u2014 DP World Tour<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<figure id=\"attachment_1253377\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-1253377\" style=\"width: 960px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1253377 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/golftoday.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/Betfred-British-Masters-2024-\u2013-Day-Four-\u2013-The-Belfry-scaled-e1725213955984.jpg\" alt=\"Niklas N\u00f8rgaard watches his tee shot at the British Masters\" width=\"960\" height=\"540\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-1253377\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Alongside the BMW PGA Championship, the British Masters is the only other DP World Tour event hosted in England. (Bradley Collyer\/PA)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>When you consider that the <span style=\"text-decoration: underline\"><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.europeantour.com\/dpworld-tour\/\">DP World Tour<\/a><\/strong><\/span> \u2014 formerly the European Tour \u2014 is based in England (at Wentworth), why aren&#8217;t there more opportunities for tournaments on home soil?<\/p>\n<p>For example, there isn&#8217;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.<\/p>\n<p>Obviously, the entire Challenge Tour isn&#8217;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&#8217;re paying out of pocket to travel Europe.<\/p>\n<p>Nevertheless, with that tangent rant over, I can get onto the main reason behind the article&#8217;s heading. The fans.<\/p>\n<p>If you&#8217;re a golf fan in England, your options for watching a tour event in the country are far and few between. Don&#8217;t get me wrong, it&#8217;s probably the same for most golf fans across Europe.<\/p>\n<p>However, in the last 50 years, DP World Tour events in England have dropped from around 15 to just two \u2014 and that&#8217;s not including the <span style=\"text-decoration: underline\"><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.europeantour.com\/challenge-tour\/\">Challenge Tour<\/a><\/strong><\/span> or <span style=\"text-decoration: underline\"><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/ladieseuropeantour.com\/\">LET<\/a><\/strong><\/span>.<\/p>\n<p>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.<\/p>\n<p>So what does that leave us? The British Masters and the BMW PGA Championship, the last of the big dogs.<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;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&#8230; the list goes on.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_170726\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-170726\" style=\"width: 960px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-170726\" src=\"https:\/\/golftoday.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/bmw-pga-championship_wentworth_3.jpg\" alt=\"BMW PGA Championship, Wentworth\" width=\"960\" height=\"540\" srcset=\"https:\/\/golftoday.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/bmw-pga-championship_wentworth_3.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/golftoday.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/bmw-pga-championship_wentworth_3-970x545.jpg 970w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 960px) 100vw, 960px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-170726\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">The BMW PGA Championship has long been a favourite for players and fans alike. (Bradley Collyer\/PA)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>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.<\/p>\n<p>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.<\/p>\n<p>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.<\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;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.<\/p>\n<div id=\"content_link_1253844\" class=\"ct-div-block content-link_wrap\"><a class=\"ct-link content-link_image-wrap\" href=\"https:\/\/golftoday.co.uk\/the-moment-in-billy-fosters-career-that-will-stay-with-him-forever\/\"><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" src=\"https:\/\/golftoday.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/pros_pro_6-e1726732083373-150x150.jpg\" class=\"content-link_image wp-post-image\" alt=\"Interview with caddie Billy Foster\" \/><\/a><div class=\"ct-div-block content-link_content\"><a class=\"ct-link\" href=\"https:\/\/golftoday.co.uk\/the-moment-in-billy-fosters-career-that-will-stay-with-him-forever\/\"><h5 class=\"ct-headline content-link_title\"><strong>Related:<\/strong> The moment in Billy Foster&#8217;s career that will stay with him forever<\/h5><\/a><div class=\"ct-text-block content-link_text\">Billy Foster has caddied for some of the biggest names in golf, but there's one memory that stands out above the rest.<\/div><\/div><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Tour events in England have become scarce, but there&#8217;s one event that remains strong on the DP World Tour schedule: the BMW PGA Championship.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":21,"featured_media":113099,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9324],"tags":[387,9951],"class_list":["post-1253847","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-opinion","tag-bmw-pga-championship","tag-jack-lumb","priority_tax-homepage-slider"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v23.4 (Yoast SEO v23.4) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Why the BMW PGA Championship is vitally important to 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He brings a wealth of experience from his decade-long journey as a competitive amateur golfer, including five years competing at the county level. His deep knowledge of the game seamlessly translates into his work in golf journalism, where he covers everything from tour events to in-depth course reviews and the latest updates in golfing news.","url":"https:\/\/golftoday.co.uk\/author\/jacklumb\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/golftoday.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1253847"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/golftoday.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/golftoday.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/golftoday.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/21"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/golftoday.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1253847"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/golftoday.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1253847\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/golftoday.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/113099"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/golftoday.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1253847"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/golftoday.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1253847"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/golftoday.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1253847"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}