The Northern Irishman missed out on his first major for eight years when he was beaten by a red-hot Cameron Smith on the final day over the Old Course in the last major of 2022.

The 2014 BMW champion is now looking for another success at Wentworth at the DP World Tour Rolex Series $8 million event.

“I look forward to competing again at the BMW PGA Championship,” said McIlroy. “It’s an event I always love playing — the West Course has been good to me in the past, and the fans are incredibly supportive.

“I’ve had a consistent year so far and having a chance to win again at the iconic Wentworth would help my season-long campaign.”

McIlroy joins his fellow major winners, reigning US Open Champion Matt Fitzpatrick, 2021 US Open Champion Jon Rahm and 2016 Masters winner Danny Willett, in the field, as well as defending BMW PGA Champion Billy Horschel and the 2020 winner Tyrrell Hatton.

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The post DP World Tour: Rory McIlroy set for Wentworth return at BMW PGA Championship appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By John Huggan
VIRGINIA WATER, England — It was Arnold Palmer who first came up with the line that nothing in golf is harder than making a birdie when you absolutely have to make one. Which makes Justin Rose’s opening round of five-under-par 67 in the BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth all the more impressive. The 41-year old Englishman has to at least play well – and preferably win – the European Tour’s “flagship” event if he is to make a sixth consecutive appearance in Old World colours at the Ryder Cup later this month. So he has to “birdie” 72 holes, not just one.

Five times Rose dipped under par around the Burma Road course, where he has twice been runner-up in 15 previous starts. But it was the finish to his day that pleased him most and impressed his playing partner, former Masters champion Adam Scott. After a perfect drive around the left-to-right dogleg on the 523-yard par-5, Rose had 236 yards to go into a freshening breeze and with water short and left of the green. Daunting.

“The shots Justin hit into the last were very impressive,” said Scott. “He chip-cut a driver round the corner off the tee. That was a nice little play. Then he cut the 5-wood into the green. The ball landed dead soft. He played the shot perfectly. But both were world-class.”

In the bigger picture, Rose was making equally positive reviews about a day that started as well as it climaxed. All of which is in sharp contrast to the desultory play that saw the former U.S. Open champion fail to qualify for the recent FedEx Cup playoffs. Seventh at the Masters and T-8 in the PGA Championship hint at some decent play, but Rose’s only other top-tens this year have come in Saudi Arabia (T-2) and in last month’s Wyndham Championship (T-10).

No matter. Today was another day. The first three holes at Wentworth are notorious for their difficulty, even in benign conditions. It is easy to go 5-3-5 against the par of 4-3-4 and be, as Scott said, “on the back foot.” But Rose made light of it all. Standing on the fourth tee (for 35-minutes because it is a reachable par-5) he was already under par (4-2-4). So he had plenty of time to think, his mind, almost inevitably, drifting to matters Ryder Cup, a state of affairs the watching Scott was well aware of.

“He’s under pressure, yes,” said the Australian. “But Justin is world-class. He’s one of the best players of this generation. When the pressure is on, he has shown an ability to lift himself. He’s done that many times. And he’s a major champion and former world number one. You’ve got something in you to be able to do that kind of stuff. I wasn’t surprised he played so well and it was nice to see.”

Back inside Rose’s head, the battle to stay in the moment eventually won out over thoughts of what is to come on Sunday evening, when Harrington makes his three wild card selections.

“Plan A is obviously to win; Plan B is just to play well enough to give (European Ryder Cup skipper) Padraig (Harrington) something to think about,” confirmed Rose. “I covered both of those bases today. It’s a really nice start to the tournament, one that gives me the chance to focus on what I should be focused on. All aspects of my game were pretty good. I managed myself well. I felt like I did a good job of respecting the course. And I took my birdies when I could, although I had run from 14 through 17 where I could have made a couple more. I left two putts short on-line. Then again, when I did miss it in a bunker I got the ball up-and-down. I’m very happy.”

Now, of course, Rose has to stay that way for another three days. Maybe only one thing is for sure: Captain Harrington will be watching with interest.

