VIRGINIA WATER, ENGLAND | Few if any golf clubs in Europe can rival Wentworth for significance in the professional game on this side of the Atlantic. It is an aristocrat among golf clubs. Last week’s staging of the BMW PGA Championship, one of the continent’s most historic and prestigious competitions, burnished the lustrous shine accumulated down the years by the club that has internal roads clad in rhododendrons and a distinctive, crenellated clubhouse located on the borders of Berkshire and Surrey, 25 miles southwest of London.
The West Course at Wentworth was the venue of the 1953 Ryder Cup, when the late Peter Alliss made his debut. It was there in 1964 that Arnold Palmer beat Neil Coles in the final of the first World Match Play Championship, an event that quickly grew to become a hugely popular autumn staple, a time of the year when the leaves are beginning to change colour and the days to draw in.
From 1977 to 1981, Greg Norman and Seve Ballesteros made the Martini International at Wentworth their own fiefdom, Norman winning in the odd years and Ballesteros the even years. And starting in 1972 for three years and again from 1984 to the present it has been the site of the PGA Championship now sponsored by BMW.
The heathland West Course is a beauty. “I think aesthetically, the heathland courses are very pretty, the tall pine trees, the heather and the long shadows in the afternoons, the bunkering,” Northern Ireland’s Rory McIlroy said. “Heathland golf could be the most pleasing of any golf courses on the planet. I think they are just beautiful courses to play when you have nice weather.”
For most of last week the weather was just that. It was reminiscent of other golden golf events held at this time of the year: the 2023 Ryder Cup in Rome, the 2002 Ryder Cup at The Belfry, and the 1996 Solheim Cup at St Pierre G&CC near Chepstow, Wales. “It's beautiful,” England’s Tommy Fleetwood said. “I played Monday morning. I always think the course is in great condition. It’s so English, which is great.”
“Heathland golf could be the most pleasing of any golf courses on the planet. I think they are just beautiful courses to play when you have nice weather.”
Rory McIlroy
Keith Pelley, the former chief executive of the DP World Tour, took umbrage at this event being described as the tour’s “flagship event” because its prize fund was significantly smaller than the equivalent event on the PGA Tour. Whether or not it is the flagship event, the course is within yards of the DP World Tour’s headquarters, much as the stadium course for the Players Championship is within yards of the PGA Tour’s headquarters, and it is the last tournament of significance to be held in England in a calendar year. So many officials attend it, and so many conferences are held during it, that it resembles the annual general meeting of the DP World Tour.
“It [Wentworth] always has a great vibe,” the Belgian Thomas Detry said last Wednesday. “Feels like we are catching the last breath of summer as well. End of September in England is always a little bit iffy.”
The event, which attracted four of the world’s top 20 and nine of the top 30, was overshadowed by talk of the PGA Tour, LIV Golf and Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia, and whether Jon Rahm and Tyrrell Hatton, two stalwarts of Europe’s Ryder Cup team in Rome, could, would or should be able to compete in next year’s event at the Bethpage Black Course on Long Island, New York. No change there then. There is an awful lot of jaw-jaw going on in golf currently.
McIlroy and Justin Rose were asked whether they could conceive of a European Ryder Cup team next September without Rahm and Hatton. These two golfers, having joined LIV Golf, are appealing the DP World Tour’s rule that requires them to play a minimum of four events on the tour and pay fines for competing in conflicting events in order to remain tour members and be eligible to play in the biennial competition.
“Of course there is a scenario, absolutely, where conceivably they might choose not to be on the team,” England’s Rose said. “That would be to Europe’s detriment for sure. They were great together in Rome. They’re a pairing. But there’s quite a simple pathway for them to be on the team. I think if they choose to cooperate or go with the structure that’s in place, they’ll absolutely be on the team.”
McIlroy said: “Jon Rahm … could be injured; his game could go off. But … the way he’s playing right now and the way he’s played since he turned pro [in 2016], Jon Rahm is a wonderful addition to the European team.”
Rahm’s and Hatton’s future depends on the outcome of an appeal they are making against the DP World Tour rules. Surprisingly, it is not known when that appeal will begin nor how long it will last nor how quickly the verdict will be announced after the appeal is held. “There is no deadline by which the appeal hearing must be concluded,” a DP World Tour spokesman said. “In the previous instance of this procedure being invoked, it took seven months for the February 2023 hearing to be held – and a further six weeks for the decision to be made.”
This is leading to a growing, perhaps cynical, view that the appeal will not be concluded before next year’s Ryder Cup, thereby making it possible for Rahm and Hatton to compete at Bethpage.
McIlroy confirmed there was a slight air of optimism following the recent meetings in New York between the PGA Tour and its associated bodies, which included the DP World Tour, and PIF and its associates. The meetings, held during an anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, which struck some as extraordinary given the Saudis’ role in the incident, have moved matters forward, McIlroy said.
“I think to me, it seems like the people that are really making the decisions are all rowing in the same direction, which is a really good thing. There’s optimism there, and that’s good to see.”
Asked what he thought was the major stumbling block holding up negotiations, McIlroy replied: “Department of Justice. Maybe different interests from the players’ side. I’d say maybe half the players on LIV want the deal to get done; half probably don’t. I’d say it’s probably similar on the PGA Tour. Because just like anything, everyone’s looking out for themselves and their best interests.
“You know, it would benefit some people for a deal not to get done, but it would obviously benefit some people for a deal to get done … when you have a members-run organisation, it complicates things a little bit, especially when some of those players are having to make decisions on the business side of things.
“I think the tours want it to happen. The investors certainly want it to happen because they can see the benefit for themselves. But right now, it’s DOJ and differing opinions of the players.”
McIlroy had picked up a cold from Poppy, his daughter, and as he talked a slightly thicker-than-usual note to his voice emphasized that he would probably rather be playing golf than talking about it. That in turn brought home this realisation: once upon a time, the most important thing discussed on the eve of a golf tournament was who would win it.
E-MAIL JOHN
Top: Billy Horschel, the eventual winner, tees off on No. 1 in the final round of the BMW PGA at Wentworth.
Warren Little, Getty Images