Golf Events / Bill Elliott / 21 May 2008 /

Bill Elliott's been on the ground at Wentworth watching the build-up to the BMW PGA Championship, he even played in the pro-am. Read his insight here

Few stages in the big-time golf world are better dressed than Wentworth's West Course for the BMW PGA Championship. Here, as much as anywhere I know, is a place well worth strutting one's stuff on.

For this thanks should be given to BMW for not only throwing large amounts of money at this championship but spending it wisely and with class and the greenkeeping mastermind at Wentworth, Chris Kennedy, for his genius with the green stuff.

Ten days ago I played the West. It was, as ever, brilliant, but the greens were a bit dodgy and the pace was slow even by my timid standards. This week I had another go, this time in the pre-tournament pro-am, and the difference was as emphatic as when your lady takes her time getting ready and then slips coolly into that thin-strapped black dress.

This time those greens were electrifying. Quick and true, they now require the careful strategy of a brain surgeon facing a particularly challenging procedure. The big boys know that at Wentworth this week they not only will have their talent tested they will have their nerve-ends exposed to public scrutiny.

This is as it should be in what now is unquestionably the European Tour's flagship event. The only stars not studded into the field are Open champion Padraig Harrington, whose extraordinary decision not to turn up still makes me fidget in agitation and Sergio Garcia who has a problem with the tax situation in this country. Mind you, so do I and I live here. Oh and Ian Poulter's also missing although I've no idea why. Maybe he is on a naturist holiday.

But the rest are here, a stellar cast list headed by the likes of US Open champ Angel Cabrera who won this title a few years ago when conditions were similar to today, Justin Rose, who lost a play-off last year, Vijay Singh, who is injured and therefore more dangerous than usual, Henrik Stenson, who has been poorly sick and so will be in the hunt inevitably, and everyone else from Ernie Els, Lee Westwood, Luke Donald and Darren Clarke to former champion Anders Hansen.

I played with Hansen in the pro-am but it was the other one, Soren, not Anders. Of course one of the amateurs in our group congratulated him on his win last year but to his credit Soren smilingly replied that he was a different Dane. Then he added that it is always happening. At Sawgrass two weeks ago - Soren finished 40th - his picture was placed above Anders' bio in the programme, a cock-up that was reversed out in Dubai last year.

The 'real' Hansen has won just twice on the Euro Tour and each time it has been this PGA Championship. Soren, meanwhile, has also won twice, the 2002 Irish Open and the Mercedes Benz Championship last year. Either has the length and the patience to do well again this time but every time I gaze into my crystal ball - well, okay, a glass of chilled white wine - I keep seeing Cabrera's face.

The burly Argentine loves the West Course and, usually, this Harry Colt classic loves him right back. He says he is playing good and he had the look of a man on a mission when our paths crossed pre-tournament. The other fact about Angel is that he is a golfer who plays either very, very good or absent-mindedly awful. There is rarely anything in between. His game is straight out of the John Daly Grip-It-And-Rip-It coaching manual.

Almost exactly a year ago when he won the US Open he did so on a mixed diet of Cokes and Marlboros - another Daly tip then - but since then he has quit the weed and not managed to win anything of significance. Maybe he should return to the bad, old nicotine stained days. It's worth considering if only for this week because, sometimes anyway, a man needs to take a packet to win a packet. Watch this space...

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