The post Justin Rose responds to pressure of playing for a Ryder Cup spot with ‘world-class’ form at BMW PGA appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By John Huggan
VIRGINIA WATER, England — Few courses on the European Tour have a longer and richer history than the West Course at Wentworth. The BMW PGA Championship visited a few times in the 1970s (labelled Viyella in those days) and has been played annually on the “Burma Road” every year since 1984. The World Match Play Championship was also a long-time fixture at the home of the European Tour. For more than four decades, 1964-2007, the Mark McCormack creation was played at Wentworth in October.

This year, however, the BMW PGA is going to be a little different. Instead of its traditional late-May date, the “flagship event” on the world’s second-most important circuit has moved to this week. All to prevent a (near) clash with the PGA Championship in the United States. The hope was that this would make things better across the board for an event that has, for all its inherent importance to European players, lacked any kind of American presence.

RELATED: European Tour introduces red lights for slow play (and an open-book rules test)

And things are different in that respect. As many as seven Americans are in the 132-player field. Three (David Lipsky, Julian Suri and Kurt Kitayama) are European Tour regulars, but the other four (Billy Horschel, Tony Finau, Patrick Reed and Andrew Putnam) are the first of what chief executive Keith Pelley hopes will be the start of a more significant U.S. representation.

“I’ve heard nothing but great things about this golf tournament, about the event, about the golf course,” said Finau, summing up the visiting mood. “As I asked around, and as I was planning on adding a couple of European Tour events to my schedule, this was one that I felt was necessary.”

That four-month gap between May and September is also going to have an influence on the kind of golf and the sorts of shots the perennially sizable galleries will be treated to this week, especially as the weather is forecast to stay warm and sunny through the weekend.

“The course has had a full season of growth, and they have been able to get all the rubbish out of the grass,” said swing coach Pete Cowen, who works with a number of the world’s best players, including Brooks Koepka and Henrik Stenson. “The greens will be firmer and the course will play better, the run-offs in play. The same type of player will contend, though. This course is all about shaping the ball. Someone like Henrik struggles here because he hits it so straight. His hands are tied.”

Those who know the course best are also looking forward to the prospect of playing Wentworth in prime condition and in prime conditions.

“I prefer it at this time of year,” said Paul Casey, the 2006 World Match Play champion who grew up just down the road. “A lot of technology has been thrown at this golf course, so it’s probably going to be even better than I remember. The course has had a perfect sort of growing season. We’ve kind of gone through a summer where things have cooked a bit, which makes the ball release a little bit more on the greens. We will have to be a little more precise with shots. It is just a much superior test of golf later in the season as we are right now.”

James Morrison, another local boy, concurs.

“It is better at this time of year,” he said. “May is too early. And yes, the greens are firm. That will be the biggest difference. A 5-iron into the greens here yesterday was releasing 12 paces. That’s not happening in May. More questions will be asked of the positioning of the tee shots. Come in from the wrong side, and you’ll find it difficult to get close. And missing on the short side is going to be no bargain. Generally speaking, we’re not going to get away with bad shots.”

Robert Rock of England likes that aspect of the “September Wentworth,” too. Citing the firm fairways, Rock sees “more options” off the tee for a shorter hitter like himself. “I’ll be able to hit a few long irons rather than driver,” he said. “A few more than in May, anyway. And that gives me a chance against the bombers.”

As so often, though, there is a dissenting voice amid all this enthusiasm. Former Ryder Cup player Nicolas Colsaerts has always had a mind of his own.

“I don’t see the course changing much, to be honest,” he says. “The weather can be just as bad in September as it can be in May. The weather dictates how the course will play, more than the date. It is looking good right now, though.”

The last word, however, goes to Stephen Gallacher. The Scot spotted one last difference between May and September. “The trees have grown more,” he says with a smile. “So it looks a bit tighter off the tee. And there are some subtle changes. It’s like Augusta here. They alter things and don’t tell you. I see a bit more rough around the greens. And it’s just in better nick. They can stop making changes now.”

