Thomas Pieters Will Soon Be Getting A Keith Pelley Gift Basket

Opening with a 68 at the star-depleted BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth, one of Europe's rising stars suggested it was a no brainer for him: BMW PGA over The Players.

Thomas Pieters, who skipped The Players to take 7 weeks off with a brief stop at the Zurich Classic, is rested and ready to win the European Tour's biggest event, reports The Telegraph's James Corrigan.

Asked which tournament he would prefer to win, Pieters was unequivocal.

“This one,” he replied. “Why? Because this is our tour, and I look at the history of this event with Seve [Ballesteros] and everything. I see this tournament as the next biggest to the majors. It would mean a lot to be the champion here.”

How Keith Pelley, the European Tour chief executive, would have loved those words.