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Featured Sport News

European Tour kicks into gear

Author: Lynda Collins
Date: 19/05/2009

European golf betting experts can turn their attentions towards a summer of top-class action as this week's BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth kicks off a high-profile series of events this side of the Atlantic.

America, with its WGC events, Masters and Players' Championship, dominates the opening third of the golf calendar until the European Tour returns to familiar ground at its famous Surrey headquarters in the last week of May.

The PGA Championship - which has acquired the BMW sponsorship in recent years - is the flagship event of the European Tour.

The European Open, The Celtic Manor Wales Open, BMW International in Germany and Barclays Scottish Open at the picturesque Loch Lomond will all come thick and fast before the Open Championship gets underway at Turnberry on July 16.

The Open aside, the PGA Championship is the most high-profile of an exclusive group of events and the quality of the tournament is marked in the 4.5million euro purse which will be up for grabs over Wentworth's famous West Course.

The list of winners of the event reads like a who's who of European golf as Nick Faldo, Seve Ballesteros, Ian Woosnam, Bernhard Langer, Jose Maria Olazabal and Colin Montgomerie have all triumphed since the event began back in 1972.

What's more, Faldo, Ballesteros, Langer and Olazabal all won the Masters at Augusta before going on to secure victory in this event.

Arnold Palmer and Tony Jacklin were also among early winners just to underline the esteem the players hold this tournament in.

More recently, Angel Cabrera won in 2005 before the Argentinian embarked on his two Major wins in the US, while enduring tour favourite Miguel Angel Jimenez picked up one of the biggest cheques of his career after winning 12 months ago.

This year both will be joined in the field by a glut of Major winners with Ben Curtis, John Daly, Retief Goosen, Michael Campbell, Ernie Els, Paul Lawrie and Olazabal all set to tee it up.

Factor into the mix the exciting young talents of Northern Ireland's Rory McIlroy and German Martin Kaymer, in-form Swedes Henrik Stenson and Robert Karlsson, plus home favourites Ian Poulter, Lee Westwood and Paul Casey, and all the ingredients are there for another historic chapter in this most storied of tournaments.

Stenson is the clear favourite in the golf betting stakes, while one to watch could be Ross Fisher as the Englishman will be playing on his home course.

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