The post Wentworth presents ‘superior test’ after PGA date change appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By John Feinstein
Rory McIlroy has had a remarkable four months—almost. On Sunday, for the fifth time this year, he had a chance to win a golf tournament. After losing to Francesco Molinari by two strokes at European Tour’s flagship event, the BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth, he’s now 1-for-5. On one hand, he’s had five top-fives—a win, two seconds, a T-3 and a T-5—already this year. On the other hand, he could be running away with all the player-of-the-year awards if he’d been a better Sunday closer than he’s been.

It isn’t as if McIlroy doesn’t know how to get to the finish line. He just turned 29 earlier this month and has already won four major championships, two WGC events, a FedEx Cup title and 24 tournaments worldwide. He’s been a lock future Hall-of-Famer for a while now.

After a year more notable for injuries and trying to play hurt than anything else, McIlroy took more than three months off at the end of 2017. He had failed to win a tournament anywhere in the world and didn’t seriously contend—even though he had two top-10s—in any of the four majors.

“I know I need a rest,” he said last summer. “I’d love to play well in the PGA—win it—and take the rest of the year off. If I don’t, I’ll play out my commitments in the fall and then take a break and hope to come back strong next year. I know I’ve got it in me.”

He finished 22nd in the PGA, wrapped up his lost year on Oct. 1 at the Dunhill Links Championship and then kept to his word, taking more than three months off.

McIlroy returned to competition in late January in Abu Dhabi and promptly finished T-3, four shots behind winner Tommy Fleetwood. A week later, in Dubai, he led by two strokes with five holes to play before stumbling late, losing by one shot to Haetong Li. A strong start, even though he didn’t get a win. The break looked like it had done McIlroy plenty of good.

After coming to the U.S., though, he struggled. As usual the problem was with his putter, which lead him to go see Brad Faxon, the wizard of the wand, on the Monday of the Arnold Palmer Invitational. Faxon waved his wand and, six days later, McIroy shot 64 on Sunday and won for the first time since the 2016 Tour Championship.

“Brad makes things simple,” McIlroy said after his win. “When you struggle with your putting, it’s easy to think too much. I was thinking about far too many things.”

Two weeks later, he shot 65 in the third round of the Masters to close to within three shots of Patrick Reed and get himself into the final pairing for Sunday with Reed. But instead of charging dramatically to victory to finish off his career Grand Slam, McIroy was done in by his putting demons again, shooting 74 to finish T-5 while Rickie Fowler and Jordan Spieth were the ones making charges—unsuccessfully—at Reed.

It is remarkable that a player as accomplished as McIlroy is still a work in progress in so many ways.

McIlroy isn’t one of those guys who rationalizes defeat. He openly discussed that it took him a solid week to recover from the loss, that he spent time reading a couple of psychology books and binge-watching some television. Even though the Masters is the only major he hasn’t won, he readily admits it is the biggest golf tournament in the world.

His first wedding anniversary was two weeks after the lost Sunday at Augusta. En route to pick up an anniversary present for wife, Erica, he talked on the phone about what had happened at Augusta.

“I’d be lying if I said I don’t want very badly to win there,” he said. “Sunday was certainly disappointing. It was different than ’11 when I had the lead and shot 80. I really hadn’t figured out back then how to close a major. Now, I know how to do it. I just have to get back in contention and not let the pressure get to me on Sunday.

“I think it’ll happen, I really do, but if it doesn’t, I’m still going to buy my wife a really nice anniversary present every year and enjoy this day.”

One of the things that sets McIlroy apart from many athletes is that he wants to win as badly as anyone, but knows there is more to life than winning golf tournaments.

After missing the cut at the Players—on a golf course he’s never liked much—he took a break before playing Wentworth, a tournament he won four years ago. He took the 36-hole lead after shooting 67-65, but couldn’t maintain that momentum on the weekend, shooting 71-70 to lose to Molinari, who played almost flawlessly the last two rounds, shooting 66-68 to catch and pass McIlroy.

