The golf clubs bolted to the walls in the main corridor - Wentworth's so-called "Hall of Fame" - are a part of history.

Not only do they bare testimony to the changes in club technology down the years, ranging from blades and curious looking sand wedges to the new-fangled massive drivers such as the one donated by Scott Drummond, the most recent winner of the PGA Championship, but they represent a record of champions that's a veritable "who's who" of golf, at least in Europe.

When Drummond defends that title here in May, however, it will have, not only a new title sponsor, but also a new name.

What was the Volvo PGA Championship will now be known as the BMW Championship, to be staged on May 26th-29th with a prizefund of 4 million and a cheque for 666,660 destined for the winner.

"We live in a commercial age," said George O'Grady, the PGA European Tour Executive Director, when questioned on the dropping of the PGA from the title after 50 years. "What we are gaining, the benefits we get in return, outweigh removing three initials from the title."

In the cold light of day, that is commercial reality. Yet, as O'Grady pointed out, "it will still be the players' championship."

While the initial contract with BMW is for four years, the new chief of the European Tour (who took up his post earlier this month after Ken Schofield's retirement) said it was also their intention to keep the tour's flagship tournament at Wentworth.

However, this increased commitment to golf from BMW doesn't extend to assuming sponsorship of the European Tour or the Order of Merit, elements that many expected to be announced at yesterday's conference.

"We don't particularly want to sell the European Tour name again unless the benefits it brings are enormous," stated O'Grady.

But this new sponsorship does make the German motor company the biggest sponsors on the tour as they are also title sponsors of the Asian Open - to be staged in Shanghai on May 13th-16th - as well as the Russian Open in Moscow on August 11th-14th and the International Open in Munich, which takes place on August 26th-29th.

That's an annual pledge in excess of 10 million that all parties anticipate being a long-term commitment.

"The PGA Championship has always been the European Tour's flagship event and, for us, it is the biggest event outside of the majors," said Paul McGinley, a member of the Tournament Players' committee who was present at yesterday's announcement.

"It's a great championship and to have a new sponsor of the stature of BMW is a huge boost for all the players and the tour as a whole."

In many ways, the challenge for the European Tour is to have more tournaments like this one to counter the attractions of the US Tour.

"If we can have enough really superb tournaments I think that will help to show the pride we have in the European Tour," said O'Grady, "and this will help have players wanting to support as many tournaments as they can.

"We totally understand the lure of the PGA Tour at certain times of the year, but there are times of the year when it is extremely hard to see better events than we have here in Europe.

"This is an event we can build and make into an absolute major on the tour, not a major championship, but a major tournament, and to a man they have all said 'yes'. It is satisfying that (Padraig) Harrington is playing. We agree he can come to terms with Wentworth and his whole troubles in the spring. It's a psychological thing, (but) he is on board."

The Dubliner hasn't played in the PGA at Wentworth for the past two years.

Harrington was actually approached by BMW about his availability before they took up the sponsorship and his presence, along with that of Ernie Els and Retief Goosen who have also committed, and the likely availability of Vijay Singh, is a real shot in the arm for the European Tour as they witness an increasing number of players going to the US Tour, especially in the early part of the season.

Getting Sergio Garcia - now the top-ranked European player in the world rankings - back playing regularly in Europe, and certainly in Britain, would seem to be a harder task; although O'Grady said that he intended to meet up with the Spaniard to discover if there was a reason, as he put it, that Garcia "has played hardly any events in Britain other than the Open".

While Garcia's main commitment is to playing on the US Tour, most of the other top Europeans - including Harrington and Darren Clarke - juggle their memberships, but concentrate mainly on the European circuit over the prime summer months.

"What Bernhard Langer did for us in creating this team in the Ryder Cup is that they all want to be part of the tour," said O'Grady. "We are not about holding our members back. They must follow their career to get the maximum out of their talent. We have just got to make the European Tour as good as we possibly can so that they have the pride that makes them want to come back.

"What is so heartening now is that all of these leading players have told me what will suit them, what would make it attractive for them to come back at certain times of the year," said O'Grady.

"I'm well aware they go to America in the early parts of the year when it is extremely attractive. We are working on sections of the tour where the tournaments are exceptionally good and they will be the elite chunks of the European Tour.

"This championship is the pinnacle of the European Tour, the biggest prizemoney event outside of the Open."