Schwartzel became the third South African to claim a coveted Green Jacket at Augusta in April and said, ” Winning at Augusta was a dream come true and, without question, the highlight of my career, and I am really looking forward to coming to Wentworth next month as the Masters champion,‚ said Schwartzel. “I finished tied sixth in the tournament in 2009 and in the top 20 last year, so it is obviously a tournament and a golf course that I really like. It goes without saying that I will be trying my best to add the BMW PGA Championship trophy to my Green Jacket”.

Louis Oosthuizen, a fellow South African, will be hoping to reproduce the form he showed when winning The Open Championship at St Andrews last July. If either of the player’s win they would be the first South African to hold the BMW PGA Championship title.

The current World No 1 Martin Kaymer finished in the top 20 in both 2008 and 2009 at Wentworth. After a nail biting play off at Whistling Straits last August to win the US PGA Championship, the experience he gained there could be useful as he tries to add the BMW PGA Championship to his list.

Graeme Mcdowell who won his first Major’s title in the US Open Championship at Pebble Beach last June will be hoping to improve on his 2009 position at Wentworth when he tied in 13th place. McDowell and Kaymer are part of the 12 strong European Ryder Cup team who will be reunited at Wentworth. The team will be meeting up for the first time since their victory over the U.S. at The Celtic Manor resort last year.

This years BMW PGA Championship will boast many of the worlds best players and Championship Director, Jamie Birkmyre said “The BMW PGA Championship has always delivered the best in golf and this year, with the holders of all four Major Championships teeing up for the first time, I can guarantee that the thousands of spectators who will come to Wentworth this year will be in for a true golfing treat”. “All of us who follow the European Tour were thrilled when Graeme, Louis, Martin and now Charl became Major champions for the first time, and they know they will be accorded a hero’s welcome when they tee up on the West Course”.

The very recent sad and premature death of inspirational golfer Seve Ballesteros will be in the minds of many players and fans as the golf gets under way and fittingly the Championships chosen charity for this year is the Seve Ballesteros Foundation. The Foundation, which is partnered with Cancer Research UK ,helps fund world class research into cancers of the brain.

The BMW PGA Championship runs from May 26th to May 29th, all four days will be broadcast live on BBC and Sky Sports, with extensive highlights on both channels. A great treat and opportunity for all golf fans to watch one of the strongest fields on the European Tour.

On the opening day in Augusta, he surged clear of the field on day one after shooting a seven-under-par 65 and was later joined by Alvaro Quiros at the top of the leaderboard, putting him straight to top of the bookies favourites list.

Despite such a positive start, there are fears that history may repeat itself. McIlroy went two strokes better when taking the lead of the Open at St. Andrews last July but then slumped to a second-round 80 when the wind worsened.

However, speaking after his flawless round on Thursday, McIlroy said he now feels better prepared to deal with adversity. “At the time, it was very disappointing,” he said of his second-round collapse at St. Andrews. “But looking back, it was probably very valuable in my progression as a golfer. I hope it will help me,” he said. “I have that experience to draw on, especially being in a similar position to last year at St. Andrews.”

“I feel like I’m better prepared to tee off in the second round of a major with the lead.”

All the big names will be out in force – Tiger Woods, Lee Westwood, Phil Mickelson, Dustin Johnson and Rory Mcilroy to name but a few. With nearly 100 golfers in action the odds are just as varied and range from as short as 13/2 for Phil Mickelson, who is looking for his fourth win in seven years, right the way through to 1000/1 for Craig Stadler.

Only five Europeans have won the US Masters in the last 20 years and, in fact, you have to go back to 1999 for the last one – José María Olazábal from Spain. And despite his earlier airplane scare, Lee Westwood looks very good to threaten to bring the title back home this year.

If he does, he’ll be the first English golfer to win since Nick Faldo in 1996! He’s currently at around 16/1 with Justin Rose and Paul Casey both around the 35/1 odds.

Paddy Power Bookmakers are offering an incredible payout to 6 places so your each-way bet will go a long way there.

And adding insult to injury, he’s also been playing poorly. But, the Arnold Palmer Invitational may just be the ticket to see Tiger Woods back to his winning ways, he hopes!

