Colin Montgomerie will seek to create another extravagant piece of Volvo PGA Championship history this week when he bids to become the first player to win The European Tour's flagship event for a fourth consecutive year at Wentworth Club.
Only Nick Faldo has won the Volvo PGA Championship on four occasions, lifting the coveted trophy in 1978, 1980, 1981 and 1989. Montgomerie is now in a position to equal that feat, but in successive seasons, after marching into the record books 12 months ago by securing a hat-trick of victories, finishing three strokes ahead of Darren Clarke, Andrew Coltart and Lee Westwood.
The Volvo PGA Championship, backed for a 14th successive year by The European Tour's first and only corporate sponsor, carries a record prize fund of £2million - an increase of £500,000 from 2000 - and once again a field of the highest quality has assembled at the West Course.
Among the challengers this week is European Number One Westwood, who attempts to go one better than last year by wining the title for the first time and at the same time capturing his first victory of the season.
World Number Three Ernie Els, currently lying fourth in the Volvo Order of Merit, makes a welcome return to an event in which he has not finished outside the top four in his last four appearances. The double US Open champion finished second to José Maria Olazábal in 1994 before finishing joint second in both 1997 and 1998 to Ian Woosnam and Montgomerie respectively.
On his last visit to the Volvo PGA Championship in 1999 he finished fourth. Els has, of course, also achieved success on the West Course at Wentworth Club in winning an unprecedented three World Match Play Championship titles from 1994 to 1996.
Vijay Singh is another Major Champion seeking to win the Volvo PGA Championship for the first time. Singh, the 1998 US PGA Champion and 2000 Masters Champion, has already enjoyed success on The European Tour this season, winning back-to-back titles by capturing the Carlsberg Malaysian Open and the Caltex Singapore Masters. Seve Ballesteros, twice a Volvo PGA Champion, Faldo, Bernard Langer - twice a previous winner - Paul Lawrie, Sandy Lyle, Olazábal and Woosnam complete the list of Major Championship winners in the starting line-up. The field is further augmented by the current Volvo Order of Merit leader, Michael Campbell, and many of the champions from The 2001 European Tour International Schedule. The winner will receive a cheque for £333,330.
