Tommy Fleetwood signs autographs before the BMW PGA Championship at the Wentworth Club. Kate McShane, Getty Images
VIRGINIA WATER, ENGLAND | Picture the scene. England’s Simon Khan, who started the final round of the 2010 BMW PGA Championship seven shots behind 54-hole leader Chris Wood, has carded a thrilling 6-under-par 66 to set a clubhouse target which, although there are seven groups yet to complete their rounds, already looks like a winning total as the leaders struggle with the blustery breezes that sweep and counter-sweep down the tree-lined avenues of the West Course at Wentworth.
Khan is blissfully in the zone until he has signed his card whereupon he takes a seat near the range and watches with growing astonishment as the realisation dawns on him that he’s about to win.
His friends, who walked the entire 18 holes outside the ropes, are even more astounded. One is in tears. Two are in an emotional embrace. The partner of a fourth goes to find drinks in a doomed attempt to calm collective nerves.
“We used to chase Seve Ballesteros down these fairways when we were all boys,” says a fifth, explaining the high drama. “Simon loved it more than all of us. It’s why he’s here. We used to marvel at the magic inside the ropes, but Simon was a little bit different. He was better than the rest of us at golf so he saw that magic and he wanted a bit of it. I just can’t believe he’s going to win here. I can’t believe he’s going to win at Wentworth. It’s amazing.” Moments later their friend’s triumph was confirmed and it was tears all round.
Until 1984 what’s now the BMW PGA Championship was nomadic. When it settled in this well-wooded corner of Surrey the European Tour was a little over a decade old and maturing, Ballesteros was a major winner about to become a major influencer, the European Ryder Cup team was on the brink of revolution, a generation of golfers were ready to bloom, and the sport was about to thrive outside, as well as inside, the ropes.
Wentworth, which hosted the PGA Championship under two previous title sponsors in May and the World Match Play Championship in October, became a field of dreams. Ballesteros prowled the fairways and greens, joined by Sandy Lyle, Nick Faldo, Ian Woosnam, Bernhard Langer and José María Olazábal.
Watching those two tournaments on the BBC, with commentary from Peter Alliss, was as vital an experience to golf fans as the Open in July. To actually tread those fairways became the greatest possible adventure for any junior golfer.
Consider that Wentworth has a castle for a clubhouse, that the West Course was sometimes mysteriously referred to as the Burma Road, that it has a meandering route through magical woods with ponds, houses and paths hidden between the trees. Consider also that, as a constant on the schedule, there is an intimacy that other venues lack.
For all these reasons it was made to fire the imagination. It could not have been better designed to act as the setting for golfing fairy tales and Khan is far from alone in being a BMW PGA champion with a Wentworth backstory.
When Italy’s Matteo Manassero won in 2013 he revealed how, as a boy, he had worn out VHS tapes of Ballesteros’ success at Wentworth. His compatriot Francesco Molinari lifted the trophy five years later and then recalled how he had raced home from school to watch Costantino Rocca’s win in 1996.
David Howell, Paul Casey, Luke Donald, Danny Willett and Tyrrell Hatton have all talked of their vivid recollections of pestering players for autographs, gloves and balls. Ahead of the final round of his triumph in 2020 Hatton even posted a photograph of himself on social media as a youngster standing outside the ropes with a big grin on his face.
For some the motivation came secondhand via television sets. When Italy’s Matteo Manassero won in 2013 he revealed how, as a boy, he had worn out VHS tapes of Ballesteros’ success at Wentworth. His compatriot Francesco Molinari lifted the trophy five years later and then recalled how he had raced home from school to watch Costantino Rocca’s win in 1996. Why had he been at school on the final day? Because back then the event concluded on an English bank holiday Monday – a slightly bewildering detail for a young Italian but one that had anchored it in his mind.
Even Florida’s Billy Horschel got in on the act. He finished T4 on debut behind Willett in 2019 and said: “I grew up watching this event on TV. It has a soft spot in my heart. I remember Monty winning it three years in a row and there are a lot of other memories in there, too.”
Two years later he added to them by winning himself and he made it two victories in 2024.
Ernie Els in action at Wentworth in 1994. Steve Munday, AllSport via Getty Images
Among this week’s field the Englishman Aaron Rai has strong memories of visiting the tournament with his father when a toddler. He was, at the time, a big fan of Ernie Els and followed his every move on the putting green. The South African noticed and wandered over. “Are you a real jolly giant?” Rai asked him. “Some of the time,” Els chuckled.
Tommy Fleetwood has his own Els story. “I was invited to a clinic on a practice day ahead of the championship when I was 8,” he said. “There was a group of I don’t know how many kids and he happened to make eye contact and speak to me. From that point on, Ernie was my hero and he still is, actually.”
Rory McIlroy is yet another to have a bank of Wentworth memories.
“I came and watched the World Match Play Championship here in 1999, 2000 and 2001,” he said. “It was always during the school holidays so my mum and dad would bring me over. I’d run around this golf course twice every day.
“I remember Sam Torrance and Mark O’Meara throwing me their balls. I think that’s why I have such an affinity for this place is because I had that experience as a child.”
And then he recalled how a young girl had immediately burst into happy tears when he had gifted her his ball at last week’s Amgen Irish Open, a moment that had been captured on television.
“It’s a very cool feeling because I’m just handing her a ball, but what it can do for them is so much greater,” said McIlroy, who ultimately won the tournament in a playoff last Sunday. “If that makes them a fan of golf for life or makes them want to play more, that’s a really cool thing.”
Think also of the explosion of joy around the green when McIlroy drained his eagle putt at the 72nd hole at the K Club, especially among the many junior golfers.
Perhaps, one day, an Irish Open champion will, like so many BMW PGA Championship winners, look back and remember how much that experience fuelled his or her desire to emulate their hero.
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