Golf
BMW PGA Championship preview: Billy Ho is Worth a go
The DP World Tour hops back over the Irish Sea this week for the BMW PGA Championship, with a handful of golf’s finest on show.
The tournament jumped around in its early years but has settled at Wentworth Club in Surrey since 1984.
The Virginia Water course is a par-72 measuring 7,267 yards, with tree-lined fairways and fast greens. Accuracy will be paramount here with a host of dogleg holes.
The Irish Open threw up a heartbreaking climax for Rory McIlroy – not his first of the season – but he returns here as the outright favourite and we’re taking him on with two selections who we think could go well this week.
Billy Horschel 16/1
Americans aren’t often the go-to selections on the DP World Tour as the best of them tend to stick to the PGA, but Billy Horschel has been right up there this season and he heads to Wentworth with every chance.
Horschel has had a year to remember with seven T10 or better finishes to his name, with his victory at the Corales Puntacana Championship his crowning achievement so far in 2024. That was his eighth career win on the PGA Tour and his two on the DP World Tour mean he’s now hit double figures.
One of those was here back in 2021. That winning experience at Wentworth means it’s no surprise that he is as short as 16/1 this week, sitting fifth in the market. We feel that price is justified given his previous performances here, combined with his amazing ability.
His last performance on British soil was at the Open, where he led for some time and ended up finishing a very respectable fifth. His putter was hot on that occasion and, with Horschel ranking 21st in the world with the flatstick, it could be again here.
Not only has the American previously tasted victory in Virginia Water, but he is almost always there or thereabouts. Finishing in the 8 places available with William Hill will certainly be on his radar, with his T18 and T9 finishes here over the past two years suggesting he’ll be in the mix again.
Thriston Lawrence 35/1
Another man who has had a stellar year, and another who hails from outside Europe, is South African sensation Thriston Lawrence. The 27-year-old has truly come into his own in the past couple of seasons and is now a force to be reckoned with.
This won’t be his first time taking to Wentworth, but it hasn’t been a happy hunting ground for him so far. He appeared here in both 2022 and 2023, with his best finish being a T91. However, there is a different form line of his which catches our attention.
You only have to look back at previous winners Alex Noren, Danny Willett and Tyrrell Hatton to know that success at the Omega European Masters often produces another strong showing here.
Lawrence won the aforementioned Swiss tournament back in 2022 and finished a solid T27 there three weeks ago, so there’s no reason he shouldn’t be on the path to upping his game at the BMW PGA.
His 35/1 odds largely reflect the fact that he hasn’t been able to pull it off here so far in his career, but we’re in no doubt that his time will come. The stats show that his putting and scrambling are better than most, emphasised by his fourth-place finish at the Open – the ultimate test in those areas.
Finishing in the 8 places available with William Hill would be a massive step in the right direction for Lawrence and if he gets on a roll then there’s no reason why he can’t add a fifth DP World Tour title to his CV.