“I get a bit down on myself because my expectations are high, and with a 36-hole lead, I should have closed it out this week,” McIroy told the media afterwards. “But that’s taking nothing away from Francesco. He played a great weekend and bogey free around here is some playing. He deserved the win.”

McIlroy will never say it, but he believes when he has his, “A game” as a young Tiger Woods might say, he should always win. He struggled Sunday with a two-way miss, falling four shots behind after 10 holes before rallying, too little, too late.

David Cannon/Getty Images
McIlroy has had five chances to win tournaments on Sundays in 2018, but has only closed things out once.

Now he returns to the U.S. to play this week at the Memorial before heading to Shinnecock for the U.S. Open two weeks later. Shinnecock Hills, a links-style course, should be to his liking—if the wind doesn’t blow too hard.

It is remarkable that a player as accomplished as McIlroy is still a work in progress in so many ways. He drives the ball as well or better than anyone in the world much of the time, but can get wild. When he is driving the ball well, the rest of his game picks up because he knows he’s going to get lots of birdie (or eagle) chances.

That’s what happened on Sunday at Bay Hill, when he blew past everyone on a cluttered leaderboard to shoot 64 and win by three shots. No one in the field that day shot lower than 67 and only 16 of 77 players broke 70. That’s how good McIlroy can be.

But on other occasions, there is still just enough doubt in his mind under the gun that—at least right now—he isn’t closing out chances to win the way he should. He would be the first person to tell you that.

There are still three majors left this year and the Ryder Cup in Paris in the fall. More than anything, McIlroy wants to end his drought in the majors—which dates to his win at the PGA Championship in 2014.

Golfers always like to say, they’re “close.” They can miss five straight cuts and be “close.” McIlroy is genuinely close. If he can find a way to repeat his Sunday magic at Bay Hill—or anything resembling it—on Sunday at Shinnecock, Carnoustie or Bellerive, he will be able to call 2018 a remarkable year.

Not almost. Not close. For real.

The post For Rory McIlroy, 2018 is turning into a year of what might have been appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By John Huggan
VIRGINIA WATER, England — Only once outside the top 10 in his six most recent visits to Wentworth for the BMW PGA Championship, Francesco Molinari’s penchant for the tree-lined course they call the Burma Road has never been in doubt. But one thing was missing: victory within sight of European Tour headquarters.

No more though. Going one better than his runner-up spot last year, the 35-year-old Italian’s closing 68—his 27th sub-par score in 48 rounds over the past 13 years—left him two shots clear of the highest-ranked player in the field, Rory McIlroy. A fast-finishing Lucas Bjerregaard of Denmark, whose 65 was the low round of the final day, and defending champion Alex Noren tied for third.

For a man boasting only a 50 percent success rate while leading through three rounds, Molinari put on a near impeccable display in search of the $1,166,660 first-place check. Little wonder European Ryder Cup skipper Thomas Bjorn was moved to call it “a world-class display” on Twitter. Four times Molinari dipped under par; not once did he drop a shot.

Perhaps more importantly, until he flirted with the water with his approach to the final green, Molinari never looked like he was in a place to make an error during a metronomic display. The economy of movement in his action points to an efficiency that leads in turn to a high level of tee-to-green consistency—the defining feature of his overall game.

The quality of the opposition—Molinari made just two bogeys all week and none over his last 44 holes surely contributed to the generally lackluster display of McIlroy, the other man tied for the lead after 54 holes. Never comfortable, the four-time major champion fell behind early— he was forced to shout “fore” as early as the first tee—and was four strokes back with eight holes to play. Not for the first time this week, he struggled with his ball-striking and never really threatened the now five-time European Tour winner’s inscrutable equanimity. Until the 72nd green that is.

Faced with a 25-foot putt for eagle that, had he made it, would have forced Molinari to hole from two yards to clinch victory, McIlroy left his ball inches short, right on line. Throw in the absence of Old World stars and Ryder Cup certainties like Justin Rose, Jon Rahm, Henrik Stenson and Sergio Garcia (all played in the U.S. at the Fort Worth Invitational), and those final moments from McIlroy apart, it was a fourth round lacking in both drama and charisma.

