The elevated 18th green as it looks now, image by Robin Wilson

Having a look at the new-look Wentworth West Course

By ROBIN WILSON
Our Brora man who went down to Wentworth last week for the BMW PGA championship.
Ernie Els and his re-design of the Wentworth West Course received a bit of stick from several of his fellow professionals competing in the BMW PGA Championship last weekend over the exclusive Virginia Water Estate golf course in Surrey.
Mainly his alterations were concentrated on and around the greens, bunkering, undulations and runaways for the not quite 100% approach shots. It was quoted millions of pounds were spent and all completed before the first ball was struck last Thursday morning at 7.30am.
Well, not quite - I arrived on the course at 10.15am and made directly to the the highly-publicised new-look 18th green, complete with Ernie's new water hazard, where, to my astonishment, the first thing I saw was a squad of Wentworth green greenkeepers hurriedly shoveling sand out of a bunker with 10 minutes to go before the first group of players were on the 18th tee, having started their round at 7.00am!
Then, an hour or two later, as I watched by £2 bet on twice Open champion Padraig Harrington disappear into the foliage from the 17th tee and his penalty shot recovery land at my feet up on the left hand side of the fairway I spied a relic from the 1960s.
Remember the Piccadilly World Match-play? Would you believe it, beside me was a spectator carrying her Piccadilly periscope from nearly forty years ago!