Wentworth hopes to cut down big hitters

The growing use of hi-tech golf clubs and balls has forced Wentworth's West Course to undergo a second significant revision in two years.

It is a sign of the crisis facing the professional game that one of Britain's most famous tests of golfing skill has been changed again to cope with the big-hitting pros contesting this week's £2 million Volvo PGA Championship.

It was only in the spring of 2000 that the 15th and 18th holes were lengthened in preparation for Wentworth's hosting of the flagship tournament of the European Tour.

The fact the West Course has been changed again so soon suggests the game's two governing bodies, the Royal and Ancient Golf Club (R&A) and the United States Golf Association (USGA), were right earlier this month to spotlight the threat posed by advanced technology to some of the world's greatest courses.

The R&A and the USGA expressed concern about the distances being achieved off the tee - no fewer than 44 players on the European Tour are averaging driving distances of over 290 yards, while three golfers led by Italy's Emanuele Canonica with 306.4 yards are averaging over 300 yards with their drivers.

R&A officials are still reeling from the claim by golf great Jack Nicklaus that the Millennium Open at St Andrews was "an absolute joke". He was staggered that the victorious Tiger Woods managed to avoid hitting a single bunker in all four rounds.

The first of this year's majors, the Masters, was won by Woods on a dramatically altered course at Augusta National.

Now Wentworth has been forced to call back the earthmovers in an attempt to prevent stars taming theWest Course over the next four days. The whole area around the first tee has been redesigned, the length of the 13th has been increased by 25 yards to 467 yards and bunkers have been added on the 15th and 16th fairways.

Chris Kennedy, Wentworth's golf course manager, admitted: "We have made the changes to keep the test presented by the West Course up to speed with modern equipment.

"A lot of the bunkering was outdated for the majority of professionals."

Justin Rose goes to Wentworth with the satisfaction of officially being the best golfer in England for the first time.

The 21-year-old's third place in the Deutsche Bank-SAP Open in Germany lifted him from 81st to a best-ever 62nd in the world rankings, making him the highest-placed English player.

Colin Montgomerie sat out today's practice round in a bid to recover from a back injury.