None of which was bothering Molinari even a little. Now fourth on the Ryder Cup European points list and poised to make a third appearance in the biennial contest on a Le Golf National course outside Paris where he has three times been runner-up in the French Open, he was all smiles by close of play.

“I cannot tell you what was going through my mind as Rory’s ball was rolling across the 18th green,” he said. “I wasn’t fancying the six footer to win after all the hard work I had put in. Two par 5s is probably the worst possible finish when you are defending a lead. Rory was thinking ‘eagle-eagle’ and I was thinking ‘par-par.’ I tried to stay aggressive and I did until the 16th. And at the last I was just trying to make a five. I didn’t think he could make a two to tie.”

As for McIlroy, the runner-up was outwardly philosophical. But he would be less than human not to be at least a little frustrated by his recurring inability to turn winning positions into actual victories. His body language certainly spoke louder and clearer than his verbal output in the wake of what turned out to be another in a lengthening line of initially promising but ultimately disappointing weeks. Just as he did in Dubai earlier this year when Haotong Li outlasted him down the stretch, the former World No. 1 succumbed to a player he should be beating more often than not.

Related: McIlroy hits three spectators with errant shots, yet is tied for the lead

“I’m disappointed I didn’t play better over the weekend,” McIlroy said. “I was in a great position after two days. But I struggled yesterday and struggled again today. I just couldn’t get it going. I let Francesco get a few shots ahead on me and I just couldn’t claw that back.

“The couple of shots that got me yesterday I missed to the right. Then today the shots that cost me were missing left. When you have two sides of the course in play, it’s difficult. While I could have held it together a bit better over the last couple of days, I scrambled well. I hung tough and shot a couple under par rounds at the weekend. It just wasn’t good enough.”

There was also the matter of that putt on the final green, one that could have led to an unlikely playoff. Not surprisingly, McIlroy’s assessment was tinged with regret. What might have been remained just that.

“He would have had a six-footer to win when it looked like he was cruising,” said McIlroy. “If my putt had gone in I would have had a real chance. Still, I’m somewhat happy he holed his after I missed. So I don’t feel as bad about leaving mine short. But it would have been nice to put a bit of pressure on him and make him feel something over that final putt.”

The post Francesco Molinari’s ‘world-class display’ holds off Rory McIlroy, wins BMW PGA Championship by two appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By John Huggan
VIRGINIA WATERS, England — There have been times over the course of his already storied career when Rory McIlroy has been described as a “dangerous” competitor. But perhaps never before has that description carried more veracity than during day three of the BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth. Three shots clear of the field after 36 holes, the four-time major champion spent a fair proportion of his one-under par 71 apologizing to spectators struck by his errant shots.

Three times it happened.

On the sixth, McIlroy’s attempted escape from the right-hand trees, shot off the toe of his club and hit a woman on the right hand.

At the par-5 17th, his pulled (and blind) second shot bounced back into play off a marshal’s back, from where the 29-year old Northern Irishman got down in two for birdie. The marshal was not so fortunate. Seconds before McIlroy’s ball arrived, he had been hit by a similar shot struck by playing partner, Sam Horsfield.

A lady watching from a few yards left of the 18th fairway was McIlroy’s final “victim.” Her bloody cranium saved his tee-shot from a devastating fate in nearby bushes. Again, he took advantage, contriving to make a birdie four after a beautifully flighted 81-yard pitch finished inches from the pin.

“I didn’t think it was going to carry that far,” said McIlroy of his final tee-shot. “It was into the wind and it was 275-yards to the bunker with a 3-wood. I thought it was going to pitch in the bunker. So I didn’t think anyone was in danger. Obviously that wasn’t the case.

“On the sixth, I don’t think I quite broke the lady’s hand but I gave her a good mark. On all three occasions I went over to say sorry. There’s not much more you can do. Hopefully the medics did a good job and they are okay to come out tomorrow. They saved me really. Those balls were going deep into the trees or out-of-bounds if they had not hit someone. I got very fortunate today.”

