For someone who counts Wentworth as his home course and has made the World Match Play title something of his own in recent years, there is one glaring absentee on Ernie Els’ cv.

Els has swept all before him on the West Course on his way to a record seven HSBC World Match Play titles – the last victory coming courtesy of an impressive 6&4 defeat of US Open champion Angel Cabrera last October, which led to him declaring he wished he could take the venue with him on tour every week.

He was even called in to carry out a re-design of Harry Colt’s classic lay-out in 2005, but ‘The Big Easy’ has found winning the BMW PGA Championship, on the course his home borders, an altogether tougher proposition.

On three occasions early in his career, Els was unlucky to find one player too good but, in more recent times, he has struggled to come close to rivalling his matchplay exploits and has failed to finish in the top 10 the last three years. After an encouraging start to
the new season on both sides of the Atlantic though, the ultra laid-back South African will arrive at Wentworth next month hopeful that 2008 will finally be the year he breaks his PGA duck.

Els has had his wobbles along the way – and it will be interesting to see what damage his last-hole collapse at December’s Alfred Dunhill Championship will have done in the long run – but his victory at the Honda Classic in February provided a major boost to his confidence as he ended a three-year wait for a win on the PGA Tour.

If Els is to win though, he will have to overcome competition from one of the year’s strongest fields at the European Tour’s own version of their American counterparts’ Players’ Championship. The tournament, which runs from May 22-25, always attracts a star-studded line-up, but competition promises to be fiercer than ever as September’s Ryder Cup at Valhalla begins to loom into view. Last year‘s winner, Dane Anders Hansen, proved how crucial victory in the BMW PGA Championship can be as he leapt from 262nd all the way up to ninth in the European Order of Merit standings, with his sudden-death defeat of Justin Rose, and a win on the Burma Road will go a long way to clinching a place in European captain Nick Faldo’s team.

Last season’s Order of Merit winner, Rose, Open champion Padraig Harrington and European Ryder Cup stalwarts Lee Westwood and Henrik Stenson are all well-placed to make Faldo’s final cut and will be seeking high finishes to further enhance their credentials.

By his own admission, 2007 was a year to forget for Luke Donald but the Englishman has started the new season with added vigour and will be eager to win in front of his home crowd. Angel Cabrera, champion in 2005, and Spaniard Miguel Angel Jimenez both have excellent records at the tournament in recent years and are expected to give good accounts of themselves while there would be few more popular
winners than Wentworth professional Ross Fisher following his disastrous final round 84 last year having led after three days.