Fantasy Golf Preview: BMW PGA Championship

In contrast to years gone by, the European Tour makes just one visit to English soil in 2013 with the flagship BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth.

The event has thrown up a list of prestigious winners down the years, including a four-year winning streak for Englishman thanks to Luke Donald (2012 and 2011), Simon Khan (2010) and Paul Casey (2009).

With three of the top four in the betting being English (Donald, Lee Westwood and Justin Rose), it could easily extend to five this week.

When picking your fantasy team for this double points event, you need to bear in mind a strong trend of past winners contending, such as Donald’s title defence last year, 2010 winner Simon Khan finishing second back in 2006 and Paul Casey was 10th the year before his 2009 win.

Going back further, 2008 champion Miguel Angel Jimenez was fifth and third in the two previous runnings, 2007 winner Anders Hansen had won this event in 2002 while David Howell was fourth in 2005 before winning 12 months later.

Bearing this in mind, here is our team:

Rory McIlroy £5.5m

After his woeful start to the year, McIlroy has started to build a decent bank of results and an eighth at Sawgrass made it four top-10s in his last six starts. The world number two has teed it up in this event five times, including a fifth place in 2009 when he carded a 65 in round three.

Graeme McDowell £3m

The Northern Irishman won last week last week’s Volvo World Match Play Championship in Bulgaria to make it two wins in three starts. His best efforts at Wentworth are a 13th and 27th.

Martin Kaymer £2.5m

The German came alive again last week with four rounds in the 60s to finish fifth at the Byron Nelson Championship in Texas. He’s been a regular in the BMW since his debut in 2007 and has three top-16s in his last five starts. 

Chris Wood £1.4m

Wood was the 54-hole leader here in 2010 before slipping away to sixth but for three rounds he showed how well he could perform. The Englishman shook off some rust in Bulgaria last week so should be a nice mix of match-fit and fresh.
 
Ross Fisher £1.3m

Another Englishman who should contend is Fisher, who finished tied 10th in the hotly-contested Wells Fargo Championship at Quail Hollow, where he was second in greens in regulation. Hit putting hasn’t been great, but he grew up playing Wentworth as an amateur so knows these greens better than most.

Dave Horsey £0.6m

Horsey is one of in-form men on the European Tour after finishes of fourth (Open de Espana), second (Trophee Hassan II in Morocco) and sixth (Avantha Masters in India) in his last three starts. Horsey also has Wentworth form in the shape of a seventh place in 2011.

You have until 7:00am Thursday morning to change you team, to see the provisional field, click here.