It’s the flagship and my favourite event on the European Tour this week with the BMW PGA Championship at the West Course, Wentworth, Virginia Water, Surrey, England.
The 144 field will all be competing for the $8M prize pot with the winner collecting the title and a cool $1,123,300.
The key attribute around this stunning par 72 parkland Wentworth lay out will be accuracy, scrambling and a hot putter on these slick and smooth fast greens.
The legendary Ernie Els played a huge part in Wentworth’s redesign over the years, the humble South African owned one of the mansions on the course and played and practiced most of his golf in the back garden.
Tyrrell Hatton returns to defend his title when winning comfortably last year with four shots to spare over runner up Victor Perez.
The weather is forecast to be cloudy but calm throughout with humid conditions.
This event will be screened on Sky Sports Main Event and Sky Sports Golf with live coverage starting at 8.30am GMT on Thursday morning.
Going for the Hat-trick
Before I continue I just want to say that this week we are going for the hat-trick after selecting the winner over the last two weekends. Now considering golf is amongst the trickiest sports to pick winners this is truly remarkable.
Patrick Cantlay made it two wins in seven days for both us and him when becoming the FedEx Cup champion on Sunday evening.
I did mention in last weeks preview “ignore him at your peril “ and that the talented 29yr old from California would be hard to beat in this format. That proved exactly the case as no one could overtake Cantlay from start to finish. He won at an advised 7/2 and the week before he won for us at 25/1 when winning the BMW Championship.
To round off yet another amazing and profitable week Xander Schauffele finished in the place money at a recommended 33/1 each way. That brings out profits to over £4,000 this year alone to only £10 stakes. As I always say, I’m only to glad and happy to help this amazing community at MFT. I’ll keep doing my homework to empty they bookies satchels to the delight of us all, well not the bookies obviously. 😂
So let’s move on with this week's selections, I just can’t believe some of the prices on offer with the markets for the BMW PGA Championship. Some of these golfers are double and treble the price they’ve been available at over the past few weeks so there is definitely value to be had if looking in the right places.
Christiaan Bezuidenhout
For my first and main selection I’m liking the look of Christiaan Bezuidenhout 30/1 EW Betfair 1-8 places.
The young, talented 27yr old South African should relish the challenge around this track and he will be buzzing with confidence after successfully securing his PGA Tour card when finishing 3rd at the Kom Ferry Tour finals last Sunday.
He seems to enjoy playing on this Wentworth lay out and finished 3rd on his debut here in 2019. Bezuidenhout hasn’t played as much golf as most this year on both the European and PGA stage so it’s kind of tricky to judge his form compared to others. He usually always shows up with a hot putter and this may prove pivotal on these greens but he can also back that up with his solid ball striking and accuracy.
I can only see the South African bringing the kind of form he produced at the Kom Ferry finals last week to Wentworth. He ranks 2nd on the PGA Tour for Strokes Gained around the greens and was 1st for Scrambling on the European Tour in 2020.
Scrambling for sure is probably the match winner around here at Wentworth as Tyrrell Hatton proved last year and Bezuidenhout has all the key attributes for success around here this year.
The 30/1 on offer looks more than decent especially with a top eight finish returning a tidy profit so take it while it’s available.
Robert MacIntyre
For my next selection I’m going to advise Robert MacIntyre 50/1 EW Bet365.
Now as much as I’m a patriot, and this to be fair may have an influence over me selecting our very own Bob from the lovely town of Oban, but just to advise you his form recently hasn’t been spectacular.
He has missed the cut at his last two events but I’m not allowing that to put me off. I just have a feeling he will bounce back this week with a good performance.
The young, talented 25yr old Scot just seems to thrive at the big events. He finished 8th at The 149th Open Championship at Royal St George’s and he also secured his return next year to Augusta with an amazing 12th at The Masters.
He won his maiden European Tour Title last year winning the Aphrodite Hills Cyprus Showdown and only narrowly missed out at the beginning of the year at the Omega Dubai Desert Classic.
Bob is a big time player and there will be plenty more to come including a major if you ask my opinion, so it would come as no surprise to see him put on a display at Wentworth.
He has ten Top 10 finishes on the European Tour with seven of those in the Top 5 which include a victory and three runners up positions.
Maybe I’m allowing my heart to rule my head on this one but hey that’s allowed and I for sure will be cheering on our very own Bob MacIntyre to double-up on his European crowns with a victory this Sunday at the BMW PGA Championship.
Branden Grace
For my next pick it’s getting tricky to be honest. As I mentioned previously the prices for some of these players on the markets this week are blowing me away and my shortlist isn’t exactly short this week. I have so many written down who represent unbelievable value and are treble the price they have been in recent weeks. However I’m only allowed one more and for that reason I’m going to single out Branden Grace 40/1 EW Bet365.
Yip it’s another South African as they just all seem to be on fire and all over leaderboards everywhere and can play anywhere on the planet.
The 33yr old from Pretoria has already bagged nine European Tour victories at such a young age. I actually had to check that out but it’s 100% accurate, absolutely phenomenal.
Please don’t make me mention all nine European Titles. He has also won twice on the PGA Tour when winning the Puerto Rico Open earlier on this year and also won the RBC Heritage in 2016.
Most recently he finished runner-up just a few weeks back at the Wyndham Championship, if you remember the six man play off won eventually by Kevin Kisner and a few weeks previous he was 4th at The Memorial Tournament.
Another performance this year worth noting was T7th at The US Open at Torrey Pines so Grace almost certainly has the form coming to Wentworth where he has finished no worse that 11th on five occasions. His best performances were on his debut in 2012 and in 2018 when he finished 5th on both occasions.
He has already mentioned that he adores playing on this Wentworth track and would love to add the BMW PGA Championship to his CV. If you ask me it’s more than a possibility and I can only see this talented South African challenging on the back nine on Sunday afternoon on his way to make it double figures with win number ten on the European Tour.
Viktor Hovland v Tyrrell Hatton
For my final selection it’s the customary matchbet and I’m going to advise Viktor Hovland 10/11 Nap Betfair to beat last years winner Tyrrell Hatton who hasn’t been playing much golf recently.
Caddy be on your selections, GL🍀 & enjoy the Golf. ⛳🏌️♂️
Only made 2 selections last week at the Italian open,one was Richard bland who finished 5th to bring home a 12/1 place.this week im sticking with bland again he is 60/1 e/w with paddy Power,also I like the chances of Alex noren @20/1 e/w a previous winner at Wentworth and seems to have found some good form in the US recently.
Good luck Jimba and Burton111 , I always look forward to this event at Wentworth, my favourite on the European calendar 🤞 ⛳️🏌️♀️
I can remember when they played it at the end of May,and the final day was on the bank Holiday Monday,I can even remember Tony Johnstone winning it in the late 80s.