Pádraig: Long road until BMW earns Major status

The crowds will be big and the world’s top three golfers, Luke Donald, Rory McIlroy and Lee Westwood, headline the €4.5m tournament, but for all the prestige surrounding the BMW PGA Championship, the European Tour’s flagship event is very much a parochial affair.

Only last year, Westwood called this tournament the fifth Major when he said: “The BMW PGA Championship is the biggest title I play for outside of the Majors. It’s bigger than the World Golf Championships because of what the tournament represents for us as the European Tour.”

Yet, according to Pádraig Harrington, this week’s event is a long way off Major status and the lack of big-name Americans and US PGA Tour regulars in the field is significant black mark against such claims, despite the presence of 13 other Major champions this week, including Americans Ben Curtis, Rich Beem and Shaun Micheel.