The BMW PGA Championship Being Shortened To 54 Holes Is Irony In Its Highest Form
DP World Tour - This follows the immediate suspension of play on Thursday evening and the complete cancellation of all day’s play on Friday, both actions taken in memory of the passing of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II and out of respect for the Royal Family.
The decision to restart on Saturday has been taken in accordance with Official National Mourning guidance and in consultation with the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS).
The Wentworth event will give players, caddies, staff, volunteers and spectators the opportunity to come together across the weekend, not only to express their condolences but also to celebrate the extraordinary life of Her Majesty.
We join other sports in doing this, including the Men’s Test Match between England and South Africa at The Oval and the Women’s IT20 match between England and India in County Durham, Premiership Rugby Union, Rugby League and the Great North Run in the north east of England.
The second round of the BMW PGA Championship will resume at 6.40am on Saturday morning and all original second round tee times will remain the same. Those players who are yet to complete their first round will do so from 7.30am onwards from the place on the golf course where they stopped on Thursday afternoon.
The Rolex Series event will now be contested over 54 holes with the intention to finish on Sunday as scheduled. It is not possible to play the full 72 holes and finish on Monday as we cannot guarantee the staff, facilities or security of the venue on Monday due to the on-going plans for the state funeral.
Somewhere Greg Norman is cackling. Or at least I assume he is. Guy doesn't strike me as a big Queen fella.
I've mentioned a couple times this week on this here website that the BMW PGA is a HUGE event on the European circuit. In terms of events that are theirs and theirs only (aka not co-sanctioned with the PGA Tour), it's THE biggest. It produces a great field every year, which is why so many LIV golfers have decided to play it. The stronger a field is, the more Official World Golf Ranking points are up for grabs, and most of those guys need them bad to play majors moving forward.
All of this is to say that the DP World Tour vs. LIV Golf saga was a major talking point all week. The two groups intermingling in this tournament stirred up a ton of discussion and a little bit of drama too. We had Billy Horschel and Ian Poulter having their little chat on Tuesday
That was maybe contentious, maybe not... but we do know for a fact that Rory brought some heat in a pre-tournament presser. Rors absolutely roasted the LIV guys by saying 72 holes might be a little too much for those guys.
Which is where the irony really sets in now that they're playing 54 holes. Egg all over Rory's face. All over the DP World Tour's face too, despite them being the ones who made the decision.
Perhaps that begs the question… is the death of the queen really worth canceling (or shortening) sporting events over? My guy D-Rap doesn't seem to think so and I gotta say I agree with him.
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No disrespect but isn't this what 96 year olds do? They die? Either way I'd like to think that she'd want the show to go on. Everybody always talked about how much Queen E loved her 72 holes. "54 holes is so unbecoming" said the queen on many occasions.
But it is what it is. We've got a 54-hole tournament on our hands with big time OWGR points up for grabs and that's ironic as hell.