“Down, down” at Wentworth!

Entertainment centre-stage at PGA Championship

Olympic Champion Justin Rose will make his first appearance on home soil since winning his Gold Medal in Rio de Janeiro when he tees-off in the BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth (25-28 May). The stage is set for an exciting tournament with not only the world’s top golfers playing at the prestigious club in Surrey’s Virginia Waters but also Status Quo. The legendary English rock band will perform one of their electrifying concerts on Saturday night in the Championship Village. On Sunday, the indie pop superstars, the Kaiser Chiefs will bring the curtain down on the 62nd edition of the BMW PGA Championship.

Status Quo will not be the only ones chanting “Down down!” at the Wentworth Club. The player with the red-hot putter who sinks the most putts will walk-off with a huge chunk of the US $7 million prizefund.

‘Big Easy’ makes massive changes to West Course

The players will be curious to play at Wentworth again. The new-look West Course has undergone a multi-million pound renovation since last May. The revamp was led by Ernie Els. The South African knows Wentworth like the back of his hand. In 1994 he won his first of three successive Toyota World Matchplay Championship titles at Virginia Waters. Globally, the Big Easy has notched-up more than 60 victories in his career so far.

It looks as though defending champion Chris Wood from England may have to get in a few extra practice rounds at Wentworth as he’ll no longer be able to draw upon on his winning local knowledge of the greens. Ernie Els Design and European Golf Design, alongside an advisory team comprising Thomas Bjorn, Paul McGinley and David Jones, have made extensive changes to all the bunkers on the West Course and to all 18 greens.

European Tour’s flagship event takes on exciting new look

This year’s BMW PGA Championship launches the European Tour’s Rolex Series – an exciting new alliance of eight prestigious events played at top venues, each offering a minimum of US $7 million in prizemoney.

With all this talk of big money, it’s good to hear that for golf fans it needn’t cost the earth to be there at Wentworth in person. A Twilight admission ticket for the Saturday costs just 37 pounds. The e-ticket includes admission to the golf from 16.00 hours as well as the Status Quo concert after the golf has finished.

The rock band may have a bigger impact on the BMW PGA Championship and the golf world in general than Keith Pelley, Chief Executive of the European Tour, could ever have imagined. “Down, down!” sounds rather fun and may well catch on with the fans. It would certainly make a refreshing change from the rather undignified scream, particularly popular in America, of “Get in the hole!”

Here’s to “Golfin’ and Rockin’ all over the world!”

Wendy Hoad

For more information:

BMW PGA Championship – the official website

European Tour – live scoring and latest news

PICTURED: Fans enjoying the golf spectacle. (Archive)