Wentworth gets its act together for PGA Championship amid uncertainty | Ewan Murray

Properly pinpointing the status of the BMW PGA Championship has not been particularly easy in recent times. Criticism of the Wentworth venue was commonplace and commonly vehement, to the extent where Europe’s finest players did not deem the tournament worthy of participation despite it being one of precious few in Great Britain or Ireland.

The BBC withdrew live television coverage, albeit that this was part of a bigger, depressing picture. And then, in what was surely a strategic error, the European Tour’s chief executive, Keith Pelley, broke with what had been his own organisation’s convention by insisting this was no longer its “flagship event”. Meanwhile, tournaments such as the Irish Open were rising in stature and purses on the opposite side of the Atlantic were dwarfing those in Europe like never before.

Two things have been added to the narrative as Wentworth prepares for the latest staging of a competition that usefully sits between the Players Championship and US Open. On Thursday morning, the European Tour’s Rolex Series – a batch of enhanced purse tournaments – will be formally under way. There is also the small matter of Wentworth’s West Course itself, a piece of land that has undergone more makeovers than a fading actor. The key this time is that, finally, alterations to the tune of several million pounds appear to have met widespread approval.

Greens, once the routine frustration at Wentworth, have been dramatically upgraded. Pelley is prone to exaggeration but his sense that the course has “significantly improved” is probably fair. “It’s amazing what has transpired in just a year when you think back about the challenges that we were having, mainly around the golf course and players not satisfied with the greens,” the chief executive added.

“We had seen conversations and pretty serious conversations with [Wentworth’s owner] Reignwood at that particular time, and conversations with BMW, who were concerned for many years whether we would be able to continue with the BMW PGA Championship here at Wentworth if, in fact, we didn’t make significant improvements to the course.”

It should be noted that BMW’s long-term position on European sponsorship remains unclear. Perhaps the Rolex link will please doubting commercial executives. Reignwood, too, has had its challenges: while apparently placated for now, Wentworth’s membership – via the estate’s influential residents’ association – was furious at massively increased pricing when the Chinese firm took over. As the Guardian reported last year, provisional plans in the United States to move its own PGA Championship as part of a schedule overhaul could impact directly on the European equivalent. As with so much in European golf at the moment, the future is not certain.

“The BMW contract is to the end of 2018,” Pelley added. “We’re confident that both parties will reach an agreement to move forward. BMW has been a great supporter of ours. We would certainly love them to be long-term associated with the Tour and those discussions are obviously confidential.

“The roads committee, Wentworth residents’ association and the club now have come to an agreement in principle and now we are going to spend the next couple of months working through some of the details and hopefully announce an extension of the tournament in the coming months.”

Pelley hopes to announce his Tour’s 2018 schedule by early October, considerably earlier than was the case for this year. He does, though, concede a “jigsaw puzzle” with regards to piecing that together.

Rory McIlroy had been scheduled to feature this week, but for the injury that has disrupted his US Open buildup. There is understandable disappointment that Sergio García, now Masters champion, did not feel the need to participate; the Spaniard will reasonably argue Wentworth was never on his 2017 schedule. “This is a terrific field and it’s significantly stronger than the field was last year,” said Pelley. “So we don’t necessarily like to focus on who is not here.”

Ian Poulter was a late and welcome addition to the field after his terrific performance in finishing tied second at Sawgrass. However, given the redesign, picking favourites is a tricky business. Justin Rose arrived in his home country still seeking to atone for his Masters play-off defeat. Other English hopes are in the form of Tommy Fleetwood, Matthew Fitzpatrick and Ross Fisher with Luke Donald, a previous Wentworth expert, not without a chance. An element of fascination will again fall upon on Danny Willett, the 2016 Masters champion who once more cut a miserable figure when lasting only 27 holes of the Players.