2025 BMW PGA Championship preview

The DP World Tour is basking in the afterglow of three outstanding weeks to kick off its 'Back 9' series of tournaments. as the season builds towards its crescendo in Dubai, and this week is the pinnacle of the tour outside the Majors - Wentworth and the BMW PGA Championship. The Back 9 began at The Belfry with the Betfred British Masters, and the conclusion to the race to get into the European Ryder Cup team, and then continued in the Swiss mountains with the OMEGA European Masters at Crans Sur Sierre, but absolutely nothing came close to what we witnessed over the weekend at the K Club, as Rory McIlroy won his second Irish Open title.

3 incredible golf courses, all with unique histories, two of them including the Ryder Cup, and now we head to arguably England's greatest inland course with a history unlike any other. Wentworth's West Course has staged the Ryder Cup, World Cup, World Match Play Championship, BMW PGA Championship, British Masters, British PGA Match Play Championship, Dunlop Metropolitan Tournament and the Dunlop Tournament, among many others in the last century. Almost every great golfer in the modern history of the professional sport has played, or won at Wentworth.

Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus, Gary Player, Tony Jacklin, Rory McIlroy, Greg Norman, Seve Ballesteros, Ian Woosnam, Sandy Lyle, Nick Faldo, Bernhard Langer, Jose Maria Olazabal, Angel Cabrera, Corey Pavin, Ernie Els, Vijay Singh, Bob Charles, Tom Weiskopf, Hale Irwin, David Graham, Ben Hogan, Sam Snead, Danny Willett, Isao Aoki, Bill Rogers, Peter Oosterhuis, Peter Alliss, Peter Thomson, Henry Cotton, Max Faulkner, Francesco Molinari, Bobby Locke, Alf Perry, Dai Rees, Mark O'Meara, Colin Montgomerie, Lee Westwood, Michael Campbell, Paul Casey, Luke Donald, David Howell, Tyrrell Hatton, Ryan Fox and Billy Horschel have all won titles on the West Course at Wentworth. These golfers have won more than 100 Major Championships and more than 300 tournaments worldwide.

Wentworth's West Course has a history which can rival any course in the world, even Augusta National.

It is now settled as the host of the BMW PGA Championship, and home to the DP World Tour, and this week the championship welcomes one of its greatest ever fields. all looking to emulate the victory of Billy Horschel in 2024.

Ludvig Åberg will make his second Ryder Cup appearance later this month, as well as playing in his second BMW PGA Championship, two years on from finishing in a share of tenth in 2023.

Matt Fitzpatrick will represent Europe for a fourth time after the 2022 U.S. Open Champion and nine-time DP World Tour winner earned a Captain’s Pick for this year’s contest.

Reigning FedEx Cup Champion Tommy Fleetwood will be making his fourth consecutive appearance at the Ryder Cup a month on from his first PGA TOUR victory at East Lake when he won the TOUR Championship to secure the PGA TOUR’s season-long championship.

2022 BMW PGA Championship winner Tyrrell Hatton finished fifth on the rankings during the qualification period and will also tee it up for a fourth successive Ryder Cup. His highlights during qualification include victory at the Hero Dubai Desert Classic in the first Rolex Series event of the season and three top-20 finishes in Major Championships, including a share of fourth at the U.S. Open.

Rasmus Højgaard is Team Europe’s only debutant in this year’s Ryder Cup after earning the final automatic place after a strong finish to the qualifying period, which included a runner-up result on home soil at the Danish Golf Championship and a T16 finish at The 153rd Open. He was also runner-up at last week’s Omega European Masters.

Viktor Hovland, who won the FedEx Cup in 2023 returns after tasting victory in his second outing for Team Europe two years ago at Marco Simone. The Norwegian formed a record-breaking partnership with Åberg as they inflicted the heaviest defeat in history in a foursomes match, beating Brooks Koepka and Scottie Scheffler 9&7.

