A unique BMW PGA Championship wrapped up on Sunday, having been reduced to 54-holes following the death of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II on Thursday afternoon, prompting round one to be suspended and continued on Saturday morning.
The early week proceedings, like many tournaments this year, were dominated by LIV Golf with a number of the series’ players in the field at Wentworth, but once again like many events this year, it was the golf that did the talking when the weekend came.
Shane Lowry went bogey-free round the West Course to edge out Rory McIlroy and Jon Rahm by a single stroke as three of Europe’s 2023 Ryder Cuppers wowed crowds along with another player who will feature on Luke Donald’s side, Viktor Hovland.
It will go down as one of Shane Lowry’s biggest wins, only behind the 149th Open at Portrush in the same league as his WGC-Bridgestone Invitational triumph and Irish Open win while still an amateur.
The week once again showed why the BMW PGA Championship is the DP World Tour’s greatest tournament and there should be calls for it to feature on the PGA Tour schedule in the coming years in a co-sanctioned manner like the Scottish Open.
The fans have cried out for more Americans to play each year and they’ve been coming over much more frequently in recent times, with players including Patrick Reed, Tony Finau, Billy Horschel all supporting the event over the past few playings. There’s surely set to be more next year or in 2024 after Rory McIlroy hinted at future changes to the schedule as the PGA and DP World Tours strengthen their alliance.
It’s very clear that the PGA Tour has seen far more benefits to the strategic alliance as of right now and it’s also clear that the DP World Tour will be seeing the benefits coming in the future – as it would not have signed up with its American counterparts unless there were serious opportunities for its players. For the PGA Tour to not be seen purely as a US Tour, it needs to get its players overseas more and the opportunity with the new strategic alliance means that Wentworth can be a very special week for both tours each September.
It’s a former Ryder Cup venue, former host of the World Match Play and venue for the PGA Championship that has seen winners including Tony Jacklin, Nick Faldo, Bernhard Langer, Seve Ballesteros, Jose Maria Olazabal, Colin Montgomerie, Luke Donald and Rory McIlroy. It’s now time for the US stars to come over and test themselves on the famous West Course in front of some of the best golf fans in the world.
The Wentworth crowds are some of the best golf fans in the world
(Image credit: Getty Images)
“’24 is when there’s going to be a lot of stuff happening schedule-wise,” McIlroy said earlier in the week about what could be coming in the future with the PGA and DP World Tours. “I think that’s when you’re going to start to see the benefits of this partnership,” McIlroy said, as he described the strategic alliance as a “massive help” to the DP World Tour. “There’s a lot of moving parts to this. I think by giving everyone 15 months to get their head around it and put their heads together and come up with what I think is going to be an unbelievable calendar for golf in 2024, I think that’s a great thing.”
The Northern Irishman believes Europe is a likely location for one, or more, of the ‘elevated’ events set to arrive on the PGA Tour. “If we are talking about about elevated events and bringing the best people together, I think for the benefit of the global game, a handful of those events need to be in Europe,” he said.
“I’ve said that from the start. This can’t be American-centric. This has to be with this region in mind, with wherever we want to go and play, I think that has to happen but I think the partnership between the PGA Tour and the European Tour is mutual beneficial because I think by partnering with the DP World Tour, the PGA Tour unlocks that global nature of the game that they have not really been able to get a stronghold over.”
There have been serious questions about the DP World Tour’s decision to choose the PGA Tour over LIV Golf, and rightly so, but a strengthened and co-sanctioned BMW PGA Championship would be one huge benefit for the Wentworth-based circuit.
A co-sanctioned event would bring some of the PGA Tour’s big hitters over – perhaps the likes of Justin Thomas, Collin Morikawa, Jordan Spieth and Scottie Scheffler – and truly turn the BMW PGA Championship into a European Major. The event could become out of reach initially for some of the DP World Tour’s rank-and-file players but the event would benefit from a huge prize fund increase, greater world ranking points and even larger interest from both sides of the Atlantic and beyond.
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