McIlroy was also disarmingly honest in his assessment of his swing, currently a work in progress. In that respect his round was clearly a learning experience.

“Because the wind was up, I was having to play — you were sort of having to manufacture more shots than just think about your golf swing. A couple of times I was caught between thinking of what I needed to do in my swing and the shot I needed to hit. That’s when I got myself into trouble. I need to go do a little work on the range, try to recalibrate and get some good swing thoughts back in my head.”

Despite his obvious mixture of concern and regret for the injured in his wake, McIlroy’s score in the hot, breezy conditions was still good enough to retain a share of the lead alongside Francesco Molinari. The pair are locked together on 13-under par, four strokes clear of a quartet that includes defending champion Alex Noren of Sweden.

Related: Lee Westwood shows there is still life in his golf game

But it was clear from McIlroy’s post-round comments that the swing adjustments he and coach Michael Bannon worked on last week still require some time to fully bed in. More than once he looked – and clearly felt – uncomfortable attempting to combine still-new swing thoughts with “seeing” the proper shot in his mind.

“I didn’t really have it today,” he admitted. “I played some good golf in the middle of the round and was four-under par for the last 12 holes. But especially at the start of the round and the end of the round, there were some loose shots in there. When you’re under pressure and the conditions are a bit more difficult, that’s when flaws or any little issues with your game start to show up. And that’s what showed up for me.”

Yet there he is, still atop the leaderboard. It’s what the great ones do.

The post Rory McIlroy hits three spectators with errant shots, yet is tied for the BMW PGA Championship lead appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By John Huggan
VIRGINIA WATER, England. — You heard it here first: Beating balls is overrated. So is playing golf. For Lee Westwood anyway. On the back of one range session, a two-day corporate event in Japan and a couple of bounce games with his son, Sam, over the last eight weeks, the 45-year old Englishman is eight-under par after three-quarters of the BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth.

Tied for seventh, five-shots behind leaders Francesco Molinari and Rory McIlroy, the 10-time Ryder Cup player and newly anointed assistant captain is also doing his best to eat his own words. Just four days before, Westwood all but conceded the end of his distinguished playing career in the biennial contest against the United States and, by extension, his ability to remain competitive at the highest level. Which seemed fair enough. Now ranked 117 in the world, the former No. 1 last month missed his first Masters since 2004 and a week from Monday will be forced to pre-qualify for next month’s U.S. Open at Shinnecock Hills.

“I’m of an age now where my chances of making the team go down quite significantly,” he said last Tuesday. “I haven’t played very much and I figured qualifying for the team is a long shot, so I haven’t been thinking too much about it. But being an assistant at the Ryder Cup is something I’ve always been interested in, having played in so many. So when (European skipper) Thomas (Bjorn) asked me to take on that role, I was obviously delighted and jumped at the chance.”

Westwood will have another kind of opportunity – one significantly more lucrative – in the final round of an event in which he has twice been a runner-up and on a course where he was crowned World Match Play champion in 2000. And should he claim what would be his 24th European Tour victory, he will surely have to revise his plans for Paris this September.

Which is not to say he was taking anything for granted, despite a fine display of controlled shot-making in the blustery conditions that saw the famous Burma Road turn slippier than it had over the first two rounds. Westwood’s 69 – he has dropped only three shots so far – was one of only eight rounds under 70.

That turn of events did not come as a complete surprise though. Westwood may not have been putting in the hours on the range or out on the course – in his last competitive outing he missed the secondary cut after 54-holes of the Shell Houston Open – but his recent trip to Japan produced rounds of 61 and 64 on a par-72 course. So he arrived at Wentworth knowing he was, at least, scoring well.

“This is my 25th PGA,” he pointed out, his tongue about to enter his cheek. “That just about says it all. I don’t have to play a lot. I don’t have to practice a lot. I’m an old dog and I’ve got old tricks and they are never far away. So while I’d rather have been in the Masters and the World Golf Championships and stuff like that, I wasn’t. There were some tournaments I could have played in over the last few weeks, but going to the horse racing at Cheltenham was very important. I went there instead of playing golf. Then I didn’t really fancy one week in China, or the week after that in Morocco. And if I’m not in the U.S. Open, I’ll have three weeks off next month. That will feel like a weekend for me.”

