A world-class field heads to Wentworth to contest the 60th running of the European Tour’s flagship event, the BMW PGA Championship, live on Sky Sports.
The tournament has produced some incredible drama down the years and one year ago it was Italy’s Matteo Manassero, aged 21, who became the youngest winner in the event’s history.
Manassero’s tense and dramatic play-off victory over Simon Khan and Marc Warren ensured the Italian joined some of the greats of European golf in lifting one of the most important trophies in the sport.
As well as being the 60th running of the PGA Championship, Wentworth’s West Course is staging the tournament for the 30th consecutive year and this year, as ever, will feature some of the best players in the world including Rory McIlroy, Justin Rose and Ernie Els.
This year Luke Donald, the champion in 2011 and 2012, will be looking to become only the fifth player in history to win the event three times or more.
If successful, he would join Sir Nick Faldo, a four-time winner, and triple Wentworth PGA champions Colin Montgomerie, Bernhard Langer and Peter Alliss.
The PGA Championship at Wentworth has once again attracted a field worthy of its status as the European Tour’s flagship event.
Comprising of Ryder Cup heroes and major champions, Rory McIlroy, Henrik Stenson, Justin Rose, Lee Westwood, Sergio Garcia, Luke Donald, Ian Poulter and Martin Kaymer will all be in action this week.
The only notable omission from this stellar field of European golf’s biggest names is Graeme McDowell, who has stayed at home in Florida as his wife is expecting their first child this summer.
The PGA Championship is just one of two events to be held in England this year – the other, the Open Championship at Hoylake – and, appropriately, it has a history of producing homegrown winners.
Englishmen Tony Jacklin, Peter Oosterhuis and Maurice Bembridge won the first three PGA Championships at Wentworth from 1972 to 1974.
After a nine-year break, when it was played at Royal St George’s, Royal Birkdale, St Andrews, Ganton and Hillside, the return to Wentworth saw another home-soil winner as Howard Clark took the trophy in 1984.
That tradition has been to the fore again in recent times with Luke Donald in 2011 and 2012, Simon Khan in 2010 and Paul Casey in 2009 giving English golfers four wins in the last five years.
Another exciting PGA Championship is expected to play out as Europe’s finest go head-to-head and Sky Sports will be screening all four days exclusively live on Sky Sports from May 22-25, while free-to-air highlights of the final two rounds will be broadcast on BBC Two.
LIVE LEADERBOARD TEE TIMES COURSE GUIDE
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Sky Sports will broadcast the 2014 BMW PGA Championship exclusively live with 28 hours of action from the famous West Course at Wentworth.
David Livingstone will present live coverage throughout all four days from a studio overlooking the first tee and the iconic Wentworth clubhouse.
Ewen Murray and Bruce Critchley will lead the commentary team alongside Mark Roe, Steve Beddow and Richard Boxall.
Regular Sky Sports analyst Paul McGinley will be playing at Wentworth during the week and he will also pop into the commentary at various times during the tournament.
Howard Clark and Wayne Riley will provide on-course updates, while further reports and interviews with the key players will come from Tim Barter.
In addition to the extensive live output across the four days, there will also be a special preview show on Wednesday afternoon presented by Sarah Stirk live from the West Course, where she will be joined by golfing legend Tony Jacklin.
All of Sky Sports’ extensive coverage will be available to watch online via Sky Go, plus there will be live text commentaries and leaderboards via skysports.com/golf.
There is also live updates, opinion and behind-the-scenes photographs from the course courtesy of @SkySportsGolf on Twitter.
As part of its current six-year deal with the European Tour, Sky Sports will screen more live play from the tournament than ever before, extending on the previous arrangement from 2009 to 2012 when the broadcaster covered only the first two days live.
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BBC Sport will screen free-to-air highlights of the final two rounds of the 2014 PGA Championship at Wentworth.
Hazel Irvine introduces all the best moments from the European Tour’s flagship event over the weekend in two one-hour programmes on BBC Two and BBC Two HD.
Both will be broadcast at 6.00pm on Saturday and Sunday evening, ensuring fans can see the best action just minutes after play has concluded.
An additional two-hour review show featuring extended highlights of the final two rounds will be shown on Monday lunchtime at 11.30am.
Commentary and analysis comes from the usual BBC golf team led by former PGA Championship winner Peter Alliss, with Ken Brown and Andrew Cotter alongside him.
All of BBC Two’s highlights shows will also be available to watch on-demand via the BBC iPlayer for up to seven days after transmission.
Live leaderboard updates, news, video highlights and interviews will be made available via the BBC Sport website.
In addition, BBC Two will also broadcast a special documentary focusing on young British women’s golfing sensation Charley Hull prior to its final round PGA Championship highlights show on Sunday at 5.30pm.
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