All the top guys are going to be there so competition is fierce but Tiger could be about to get his 7th win in the tournament confounding his critics who say he’s just not up to par yet. The tournament, held at Arnold Palmer’s Bay Hill Club & Lodge in Orlando, Florida is in full swing with bookmaker odds changing all the time. Rickie Fowler, Lee Janzen and John Senden lead the pack but odds on Tiger just keep getting shorter. Paddy Power Bookmakers are offering 7/1 on him and seeing as they will pay out on places 1, 2, 3 and 4 this could be a very good each-way bet.

One things for sure though, with the US Masters 2011 only around the corner a lot of guys have a lot to prove if they want to stay in contention for the big prize later this year!

The sign has incurring the wrath of Celtic Manor Resort owner who demanded it be pulled down immediately, the sign is the same one that appeared on a hill behind the famous Cheltenham racecourse during this years festival.

Paddy respond to criticism from the Celtic Manor owners on this blog. “Paddy Power has issued an eloquent defence of the bookmaker’s guerrilla marketing tactics. Sir Terry labelled Mr. Power “scum” after attempting to build a 150ft sign on a hill overlooking the Ryder Cup venue. Prior to an appearance on an episode of The Jeremy Kyle Show entitled ‘I Steal Money From Orphans’, Power took a moment to angrily hit out at suggestions that he’s any sort of morally bankrupt lowlife.

Head of the Paddy Power Causing A Row And Enjoying Corporate Hospitality Department, Paddy Power retorted “Yeah but, no but, yeah but, we wasn’t even done nuffink and wasn’t even on that hill. Besides Melissa Harris says she gave Tiger a blowie up the R and now she’s up the duff. Anyway, he’s not even my favourite Sir Terry.”

I think it’s brilliant that Paddy Power has the balls to try and gain publicity from these major sporting events. I wonder which event will be next? – would you be surprised to know you can get odds on that over at Paddy Power Bookmakers!

As for the Ryder Cup Paddy Power are so confident that Europe will win this weekend and have already paid out to all punters who backed the Europeans prior to last Sunday night at a cost of around £100,000.

Currently the only real value in the Ryder Cup betting is on the size of the European margin of victory, see odds below.

Ryder Cups have always been about teamwork. It was almost unanimously accepted that Europe had better mastered the art of building camaraderie than the more individualistic Americans. Much of which must come down to the captaincy. Most famously in 2004, with Europe starting as 3.5 outsiders, US captain Hal Sutton’s simplistic tactic of pairing arch-enemies Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson on the opening morning backfired spectacularly. Under the leadership of the more calculating Bernhard Langer, Europe went on to win by a huge nine point margin.

Last time at Valhalla, the formbook again proved irrelevant. Layers made Europe favourites for the first time ever away from home, yet an ordinary US side took their revenge. I doubt it was pure coincidence that their side was without Woods, never known as a team-player or for his passion in this competition. Nor that Europe had their least convincing captain of the modern era in Nick Faldo.

Does this mean the US will overcome their current inferiority? It certainly means they shouldn’t be daunted by their opponents’ superior rankings, domination of majors and to some extent, the PGA Tour. They can also take heart from emphatic victories in the last two Presidents Cups, suggesting they are finally learning the art of team golf.

Back outsiders in the final-day singles, especially for the home side
Those equalising trends have long been evident in all forms of matchplay, as seen by frequent shock results in the annual World Matchplay events. Over the years in the Ryder Cup, backing the outsider of two in final day singles matches has paid dividends. Blindly backing the outsider for level stakes in each match would have yielded an overall profit over the past decade. Out of the 12 matches, there are always at least a couple of shocks at well over 3.0, which together cover more than half the total layout.

The biggest upset in 2008 was Ben Curtis toppling Lee Westwood. Looking further back, Phil Price’s victory at around 4.5 over Phil Mickelson at The Belfry in 2002 and Constantino Rocca’s victory over Tiger at Valderrama in 1997 are remembered as two of the competition’s great upsets.

Note the clue; all three of those upsets were achieved by a home player. Matchplay is a great leveller in any context, but all that noisy home support is probably worth an extra hole. In the pairs formats, it is probably easier for visiting teams to unite and block out the crowd. Singles on the other hand, seems to be quite a lonely experience. It is no coincidence that the home side has won four of the last five final day singles.