More seriously, Westwood expressed little surprise at the fact that the leader board, previously dominated by McIlroy, is now a bit more crowded. With the wind rising and the course drying out after three days of almost constant sunshine, scoring was always going to rise, even for the gifted Northern Irishman.

“My record round here is decent,” said Westwood. “I’m pleased the wind got up and made it tricky. I figured if that happened, Rory might have a chance of dropping some shots. Over the first couple of days it was ideal for him. He scores really well when the course is soft and there’s not a lot of wind. If it had stayed like that, hard to see anybody else winning. But when there’s a bit of a swirly breeze, anything can happen. It’s no surprise to see Frankie (Molinari) playing well. And (T-3) Alex (Noren) won last year and showed he can play this course. So the leader board is no real surprise.”

Apart from one name, of course.

The post Lee Westwood shows there is still life in his golf game, is on the BMW PGA Championship leaderboard appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

Sadly it was well below par – or over par depending on which way you look at it. The greens were very poor, bunkers too deep and unrecognisable from previous years. The new shapes of the greens only served to emphasize that all the changes made seemed to have tricked up the layout just a little too much.

After a return visit last month I am delighted to share that many of those disappointments have been rectified and the golf course is once again worthy of such a great championship.

I have been fortunate to work with former U.S. Amateur champion and European Tour winner Peter Uihlein since August 2016 and as his game has started to come around, I thought I would detail some of the areas which we go into at tournaments like this. I got into London on the Sunday before and planned to stay through the first round on the Thursday; this is quite normal for coaches whose main area is preparation and checking.

Justin Parsons has worked with Peter Uihlein for nearly a year. Getty Images

We have made some fairly major changes to Peter’s prelude to hit and his takeaway, softening out the move back into his heels and ensuring that he has a little more loft (more open) with the club as it moves away. The week gave me the chance to observe how well these changes had maintained since his last Dubai visit before the tournaments in China and I thought he was doing a good job.

His driving, which had deserted him a little for some time, is becoming a strength with the only hardship being a move towards a left to right fade shot which doesn’t really suit Wentworth. I made one or two suggestions based on points already covered but I think it is always best to keep the technical detail low during tournament weeks.

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Justin Parson’s take on the proposed new The Rules of Golf

We played a seven hole loop on Monday and a full 18-hole practice round Tuesday. Strategies from the tee were discussed as well as how to access some more difficult flags. The sub-air system on the new greens had worked well and they were fast and true – some extra time getting used to the improved surfaces was also evident.

Peter’s caddy Ben Hayes has done a great job since he took the bag. Ben and I discuss what we would like to see as well and hopefully we are forming a strong team together.

All of the equipment manufacturers were at Wentworth in force and the one adjustment that Peter and Liam from Titleist were working on was a two iron that Peter could hit a little further than his current model.

Peter Uihlein congratulates eventual champion Alex Noren on his brilliant 10-under 62 in the final round. Getty Images

The current club goes around 240-245 yards in the air and we were looking for an extra 10 yards. Peter is not carrying a three wood at present given that there is generally trouble at around 280-300 on tour courses. Peter felt the two iron was leaving him a little far back and although it would be preferable to have the three wood back in the bag, a player’s confidence and decisions are very important. A black graphite (extremely stiff) shaft made it to the range and although it covered the distance, it had a tendency to leak to the right so we made a couple of lie angle changes before deciding to stick to the original weapon.

On the Wednesday, a very busy day with a big pro-am, we spent some time on the range. I gave Peter some short iron and wedge challenges – controlling starting direction and trajectory but again avoiding too much technique talk. We also did a little session on the putting green where I was able to liaise with Paul Vizanko from Scotty Cameron’s Tour Department. Paul has known Peter for 15 years and helped me understand many of his underlying tendencies. This is another great part of getting to these events, learning from the true experts in our industry.

