Wentworth (West Course): A Venue Profile for the BMW PGA Championship

The BMW PGA Championship is the DP World Tour's flagship, and the West Course at Wentworth in Virginia Water, Surrey, is the stage it has been played on for decades. If you are going to understand who tends to win here, it helps to understand the ground itself.

The bones of the course

The West Course is a Harry Colt design that opened in 1926, playing to a par of 72 at roughly 7,284 yards. It is classic English parkland: tree-lined, undulating, with a premium on keeping the ball in position off the tee rather than simply overpowering it. Colt's routing has always asked players to think, not just swing hard.

What Ernie Els changed

Wentworth's most decorated resident, seven-time World Match Play champion Ernie Els, has reshaped the West over the past two decades. The first major renovation landed in 2010: he lengthened the layout, recontoured the greens and rebuilt the bunkering. Ahead of the 2017 event every putting surface was stripped and re-seeded with creeping bentgrass, and a sub-air system was installed underneath to keep the greens firm and quick. The result is a course that still looks like Colt's but plays a good deal more demanding around the greens than it used to.

The finish that decides it

Wentworth's back nine is where the tournament is usually won or lost, and it is built around two reachable par 5s. The 17th tempts players into going for it in two, and the 18th — a risk-and-reward par 5 guarded by water short of the green — has produced some of the DP World Tour's most dramatic closing moments. An eagle or a double can arrive on either hole, which is why leads here are rarely safe until the final putt drops.

What kind of player it suits

Because the closing stretch offers up birdies and eagles to those brave enough, Wentworth tends to reward accurate, confident iron players who can attack the par 5s while keeping the ball out of trouble off the tee. Recent champions bear that out: Danny Willett (2019), Tyrrell Hatton (2020), Billy Horschel (2021 and again 2024), Shane Lowry (2022), Ryan Fox (2023), and Alex Noren, who came through a sudden-death playoff in 2025 with a birdie on the par-5 last. A mix of major winners and relentless ball-strikers, but all comfortable on a course that asks for precision under pressure.

See ProPlace's full field analysis for the DP World Tour. Seven-day free trial, no card required.

Doug Dinwiddie — Founder of ProPlace. Former DP World Tour caddie.

ProPlace is a statistical research product for golf covering the DP World Tour and PGA Tour, not a tipster or a bookmaker. 18+. Please gamble responsibly — BeGambleAware.org.