Winner: Bernhard Langer
67 73 68 71 = 279
First Prize: £150,000
The West Course at Wentworth has witnessed many great golfing moments throughout its history, and to that list can be added Bernhard Langer’s third triumph in the Volvo PGA Championship.
Victory came in a week when the European Tour and Volvo announced an extension to their partnership for a further four year period to 1990. That extension provided for Volvo to remain as the principal sponsor to the Tour.
Ken Schofield, Executive Director of the European Tour, said: “Volvo’s commitment to the Tour has greatly supported our growth and continues to exceed our expectations.” Mel Pyatt, then Managing Director of Event Management Corporation, the Volvo company responsible for all sponsorship matters, said: “Our joint success over the last eight years had been built on our belief in the quality and high image that golf portrays.”
With opening rounds of 67 and 73 Langer established a new European Tour record by making the halfway cut for the 57th successive time, a run which began at the 1991 Volvo PGA Championship, and he eventually won the title by one stroke from New Zealand’s Michael Campbell and Sweden’s Per-Ulrik Johansson with a nine-under-par total of 279.
But victory was not achieved without a struggle. Tied for the third round lead with Mark Mouland, Langer had two birdies and two bogeys by the 13th to share the lead with Johansson and Campbell, who had set the target of eight under par with a wonderful eagle-birdie-birdie-birdie finish.
Langer regained the lead with a birdie at the 14th and parred in for the £150,000 first prize, the European Tour’s largest first prize.
