Just a few more hours left for the 2024 BMW PGA Championship to tee off. Yes… That’s right! The upcoming edition of the DP World Tour Flagship event will soon kick off on September 19. But such an iconic event needs an equally iconic venue to handle its worth. Cue the entry of the Wentworth Club in England, the venue that would host the 144-player field for the $10,008,841.14 (€9,000,000) tournament.

There are a total of three courses at Wentworth Club, the East and the West layouts alongside the Edinburgh Course, as per the official documents. The first two of the three were designed in the early 1920s by the legendary architect Harry Colt while the latter was done so by the likes of Gary Player, John Jacobs, and Bernard Gallacher.

Out of the three, the DP World Tour event will tee off at the West Course. And the like of Ernie Els has tweaked the layout at the same many times over the last eight years or so. As a result, the 7,247-yard now boasts SubAir Technology to keep the greens firm throughout the year while the routing at the course is a circular loop through a forested neighborhood.

Now, iconic as it seems, there’s a lot more tradition associated with the history of the grounds. Remember the 1927 Ryder Cup? Yes, exactly! It’s the first-ever official edition of the biennial tournament that pitted the American teams with the European squad. Well, the event originated from an International Match that was held at the venue of the upcoming BMW PGA Championship. That’s why it’s been dubbed the “Birthplace of the Ryder Cup!”

A lot of golfers, meanwhile, have experienced success at the venue of the 2024 BMW PGA Championship. And it seems as if the course has a special liking for the European Ryder Cup heroes, including Bernhard Langer, Nick Faldo, Seve Ballesteros, and Rory McIlroy, among others. All of them have won here at least once, with the Northern Irishman clinching the win at the same upcoming tournament, but back in its 2014 edition.

Rory McIlroy headlines the 2024 BMW PGA Championship

The 35-year-old had won the event for the first time a decade back when he beat Shane Lowry by one stroke to clinch his sixth DP World Tour victory. Fast forward 10 years and he hopes to come back to his winning ways as McIlroy tees off at the BMW PGA Championship following a T2 finish at the Amgen Irish Open.

“Hopefully the tide is going to turn pretty soon,” conveyed the golfer with hope as he added, “And I can turn all these close calls into victories.” Surprisingly enough, the T2 at Royal County Down was his seventh top 5 finish this year, which included an unfortunate runner-up placement at the 2024 U.S. Open as well (we can’t forget that now, can we?!). Will Rory McIlroy clinch a win this week? His fans would certainly hope so!