Six of top seven players are in this week’s field
Coming two weeks after the Players Championship and three weeks before the U.S. Open, the Byron Nelson Championship is stuck in a PGA Tour dead zone. On Thursday at TPC Four Seasons in the suburbs of Dallas, there will not be a player in the field with a single-digit world ranking.
But golf fans are starting to figure out where to turn for elite competition — the European Tour.
This week at the BMW PGA Championship in England, six of the world’s top seven players are enlisted, along with the sport’s four reigning major champions.
| UP NEXT |
| BMW PGA Championship |
| When » Thursday-Sunday |
| Where » Wentworth Club, Virginia Water, England |
| TV » Golf Channel |
| FIVE TO WATCH |
| Luke Donald |
| The hottest player in the world is coming off a runner-up finish last week in the World Match Play in Spain. Beginning with his victory in the Match Play in February, Donald has eight top-10s in eight events on the PGA and European tours. |
| Lee Westwood |
| In addition to never winning a major, the world’s No. 1 player has never won a BMW PGA title. Westwood has had a solid year, placing in the top 30 in all five PGA Tour starts. His lone victory came this month in the Ballantine’s Championship in Korea. |
| Paul Casey |
| The 2009 winner of the BMW is slumping. Earlier this month, the 33-year-old Englishman missed the cut in the Wells Fargo and the Players, a departure from his torrid finish at the end of 2010, when he placed in the top six in his final four tournaments. |
| Anders Hansen |
| Since Colin Montgomerie won three straight BMW titles (1998-2000), Hansen is the only player to win more than once at Wentworth (2002, 2007). The 40-year-old from Denmark earned a slot in the U.S. Open this week via his ranking in the world’s top 50. |
| Charl Schwartzel |
| Since winning the Masters, the 26-year-old South African has played solidly — a tie for 26th at the Players, a tie for 11th at the Malaysian Open and a quarterfinal berth at the World Match Play last week. His best finish in the BMW was a tie for sixth in 2009. |
It’s perhaps the most extreme example of the European Tour outshining the PGA Tour. But there’s no denying the growing appeal of golf across the Atlantic. A strong generation of European players and the sagging fortunes of Tiger Woods, combined with a well-timed Golf Channel contract, have brought high exposure.
“[Chief executive] George O’Grady can be really proud of his work the last few years,” Germany’s Martin Kaymer told reporters Tuesday. “I really believe it started with [Padraig] Harrington. When he started winning majors, that gave myself and a lot of Europeans the belief.”
The worldwide financial crisis hit the European Tour hard, bringing an end to some long-running tournaments. But this week the purse at the BMW is $6.33 million, rivaling the prize money available in the Byron Nelson ($6.5 million), evidence that the European Tour is thriving.
“The tour has been through a rough three or four years,” defending U.S. Open champion Graeme McDowell said Wednesday. “But we now have as strong a product as we’ve ever had.”
One of the selling points of the BMW is that it could produce a new No. 1 in the world rankings as leader Lee Westwood tries to hold off No. ?2 Luke Donald and No. 3 Kaymer. Donald trails Westwood by just .05 points. Kaymer can regain the top spot if he wins and the other two fail to finish second.
“Luke is getting closer and closer. The way he plays golf, he deserves to be No. 1,” Kaymer said. “Lee has been No. 1, and I have been No. 1. I think Luke, he deserves to be up there for a week, then I’ll try to get the spot again.”
So elite is the field at the BMW that twice as many ranking points are available in the European Tour event than in the Byron Nelson.
“America’s been dominant for a long time,” Masters champion Charl Schwartzel said. “I think world golf is getting stronger, and at the end of the day, America is a big place, but the world is slightly bigger.”
