With so many of the world's elite players decsending upon the famous West Course at Wentworth Club for the BMW PGA Championship, europeantour.com took the chance to canvass their thoughts on their own Championship.
Thomas Björn:“This event means a lot more than everything else on Tour. You know, you can see it. You look at the feel of it, it's grown steadily every year and there's a little bit more feel to the tournament every year. It's gone up, after BMW has taken it over, it has gone up. It definitely has taken a big step in the right direction. It gives it just a bit bigger feel and hopefully, you know, you can turn that into playing some good golf.”
Darren Clarke:“The course is in magnificent shape – Ernie has made a few more changes so it’s going to make it that bit more difficult. There’s a blind bunker on the 18th and few more bunkers around so it’s going to be more difficult than before. I played here last Friday and it was in brilliant shape then and it’s even better now. The greens are brilliant – firm and fast.”
Luke Donald:“Obviously it's quite a bit a longer golf course, a lot more bunkering. I think Ernie and Wentworth felt like they needed to make the course a little bit harder. This is the flagship event of The European Tour, and they want a good test. You know, I think they want the best player to win, and the harder the golf course, usually that separates the field a little bit. So I like the changes.”
Ernie Els:“This golf course right here with the rough, with the bunkering, the way the greens are going to play, is not too far off from any kind of U.S. Open you're going to play. And even at the Open Championships I've been at, my love of links golf, you can see that has come back into the West Course. The bunkering on links courses, it gives you options, but also plays a couple of tricks with your mind if you miss shots. That's kind of what I've incorporated into this update.”
Ross Fisher:“I’m hoping that being a Member here at Wentworth is going to hold me in good stead and will help me out this week. I’m turning up this week to try and win the tournament. I know that if I play to my capabilities I have a really good chance of wining around here and I know the course, I would hope, really, really well.”
Retief Goosen:“The course is in good shape. We're all looking forward to it. The course has obviously had a few more changes. The course needed it, anyway, the last few years, so it's nice to see that they finally did it.”
Padraig Harrington:“This is another tournament I would really like to win – no question about it. The BMW PGA Championship is our biggest event and it is definitely one I would like to win. I think the venue, the heritage here is great. Tee to green, a superb course, what more can I say?”
Ian Poulter:This is a tournament I have watched for many, many years. I came to watch Woosie, Faldo, Seve, Ernie, so many times, even before I was a professional. It means a lot. It would be a nice win if I could get that far on Sunday.”
Vijay Singh:“Whoever wins here is going to have to play great golf – you can’t get away with playing bad shots and I think that’s the way it should be. I relation to the United States, I think this event would be THE PLAYERS Championship of the US. This is, you know, even bigger than the TPC is over there. We have three Majors over there and you have one over here, so I think this is a premium event in Europe.”
