Virginia Water, England | Imagine the scene. The English Simon Khan, who started the final round of the BMW PGA Championship Seven Shots behind the 54-HOLES leader Chris Wood 2010, has an exciting 6-under-par 66 to set a clubhouse goal that, although there are still seven groups to complete their rounds of the western course of the western course of the western course of the western course of the Westelijke Course course Of the western course of the western course of the West competitions, a winning total is already on a win.
Khan is blissfully in the zone until he has signed his card, after which he is sitting near the reach and looks with growing astonishment while the realization spends he is about to win.
His friends, who walked outside the ropes over the entire 18 holes, are even more surprised. One is in tears. Two are in an emotional hug. The partner of a fourth will find drinks in a doomed attempt to calm down collective nerves.
“We used to chase Seve Ballesteros on these fairways when we were all boys,” says a fifth, in which the high drama was explained. ‘Simon thought it was more great than all of us. That’s why he was here. We always wondered about the magic in the ropes, but Simon was a bit different. He was better than the rest of us at Golf, so he saw that magic and he wanted it a bit. here. I can’t believe he’s going to win Wentworth. It’s great. “A little later their friend’s triumph was confirmed and it was tears everywhere.
Until 1984, the BMW PGA championship was now nomadic. When it settled in this wealthy corner of Surrey, the European Tour was a little more than a decade old and ripening, Ballesteros was a big winner to become a big influencer, the European Ryder Cup team was on the edge of the revolution, a generation of golfers was ready to bloom, and the sport.
Wentworth, which organized the PGA championship under two previous title sponsors in May and the World Match Play Championship in October, became a Field of Dreams. Ballesteros walked around the Fairways and Greens, accompanied by Sandy Lyle, Nick Faldo, Ian Woosnam, Bernhard Longer and José María Olazábal.
Looking at those two tournaments on the BBC, with comments from Peter Alliss, was an equally important experience for Golffans as De Open in July. To actually enter that fairways, the greatest possible adventure for every junior golfer became the greatest possible adventure.
Remember that Wentworth has a castle for a clubhouse, which the West -Laan was sometimes mysteriously called the Burma Road, that it has a meandering route through magical forests with ponds, houses and paths hidden among the trees. Also consider that as a constant on the schedule there is an intimacy that other locations are missing.
For all these reasons it was made to dismiss the imagination. It could not have been better designed to act as the setting for golf fairy tales and Khan is far from only in a BMW PGA champion with a Wentworth background story.
When Matteo won Manassero from Italy in 2013, he revealed how he had worn out VHS tires of Ballesteros at Wentworth as a boy. His fellow countryman Francesco Molinari raised the trophy five years later and then remembered how he had raced home from school to view the victory of Costantino Rocca in 1996.
David Howell, Paul Casey, Luke Donald, Danny Willett and Tyrrell Hatton have all spoken about their lively memories of bullies for signatures, gloves and balls. In anticipation of the final round of his triumph in 2020, Hatton even posted a photo of himself on social media as a young person who was standing outside the ropes with a big grin on his face.
For some, the motivation used via television sets. When Matteo won Manassero from Italy in 2013, he revealed how he had worn out VHS tires of Ballesteros at Wentworth as a boy. His fellow countryman Francesco Molinari raised the trophy five years later and then remembered how he had raced home from school to view the victory of Costantino Rocca in 1996. Why had he been to school on the last day? Because the event was closed at the time on an English holiday on Monday – a somewhat stunned detail for a young Italian, but one who had anchored it in mind.
Even the Billy Horschel of Florida came by hand. He finished T4 on the debut behind Willett in 2019 and said: “I grew up watching this event on TV. It has a weak in my heart. I remember that Monty won three years in a row and there are also many other memories within it.”
Two years later he added to them by winning himself and made two victories in 2024.
Under this week’s field, the Englishman Aaron Rai has strong memories of visiting the tournament with his father when a toddler. At the time, he was a big fan of Ernie Els and followed his every movement on the Putten Green. The South African noticed and wandered around. “Are you a really cheerful giant?” Rai asked him. “Sometimes,” Els chuckled.
Tommy Fleetwood has his own Els story. “I was invited to a clinic on a practice day for the championship when I was 8,” he said. “There was a group of I don’t know how many children and he happened to make eye contact and talk to me. From that moment Ernie was my hero and he is still, actually.”
Rory McIlroy is another that has a bank with Wentworth memories.
“I came and looked here in 1999, 2000 and 2001 at the World Match Play Championship,” he said. “It was always during the school holidays, so my mother and dad would convey me. I would run twice on this golf course every day.
“I remember that Sam Torrance and Mark O’Meara threw my balls. I think I have such an affinity for this place because I had that experience as a child.”
And then he remembered how a young girl immediately broke out in happy tears when he had given her his ball during the Amgen Irish Open from last week, a moment that was caught on television.
“It is a very cool feeling because I just hands over her a ball, but what it can do for them is so much bigger,” said McIlroy, who eventually won the tournament in a play -off last Sunday. “If that makes them a fan of Golf for life or makes them want to play more, that’s really cool.”
Also consider the explosion of joy around the green when McIlroy exhausted his eagle putt in the 72nd hole in the K Club, especially among the many Junior golfers.
Perhaps an Irish open champion will look back on one day, just like so many BMW PGA Championship winners, and remember how much that experience has fueled his or her wish to pursue their hero.
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