BMW PGA Championship A Cut Above In European Golf

VIRGINIA WATER, ENGLAND | In professional golf in Europe, there have been tournaments that predated Britain's PGA Championship. For example, the British PGA Matchplay began in 1903, the French Open in 1906, the Belgian Open in 1910, the German Open in 1911 and the Spanish Open in 1912.  There is some history there.

But on today’s helter-skelter European Tour, which began in Hong Kong last November and ends in Dubai this November, there are few events that are historic, can boast so many distinguished winners and have been held at such a storied venue as the BMW PGA Championship.

The BMW PGA was first held in 1955 and has been staged at the Wentworth Club on the borders of Surrey and Berkshire, and less than an hour’s drive from London, for more than 30 years. If it is no ordinary event, then Wentworth is no ordinary venue, not exactly the sort of golf club where the public rooms might look as though they could do with a lick of paint and any items left in the changing rooms one year are still there the next. It has tennis and sq...