Some musings from the customarily and now uncomfortably lavish (“Austerity? No such thing down here, mate”) BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth…
Byeung-Hun An (or just Ben to his pals) is the third of a trio of young Florida-based players who, with an admirable sense of adventure, opted to start their pro careers in Europe rather than their home base of the USA.
The first two, Americans Peter Uihlein and Brooks Koepka, are the European Tour’s last two Rookies of the Year. Ben is an absolute certainty to win the Sir Henry Cotton Award for 2015 after his frankly astonishing performance over the weekend.
At least he had the good grace to admit to “big nerves” in the final round but you could have fooled anyone in the record crowds lining the leafy avenues of the West Course. He was almost serene and when required to produce a killer shot, he did so almost effortlessly.
The new breed – Ben is just 23 and definitely one of them – seem to specialise in WOW shots and his second to the long 12th on Sunday was one.
Thongchai Jaidee had pulled to within one just moments before. Ben’s five-iron from 193 yards second to 18 inches away shut the door on the championship with a third of the final round still to play.
An jumps into the World’s top 60 – and therefore this season’s remaining majors – in one leap as a result of his win. We’ll see if this alters his calm philosophy or not, but rather than the more hyped Japanese players who have come before him, here might be the real standard-bearer for the Asian game.
A record crowd of 120,000 for the week makes it appear that everything is blooming at the championship like the ubiquitous chrysanthemum bushes.
Sadly not. The murmuring surrounding the absence of top names and the state of the troubled greens on the West Course are huge headaches for the European Tour’s incoming chief executive Keith Pelley.
Wentworth themselves didn’t even bother to defend the state of the putting surfaces, which have been re-infested by the old poa anna grass they tried to eradicate when they dug all 18 up and relaid them six years ago.
When players say “they putt better than they look” you know you have a near disaster on your hands.
The Wentworth’s club’s new Chinese owners apparently want to curb the amount of play on the West, which runs to 300 rounds a day in peak periods. That should help long-term, but in the short-term the greens really need to re-done again.
It might sound extreme to suggest installing the £500,000 SubAir system so successful at Gleneagles and nearby Queenwood, but that’s well within the budget of the club and now probably necessary if the championship is to be continued to be scheduled in mid-May.
The Tour might pitch in as well. They need Wentworth as a venue for location, facilities and stature. Their sponsors love it and will not countenance the championship being anywhere else.
Unfortunately, the greens issue is tied in with absence of players like Ian Poulter, Henrik Stenson and Sergio Garcia and it’s only a sense of obligation that keeps a good number of other players coming each year.
The Tour were privately upset with Poulter for playing in Texas, although their annoyance is tempered by his enthusiastic involvement in the re-launch of the British Masters.
I heard one influential tour figure suggest decamping to Sunningdale, Walton Heath or one of the other great courses on the Surrey-Berkshire border for a couple of years while they got the West Course greens sorted properly at last.
Seems a logical suggestion.
What would really focus the collective minds here is if Rory McIlroy said he wasn’t coming next year, and that’s more of a possibility than you’d think.
Something’s got to give in Rory’s schedule at this time of year. He’s locked into the Irish Open, the Players and the Matchplay which aren’t going anywhere.
Playing five straight weeks prior to heading into peak season is not wise if he wants to continue his collection of majors. Quail Hollow is a venue he’s won twice at now, and he’s never really been fond of Wentworth, so the temptation must be there to give it a miss.
This would be an absolute disaster for the Tour. Crowds at Wentworth have rocketed since Rory came on the scene, even before he was bringing his One Direction pal for the pro-am.
The crowds stayed up over the weekend when he missed the cut, but many of those were pre-paid tickets. The Tour simply must have Rory there.
The only golfing organisation ever to ban me for something I’ve written were the Scottish Ladies Golfing Association.
Of course this is no-one’s idea of a badge of rebel pride, at least not until this week when the SLGA finally came round to my way of thinking.
I was told I wasn’t welcome at the 2006 Scottish Ladies Championship at Dunbar when I had the temerity to point out the glaring faults of the event.
Here was a historic and great national championship which seemed determined to be just a rather nice week’s jolly for the older members, as it was scheduled when the best players couldn’t play.
Each year it was in the same mid-May time slot when younger, talented players were in the midst of school exams and the best talents who had left school were still at their colleges in the USA.
Seeing this undeniable fact in print was too much for the SLGA president at the time and I was asked not to come for the second day. It was too late anyway, as having endured interviewing top players in the rain in the car park because I wasn’t allowed in the clubhouse, I’d decided to go to another event instead.
Thankfully Toni Melvin-Finch is now running the SLGA championships, and is a much smarter operator.
From next year the Scottish Ladies is moving to a new time slot two weeks later, precisely so the players still at school and at university can compete for their century-old national title.
It took nearly 10 years, but I’m happy to see sense has finally prevailed.
Colin Montgomerie doesn’t want for detractors, and they continue to slate him even as he retained his Senior PGA Championship title this weekend.
It’s Monty’s third senior major in two years, and many still gleefully contrast his lack of majors in his pre-Senior career with the successes now.
It WAS funny at first, but now they just seem a little shallow and vindictive. Not even 20 senior titles will ever make up for his lack of an actual major in his or anyone’s mind.
It is what is it now. He’s playing superbly well on a competitive tour, dominating the top events.
All credit to him, as he always says.