PREVIEW: bmw pga championship

This week sees the European Tour¹s flagship event, the BMW PGA Championship, and plenty of big names will make the trip to Wentworth¹s West Course.

Ernie Els and Vijay Singh are the two biggest, and will be the most fancied to prosper, but they will face some stiff competition from the likes of US Open champion and 2005 winner Angel Cabrera and Ryder Cup stars Lee Westwood, Luke Donald and Henrik Stenson.

Of the big names in Europe, only Open champion Padraig Harrington has decided to give this week a miss. He believes that he peaks during the third week of a run of events so he has elected to play Celtic Manor as he prepares for the US Open.

Justin Rose makes a rare visit to these shores having almost landed this title 12 months ago when Anders Hansen rolled in a 25-footer at the first extra hole. The Dane also triumphed in 2002 and would look to be an obvious selection from Pool C while Pool D is boosted by the inclusion of Richard Finch.

The Englishman provided the most memorable moment of the season thus far when he slipped and fell into the River Maigue at Adare Manor but it proved not to be too costly as his approach found the green and Finch pocketed £330,000 to put towards the dry cleaning bill.

NCG columnist Ross Fisher also features in Pool D and he will have more course knowledge than anyone in the field having played on the West Course since he was a 13-year-old. Last year the Dutch Open winner made it into the final pairing alongside Paul Broadhurst but it was not to be the fairytale finish as the youngster slipped back in rough conditions.

Broadhurst meanwhile will make his 500th appearance on the European Tour this week, just the 16th man to reach the milestone.

Players to have entered this week:

A
Ernie Els
Justin Rose
Vijay Singh
Henrik Stenson
Angel Cabrera
Luke Donald
Lee Westwood
Darren Clarke
Paul McGinley
Oliver Wilson

B
Martin Kaymer
Niclas Fasth
Paul Casey
Richard Sterne
Retief Goosen
Andres Romero
Robert Karlsson
Soren Hansen
Rory McIlroy
Johan Edfors
David Howell

C
MA Jimenez
Richard Green
Nick Dougherty
Anders Hansen
Peter Hanson
Bradley Dredge
Damien McGrane
Peter Lawrie

D
Colin Montgomerie
Charl Schwartzel
Soren Kjeldsen
Simon Dyson
Steve Webster
Mikko Ilonen
** Richard Finch

E
Louis Oosthuizen
Jyoti Randhawa
Jeev Milkha Singh
James Kingston
Graeme McDowell
Ross Fisher
Ross McGowan
Raphael Jacquelin


** Denotes wild card