Peter eventually finished in a tie for 30th but had the fortune to play with Alex Noren as he blitzed his way through the field with a final round of 10-under 62. He took a lot from Alex’s determined and warrior-like attitude and I hope that as Peter continues to improve and gain confidence, he can put in similar performances.

Justin Parsons is the Director of Instruction at The Butch Harmon School of Golf at The Els Club, Dubai. Among his pupils is celebrated Dubai-based Indian amateur No.1 Rayhan Thomas.

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Alex Noren’s playing partner in the final round of the BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth, former U.S. Amateur champion Peter Uihlein, called it “the best round of golf I’ve ever seen,” one he was glad to witness first hand. European Ryder Cup skipper Thomas Bjorn labelled Noren’s bogey-free effort “beyond impressive.” Noren himself said it was “probably my best-ever round.” And just about everyone else in the field for the European Tour’s flagship event could only shake their heads in wonder.

Which is understandable. Teeing-off almost two hours before the 54-hole leaders and six strokes off the pace, Noren made eight birdies and a closing eagle to shoot 62 over the newly re-vamped Burma Road course, win for the fifth time in the last 10 months and claim $1,166,660, the biggest share of the $7 million prize fund in the first of the European Tour’s eight-strong Rolex Series of elite events.

It was a score that also, in the words of former European Ryder Cup captain Paul McGinley, “drained the energy out of those playing behind.” Indeed, amidst heavy rain on the back nine that contrasted markedly with the benign conditions Noren enjoyed, the former leaders soon became forlorn chasers. No one other than the eventual runner-up, Francesco Molinari, got within three shots of the new champion’s 11-under-par 277. And only the 65s shot by Noren’s fellow early starters, Nicolas Colsaerts and Dean Burmeister, were within three shots of the Swede’s new course record.

Perhaps now, the 34-year-old former Oklahoma State golfer will begin to garner the respect his recent outstanding play clearly merits. Last year, he rose more than 100 places in the World Rankings to ninth, making him only the fourth Swede (after Henrik Stenson, Robert Karlsson and Jesper Parnevik) to achieve that feat. And this season, following his 2016 victories at the Scottish Open, European Masters, British Masters and Netbank Challenge, he was a quarter finalist in the World Match Play Championship and 10th at the recent Players Championship. A final-round 68 (when he shot 77) would have won him the Wells Fargo Championship, too.

“The more times you get into contention, the more confident you get,” points out McGinley. “And that’s exactly where Alex is at the moment. He’s in a purple patch. He’s in contention regularly. And as a result he’s winning.”

Alex Noren poses with the trophy in the locker room after winning the 2017 BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth

Ironically, this rush of success comes at a time when Noren has never practiced less. Once the hardest worker on the European Tour—as a result he developed tendinitis in both wrists and was able to play only twice in 2014—he is now only one of the last to leave the range. With recent fatherhood (his daughter Irina was born last year) has come greater perspective. And now, the biggest win of his career.

“Wentworth is such a tough course mentally,” Noren said. “It’s not super-narrow but if you are a little bit wayward it can cost you. And I putted the best I have ever putted. I wasn’t thinking much about the deficit. I was just trying to play a good round and get into next week [the Nordea Masters in his native Sweden]. I finished the last hole in the third round very badly [he made a double-bogey seven]. I was very angry, then took a long rest and just tried to have a good day.”

That he did. As for the clinching eagle on 18, it came as a result of a 5-iron approach to six feet.

“It was a 5-iron yardage with a bit of adrenaline in there,” Noren said. “The flag was in a great position because I knew I couldn’t hit it over the green. I could just hit as hard as I could. And it came out perfect, that one shot you want to see in the air.”

Alex Noren's winning final round 62 in under three minutes pic.twitter.com/W70LUqY9BT

— DP World Tour (@DPWorldTour) May 28, 2017

The post Alex Noren (62) delivers one of the most impressive rounds of 2017 to win the BMW PGA Championship appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.