Driving through the main entrance to Wentworth Club, the largest billboard – impossible to ignore – has an image of Ben An.
He is Korean, and the defending champion here at the BMW PGA Championship, but he is no Rory McIlroy – not yet anyway. And neither is he a Justin Rose, who, like McIlroy, is an absentee from what is the flagship tournament of the European Tour.
With a pot of €5 million up for grabs it is certainly one of the biggest financially on the circuit. And it comes with a host of Ryder Cup points and Race to Dubai points.
Yet this championship is worth more than mere greenbacks or numbers: all you have to do is stop for a moment to look at the array of clubs donated from past champions – Faldo’s driver, Seve’s wedge etc – to know that this is a special place even if the famed West Course is being ripped up come Monday as part of yet another modernisation project.
If the absences of McIlroy – and nobody can point any tut-tut in his direction after all he did on and off the course in hosting and winning the Irish Open last week – and Rose, who is suffering from a back injury, has hurt the tournament, those players here to chase silverware will simply get on with things and seek to add a prized title to their CVs.
Big week
One of them is Shane Lowry, who has three top-six finishes in the past six years, and who is very much among the favourites to have a big week.
Another is US-based Scot Russell Knox who, having joined the European Tour as a member, is intent on making Darren Clarke’s Ryder Cup team.
The past two weeks have proven informative and eye-opening to Knox, only becoming aware of his increased profile on this side of the Atlantic. On seeing a banner of himself at the Irish Open, Knox was so taken aback that he got his wife to take a photo of him standing beside it.
At Wentworth that image has been magnified because his image features alongside Lowry, Luke Donald, Martin Kaymer and a few select others on the back of the 18th green grandstand. It is an impressive and imposing sight.
“This is what I’ve wanted. You have to sit back at night and think, ‘hey, I want to be a superstar’. You’ve got to be ready for it. I’ve got the opportunity to play on the PGA Tour and out here on the European Tour, in the Masters tournament, and I see myself winning them and winning lots of them hopefully,”says Knox .
Being a star
“And in order to do that there’s going to be pictures of you. People are going to want to watch you... I’ve always dreamed of being a star.”
Another player who is here, and who has embraced the role of stardom, is Danny Willett, whose win in the Masters has propelled him to a new level in the game.
Yet it is another Englishman, Luke Donald, a back-to-back champion in 2011 and 2012, who is very much the master of the course since it was redesigned by Ernie Els.
“Since the redesign, the greens are very undulating; they are quite fast this year,” said Donald.
Very deep bunkers
“The penalty for missing in the bunkers is quite severe; they’re very deep bunkers. So there’s some strategy (required). For some of those reasons this course has been very kind to me.”
In contrast, Graeme McDowell – one of eight Irish players in the field along with Lowry, Darren Clarke, Paul McGinley, Michael Hoey, Colm Moriarty, David Higgins and Eamonn Brady – has often suffered nightmares.
McDowell has to go back to 2009 for the last time he broke 70 here when he finished tied-13th. Since then McDowell has missed three cuts (in 2011, 2012 and 2013) and didn’t play in 2014, when his wife was expecting a baby. On his return last year he finished down the field in tied-59th.
“I know my record is not that good around here, but I do like the way the course has been set up, it’s trickier and the greens are firmer and faster, while the rough is manageable.
“The golf course is in really, really good shape, and I’m coming in here looking for a very big week,” said McDowell, who added that “patience” is the key in his bid to eke out a score.
