With 18 of the top 60 in the world ranking, a list of entries headed by heavyweights such as Rory McIlroy (4th in the world) and Jon Rahm (6th), the Rolex Series returns to the venue of the DP World Tour (European Tour) on the occasion of the BMW PGA Championship (once known as the British PGA, the fetish tournament of the circuit, British Open aside), for a long time one of the most prestigious events in the world of golf and in one of the most famous and recognized courses on the planet , in the heart of the county of Surrey, near Heathrow airport and on the outskirts of London.
Wentworth, schedule
And it does so with some tension between players from the Arab Super League (LIV Golf) and the European Tour. This Tuesday a meeting is planned in Wentworth with a massive presence of Tour golfers. More than a hundred members of the DP World Tour could be summoned, which may produce some moments of more tension, although the presence of LIV Golf golfers is not confirmed either.
What is palpable in the atmosphere is the feeling that a point of no return has been reached in the confrontation between circuits. Seventeen players who have jumped ship and joined the LIV Golf Tour will battle it out at Wentworth.
The Saudi-backed Super League, run by Greg Norman and offering million-dollar prizes, kicked off to much fanfare near London in June. The series has been adding quality to its roster, with British Open champion Cameron Smith on the roster alongside, among others, Dustin Johnson, Brooks Koepka, Phil Mickelson and Bryson DeChambeau, and is posing a serious threat to the status golf quo.
The mighty PGA Tour has already banned its players from LIV events, but attempts by the European DP World Tour to follow suit have so far been unsuccessful, as dissenting players are allowed to compete in its events pending a trial scheduled for next year.
“I hate what they’re doing to golf,” McIlroy recently said of the Super League. “I just don’t like it,” he added. Paul McGinley, European captain of the 2014 Ryder Cup, went further and accused the dropouts of feeling “entitled”
“The key to the anger is that these guys who have taken the money from LIV Golf think they have the right to come back and take the places of the players who support our tour week in and week out,” he told The Times.
“LIV players don’t show up for the two or three million euro tournaments in the Czech Republic or Switzerland, but they do come to the six million pound tournament at Wentworth. This has caused a lot of resentment.
Nobody on the European Tour wants the LIV boys in our tournaments. LIV Golf players have not been invited to participate in Wednesday’s Pro-Am at Wentworth and Germany’s Martin Kaymer has opted out of the tournament.
But England’s Ian Poulter and Spain’s Sergio Garcia remain optimistic. “What I’m going to do is support the European Tour, now and always. If you don’t like it, it’s too bad for you,” said the man from Castellón.
Fresh from his third FedEx Cup win, Rory McIlroy returns to the scene of his 2014 win, while his friend and fellow sufferer, US Open champion, former world number one and Ryder Cup star Jon Rahm, too, returns to the tournament after his 2nd-place finish in 2019.
Reigning US Open champion Matt Fitzpatrick will also feature on the 1st tee alongside his Ryder Cup teammates Viktor Hovland, Shane Lowry , Tyrrell Hatton and Tommy Fleetwood. On the Spanish side, in addition to Rahm and García (this is new), Adri Arnaus, Pablo Larrazábal, Rafa Cabrera, up to a total of 12 Spaniards, ‘Pisha’ Jiménez included.
