Two-time major winner Martin Kaymer has urged the European Tour to consider moving their showpiece event to later in the summer.
The European PGA Championship gets under way at Wentworth on Thursday and the German thinks it is too early in the season and players do not see the best of the course.
Kaymer, US PGA Champion in 2010 and US Open winner last season, and world number one Rory McIlroy will be on parade but several of Europe’s big names have chosen to stay away.
Sergio Garcia, Ian Poulter, Henrik Stenson and Paul Casey are all absent and America’s Patrick Reed was a late withdrawal.
The event comes four weeks before the US Open at Chambers Bay but Kaymer is adamant it should be shifted to later in the calendar to improve conditions for the players.
“I would like to see this tournament, because it’s the most important tournament that we play on the European Tour, played later in the year,” Kaymer told reporters.
“The only thing that the tournament struggles with is the greens every year. It’s very difficult I think for the green keeper to make the greens as good as they can be.
“And talking to a few members, they said ‘if you come here in six weeks, the greens are perfect’. So that would be the first thing that I would change. Because, you know, there are possibilities.
“I think it’s going to be difficult to plan around U.S. Open and the British Open and those things, but for such a big event, you should get the best date, and for us players, it would be even more fun to play that golf course.”
The players are competing for a prize money pot of 5million euros ($5.5m) this week but still some have chosen to stay away from the 61st renewal.
– Missed three cuts –
Kaymer has missed three cuts in his last five tournaments – including one at The Masters – and faded with a last round 76 at The Players’ Championship a fortnight ago.
The German is now ranked 18th in the world but feels his game is coming together for a tilt at this title and the three remaining major championship this season.
He added: “I practiced a lot in February and March, and just to prepare for the Masters and get ready for the Masters, and I probably did a little too much.
“I probably didn’t rest my body as much as I should, and that’s what I felt at the Masters, I entered the week and I was very, very tired without even playing.
“It was not the best way. But it was an experience again and another way to learn maybe for the future all that I should do different.
“The last couple of weeks I have played good. I said to my caddie yesterday, I’m really excited about the next few weeks and months, because I know things, they will fall into place sooner or later, and when you practise hard, it’s almost not avoidable to have success. So it will happen. It’s just a matter of being patient.”