The BMW PGA Championship was originally played each May, on the weekend of the UK's
Spring Bank Holiday, over the West Course at the
Wentworth Club in
Surrey,
England. The tournament switched to September in 2019 as part of a revamp of the golfing calendar in which the US
PGA Championship moved to May. The PGA European Tour has its headquarters at the club and as the tour's home tournament, the BMW PGA Championship is often regarded as the flagship event on the European Tour. It previously had the highest prize money of any event which the tour organises, but this changed in 2009 with the introduction of the Race to Dubai, and the $10 million
Dubai World Championship at the end of the season. There are other more lucrative events than the BMW PGA Championship which are part of the European Tour schedule, such as the
majors and the
World Golf Championship events, but these are organised by other bodies. It is also the European Tour's designated "Premier event" for the purposes of the
Official World Golf Rankings, with a minimum of 64 ranking points available to the winner. The winner of the tournament is given an exemption into that season's
U.S. Open and the next three
Open Championships. In 2000,
Colin Montgomerie became the only player to win three years in a row. In 2021,
Billy Horschel became only the second American to win the event, the first since
Arnold Palmer in 1975.
Attendance In 2024, the event attracted 114,000 spectators. ==Winners==