Stick with the obvious candidates in top scorer markets While the markets for each side’s top points-scorer appear to be 12-runner contests, in reality the number can be whittled down to the obvious few who are likely to play a minimum of four matches, and preferably all five. Over the last five Ryder Cups, every winner of these markets bar one had played the full quote of five. The exception, Chris Dimarco in 2004, played in four, and his 2.5 points tally has to be seen as something of a freak result; the consequence of his team’s massive defeat.

Who might be those players this year? Given his calf injury, it seems unlikely Westwood will be asked to carry such a burden, and with Garcia missing out, Europe are looking for new ‘team leaders’. I suspect the extra responsibility will fall on young guns Rory McIlroy and Martin Kaymer, whose wider form is the best available. The Molinari brothers must also be candidates, because if they play on the opening morning and win, it will be hard to ignore the reigning World Cup champions’ claim to be the perfect partnership.

For the Americans, assuming Tiger earns a wild-card, his reputation should ensure he plays the full quota. Captain Pavin will doubtless want to rekindle the pairing Tiger formed with Steve Stricker during the last Presidents Cup, which yielded a 100% record. Given Woods’ troubles, he may be a better price than usual too.

In addition to making such advance guesses about pairings, it could pay to follow the news closely in the days leading up to the start. Information about practice pairings is always reported, and given that both sides will contain a few players that nobody expects to play the full quota, it shouldn’t be too hard to narrow this down to four or five candidates.

You can get the biggest range of bets on this event with Betfair Bookmakers.

The event took place at the Adare Manor Hotel and Golf Resort on the 5th and 6th of July and aims to support mid-western charities and groups in their work with the underprivileged and disadvantaged. All proceeds from the event go to the development of these services and well over €55 million has been raised since the event began back in 1990. Prior to the event charities organise pre-qualifying tournaments throughout the country in a bid to enter teams in the Pro-Am.

The event which has a prize fund of €1 million is comprised of 56 teams of four players who compete over two days, with each team having one professional golf player and three amateurs. This year saw the fourteen major champions competing with thirty-five major titles between them. They are: Michael Campbell, Ben Curtis, John Daly, Ernie Els, Jim Furyk, Lucas Glover , Pádraig Harrington, Trevor Immelman, Tom Lehman , Sandy Lyle, Graeme McDowell, Mark O’Meara, José Maria Olazábal and of course the legendary Tiger Woods who holds fourteen titles!

Since it was first held in 1990 the tournament has grown from strength to strength, and while the first event raised almost €1.2 million for charities in the Limerick region, it has attracted more and more support, recognition, professional players, volunteers and celebrity contacts over the years. 30,000 tickets in the form of a baseball cap are sold each year for the star-studded event, at the cost of €50 each – spectators can chose from eight different coloured caps representing Ireland, Munster Rugby and each of the six Munster counties.

This year the likes of AP McCoy, Mick Fitzgerald and Ruby Walsh represent horseracing on the fairways while Catherine Zeta-Jones, Michael Douglas, Hugh Grant, Samuel L Jackson, Hugh Grant, Michael Flatley, Kyle McLachlan, Aiden Quinn and Westlife were joined by sporting figures such as Jamie Redknapp, Martin O’Neill, Niall Quinn and Ireland rugby lock Paul O’Connell.

Last year’s winner was Padraig Harrington, but of course most of the media hype for the event surrounded Tiger Woods, who disappointed in his first round – he slumped to a seven-over-par 79 over almost six hours – he carded one birdie, six bogeys and a double bogey in what was his first appearance in Europe since the media frenzy that surrounded him following his extramarital affairs.

The thirty-six holes are played in the exquisite 840 acre estate of Adare Manor, which has been transformed by the Kane family into a five star hotel. The eighteen hole Championship course was designed by Robert Trent Jones Snr who is one of the most respected and best known golf course architects in the world, having designed forty-five of the top one hundred golf courses in the world. The Golf Club measures 7,453 yards and uses 230 acres of countryside. The Maigue Rives comes into play on three holes with a dramatic finish at the eighteenth hole, which Trent Jones considers to be possibly the best par five in the world.

So, not only a golf tournament with the attraction of celebrities and world class golf, the event is a rarity in its dramatic location and focus on the less fortunate in society, and could not exist without local community involvement and achievement.