BMW PGA Championship, a Ryder Cup trial

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The 12 European players of the Ryder Cup in Rome, as well as the captain and four of the five vice-captains, compete in the BMW PGA Championship, a tournament of the Rolex Series of the DP World Tour which reached its 69th edition this year.

From 14 to 17 September in England, at Virginia Water, there will be six of the best fifteen in the world competing.

BMW PGA Championship, schedule

From the Northern Irishman Rory McIlroy (second) to the Spaniard Jon Rahm (third), from the Norwegian Viktor Hovland (fourth), to the English Matt Fitzpatrick (eighth), Tyrrell Hatton (thirteenth) and Tommy Fleetwood (fourteenth).

These are the most anticipated stars of one of the most important events of the highest men's continental circuit which will also see the presence of three Italians: with the Molinari brothers, Francesco (he took up the competition in 2018, five years after Matteo Manassero and 22 after Costantino Rocca) and Edoardo, both among the vice-captains of the Europe team at the Ryder Cup in Rome (29 September - 1 October on the course of the Marco Simone Golf & Country Club), Guido Migliozzi will also be there.

Defending the title is the Irishman Shane Lowry, also in the continental team in the Eternal City. As regards the Europe team, in addition to those already mentioned, in England there will also be room for the British Justin Rose, the Scotsman Robert MacIntyre, the Austrian Sepp Straka, the Dane Nicolai Hojgaard and the Swede Ludvig Aberg.

And again: for captain Luke Donald (winner of the BMW PGA Championship in both 2016 and 2017), the Belgian Nicolas Colsaerts and the Dane Thomas Bjorn, vice-captains with the Molinari and the Spaniard Josè Maria Olazabal (the only one absent at Wentworth).

After testing the Marco Simone Golf & Country Club course, the Europeans flew to England for a Ryder Cup dress rehearsal. The BMW PGA Championship will offer a prize pool of 9,000,000 dollars, the highest ever on the 2023 circuit after the DP World Tour Championship (10,000,000 dollars).

The competition, named after the trophy donated by Englishman Samuel Ryder (1858–1936) to the American federation in 1924, is co-managed by the European Tour and the PGA of America. From 1927 to 1971 the tournament took place between the selection of the United States and that of Great Britain, with a clear American dominance (15-3) and only one draw.

Ireland was incorporated into Great Britain in 1973 and the rest of continental Europe in 1979. Following the acceptance of the European team as an antagonist of the US team, the tournament was much more balanced: from 1979 to 2018, in fact, there were eleven successes for Europe, eight for the United States and only one draw.