BMW PGA Golf Championship Fixed Odds Betting Preview

This is arguably the biggest week of the golfing calendar for the European Tour, as its flagship event, the PGA Championship is staged at the wonderful West Course at Wentworth from Thursday. BMW have taken over the principle sponsorship from Volvo, but otherwise we can expect everything to be the same as we have become used to. By this we mean a fantastic and tough course, and a field of fine quality. For many this weekend signals the start of the summer, and it rarely fails to provide a thrilling conclusion.For an event of this stature, the list of recent winners is surprisingly low key. Last year Scott Drummond emerged from the pack to win by two after a stunning final day 64. It was his maiden victory and as well as the 625,000 Euros, the Scot also earned the kind of exemptions that would have been little more than a pipe dream as the event got under way. Prior to Drummond the last three Champions have been Ignacio Garrido, Anders Hansen and Andrew Hansen, all clearly fine players but not of the elite class one would expect to prevail.Before them this was fast becoming Colin Montgomerie's tournament, and the Scot will line up once more this week. Three successive wins between 1998 and 2000 give him a special place here, and the 41 year old has also played some decent golf this season. Five of nine European starts have seen top six results, and his arrow straight driving is perfectly suited to Wentworth.Last week the Tour visited one of his designs for the first time at Carton House for the Irish Open, and this added pressure appeared to tell, especially in the 3rd round, when he could only use a 4 letter word to describe his travails on route to a 75. The seven time Order of Merit Champion still came in with a solid top 30 however, and at 33/1 could well be worthy of a small each way bet this week.This is the third successive tournament to be held in the UK, after the British Masters and the Irish Open. The two men at the top of the betting lists missed both of these, but rarely miss out on a trip to Wentworth.Ernie Els and Retief Goosen have accounted for the last four Order of Merit's, and even with their not competing on this Tour very much at all to this point, they still sit in first and second on the list for this season.This will be Els's 6th European counting event, and two have been won already, including the BMW Asian Open last time out. This title has never gone his way, but with his main family home lying beside the 16th green it is clearly a course dear to his heart, as shown by his multiple successes in the World Match Play. There is an obvious case to be made for the world number three, but at 5/1 we are going to steer clear.Goosen is priced at 10/1, although he neither has accounted for this trophy as yet. His record is not great either with four missed cuts in the last seven years, although the other three have all yielded top 11's.Looking down the list, few men have an outstanding or consistent record at this Championship. Padraig Harrington looked in good touch in Ireland last week, but has a real phobia of Wentworth that has led to his non-participation for the last two years. Thomas Bjorn is another form player, but one top ten in ten attempts puts us off at 28/1.Luhe Donald is a man who is developing into a world class act, and at 16/1 may just be worth a punt this week. We were initially surprised to see his price offering as long as this, but then it came to our attention that he has never before played in the PGA, an astonishing fact.Whilst many will be put off by this point alone, we would like to draw attention to the Englishman also making his debut in another event this term, the US Masters. He proceeded to play superbly for three of four days, and finish third on a course with more intricacies than this one.His game is all round complete, with accuracy taking a precedent over distance, a ratio which tends to work well at the not excessively long Wentworth. Four European starts this term have all seen top 10's recorded, and in America, eight of nine outings have ended inside the top eighteen, including four top tens, and two runners up cheques.Of all the young English players trying to pus through, Donald is the cream of the crop, and he has the pedigree to be a very worthy winner this week.One man who did take no time at all to learn about Wentworth is Michael Campbell, as he finished 2nd on his maiden appearance in 1995. The New Zealander is priced at 80/1 this week, and this looks too long, especially considering a good run of form recently.Although the cut was missed at the tough Carton Manor for the Irish Open last week, three of four previous starts saw top 12 places, including 3rd at the Johnnie Walker Classic and 4th at the British Masters.The latter of these was most disappointing, as the 36 year old had taken a three shot lead into the final round but missed out on the playoff by one. However, his general play during the week illustrated that he certainly still has the game to win high quality events, despite having a couple of lean seasons, since last winning at the 2003 Irish Open.The key to his good scoring has been on the greens, and, with 28.5, he is hitting fewer putts per green that at any other stage of his career. Campbell is better than his world ranking of 91 suggests, and two 4th places here in the last four years further indicate a liking of the venue. This price looks too good to leave alone in our opinion.