Wentworth week is template for new DP World Tour and PGA Tour global series

During his spell as the DP World Tour’s CEO, Keith Pelley never seemed overly keen for it to be referred to as the circuit’s ‘flagship event’, believing tournaments in the Middle East, notably the DP World Tour Championship, deserved the right to at least be on equal terms with the BMW PGA Championship.

There is absolutely no denying that the DP World Tour Championship, Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship, Hero Dubai Desert Classic and the Genesis Scottish Open as well are all all fabulous golf tournaments, but, as we were reminded last week, there is something about the BMW PGA Championship that makes it sit a notch above all the other DP World Tour events.

For starters, it is held at one of the great tournament venues in the UK. A bit like Loch Lomond when it hosted an event under a few different guises before eventually it became the Scottish Open, fans just love getting an opportunity to visit Wentworth Club, which, let’s face it, is a playground for the rich and famous.

Bernard Gallacher, of course, will forever be associated with the Surrey venue through his lengthy spell as the club’s head professional, with another West Lothian man, Stuart Boyle, now filling the role of club manager and no wonder he looked proud as I bumped into him over the weekend out for a stroll in the Spectator Village with his parents and family.

Everything about Wentworth Club oozes class, though it is always hilarious to stand on the driving range and see signs instructing players to hit drivers in a certain direction to avoid balls ending up in the grounds of one of the mega-expensive houses behind it. Rory McIlroy, of course, is now a local resident after moving earlier this year, though, as the world No 2 admitted with a smile on Sunday, walking to work wasn’t an option last week as he’d probably not have made his tee time due to the number of autographs he’d have had to sign.

By all accounts, the players enjoy the test provided by the iconic West Course - referred to by some people as Burma Road due to its challenging nature - and, though a lot more undulating in parts than it might look on the TV, it is also a terrific walk for spectators. Boy, do they turn up in big numbers throughout the week, though, given its proximity to London in particular, that is no real surprise.

While maybe not everyone’s cup of tea, a Celebrity Pro-Am that takes place on Wednesday is very popular indeed with the paying public - post-golf concerts, too - and golf as a whole can only benefit from any extra exposure the game might get from the likes of Paddy McGuiness, Anton du Beke, Jenni Falconer and, yes, even Michael McIntyre being out on a course with some of the game’s top professionals and clearly having fun.

11 of world’s top 20 teed up last week

What’s even more important, however, is the quality of the field for the Rolex Series event itself and, on this occasion, the line up boasted 11 of the top 20 players as of last Monday in the Official World Golf Ranking. The field was spearheaded by back-to-back Masters champion McIlroy and also included Ryan Fox and Aaron Rai, two other majors winners this year in The Open and PGA Championship respectively, and, wow, was that a tasty group on the opening two days.

With the main part of the PGA Tour season now being done and dusted, a strong US contingent included the likes of J.J. Spaun - we’ll come to how the week ended for last year’s US Open champion - as well as Alex Smalley, Bud Cauley and Ryan Gerard while Adam Scott still has that wonderful capacity to light up any tournament he tees up in.

Wentworth week can be strange. Just ask Jon Rahm, who was trying on every single shot yet ended up having two of the worst days of his career as he shot rounds of 78-77 to finish last out of the 138 players to complete the opening 36 holes. Tommy Fleetwood, too, made a rare early exit.

It also wouldn’t have been a huge surprise if Spaniard Manuel Elvira, the world No 294 and chasing the first win of his professional career, had claimed the title on the strength of the likes of Andrew Oldcorn, Scott Drummond and Simon Khan landing what were shock successes at the time. Alas, it wasn’t to be for Elvira and, boy, was his last-hole double-bogey 7 painful to watch. Extremely costly for him, too, as a birdie would have seen him earn €1.3 million and he ended up with €520,211 for a four-way tie for second.

In Spaun, the event got another great winner and it was an absolute joy to listen to the Californian talk in his post-tournament press conference about a wide variety of things, including his wife’s obsession with Jeremy Clarkson but, way more interestingly, how he wants to become a “guy who has won across the world” and is hoping this is just the start of a global golfing “adventure”.

It is important, of course, that players fighting to hang on to DP World Tour cards are taken into account when it comes to the new global series and hats off to allowing six players, including David Law, to tee up last week through the introduction of a two-tee start. They certainly can’t be forgotten in ongoing talks, but, if last week is indeed a taste of what could be in store at this time of the year going forward, then bring it on.