Irishman Shane Lowry, who won The Open Championship in 2019, will make a third consecutive appearance in the Ryder Cup, following on from his outings in 2021 and 2023.

Two-time PGA TOUR winner Robert MacIntyre successfully qualified automatically for a second time after making his Ryder Cup debut in Italy two years ago. The Scotsman recorded his best result in a Major Championship to date after finishing runner-up to J.J. Spaun at the U.S. Open and also finished in a share of seventh at The Open.

Rory McIlroy, who completed the Career Grand Slam as he won his fifth Major Championship at the Masters Tournament in April, will be making his eighth appearance for Team Europe – being ever present since making his debut in 2010. McIlroy is a former winner of the BMW PGA Championship and was runner-up to Billy Horschel last time out.

Jon Rahm will continue Spain’s legacy in Ryder Cups, with his nation being represented in every edition of the biennial contest since 1979. The two-time Major Champion and former World Number One has earned six points for Europe over the last three Ryder Cups, famously beating Tiger Woods in the Sunday Singles at Le Golf National when making his debut in 2018.

Justin Rose qualified for Team Europe automatically for the first time since 2018 and will be making his seventh Ryder Cup appearance. The Englishman won his 12th PGA TOUR title at last month’s FedEx St. Jude Championship as he beat U.S. Open champion Spaun in a play-off at TPC Southwind.

Also teeing it up, Luke Donald will be joined in the field by two of his five Vice Captains, 2018 Open Champion Francesco Molinari, who also won the BMW PGA Championship that same year, and Alex Noren, who won his 11th DP World Tour title at the Betfred British Masters last month and won the BMW PGA Championship in 2017.

2021 Masters champion Hideki Matsuyama will be looking to emulate Japanese icon Isao Aoki and win around the West Course, Aoki won the World Match Play Championship in 1978. Matsuyama won the The Sentry in January, his 11th PGA TOUR win, and 20th official worldwide victory of his career.

2018 Masters champion Patrick Reed would love to add the flagship title of the DP World Tour to his win at LIV Golf Dallas earlier this year. This will be his sixth start on the DP World Tour outside the Majors this year, after the Hero Dubai Desert Classic, Ras Al Khaimah Championship, Bapco Energies Bahrain Championship, BMW International Open and AMGEN Irish Open. The former Ryder Cup star will also play in Scotland at the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship, in a year in which he will end up playing in 15 countries on 4 continents, and a total of 28 tournaments, as he bids to improve his world ranking.

2023 BMW PGA Champion Ryan Fox will be looking to add another win to his two on the PGA TOUR earlier this year, the Kiwi broke through for wins at the Myrtle Beach Classic and RBC Canadian Open. Speaking of Canada, Corey Conners will also be playing at Wentworth this week, one of 10 PGA TOUR members eligible for the BMW PGA Championship. 2019 BMW PGA Champion Danny Willett returns, and is has wins at Augusta, St Andrews and Wentworth to his name - only Woods and Nicklaus can match that.

Adrian Meronk, Brooks Koepka, Adam Scott, Joaquin Niemann, Dean Burmester and Min Woo Lee are also in the field, all looking to emulate Billy Horschel, who arrives at Wentworth looking to join an elite club of golfers which have won three times in this great championship. Nick Faldo, Bernhard Langer and Colin Montgomerie are the only players to have achieved that feat.

For many, Wentworth will forever be associated with Match Play, and shouts of "hole halved in four, Els remains 2 up" can still be heard metaphorically, but now, some 18 years after the World Match Play left the West Course, the BMW PGA Championship has truly established itself as Wentworth's event, and one of the great championships of the world. Another chapter in its history will be written this week.

Live coverage of the BMW PGA Championship is on Sky Sports Golf, beginning on Thursday at 0830. SHANK will have coverage all week, with daily reports courtesy the DP World Tour, and much more on www.shankmedia.co.uk Facebook, X, Threads and BlueSky.

SHANK Media, written by Matt Hooper