Staff WriterThe BMW PGA Championship Celebrity Pro-Am will have a distinctly papaya tint in 2026, with 2025 Formula 1 Drivers’ World Champion Lando Norris and McLaren Racing CEO Zak Brown confirmed for Wentworth Club on Wednesday, 16 September.
There are plenty of ways for a racing driver to spend a Wednesday. Most involve simulators, data sheets, neck muscles and several people in team kit looking intensely at screens. Norris, however, will again trade the violence of Formula 1 for the far more delicate torment of golf — a sport that can make even world champions question the structural integrity of their own wrists.
Brown will join him, giving the BMW PGA Championship Celebrity Pro-Am another strong McLaren flavour at the traditional curtain-raiser to the BMW PGA Championship. For fans, it is one of the more entertaining collisions in British sport: elite golfers, famous faces, musicians, actors, athletes and the occasional brave soul discovering that Wentworth’s West Course does not care how famous you are.
Lando Norris Brings World Champion Status To Wentworth
Norris arrives with rather more hardware in the mental trophy cabinet than when he first turned up at Wentworth. His 2025 Formula 1 Drivers’ World Championship made him just the 11th British driver to win the title, a distinction that will do his public profile no harm when he steps onto the tee.
This will be Norris’ third appearance in the Celebrity Pro-Am. He previously played alongside Ryder Cup figures Tyrrell Hatton in 2022 and Matt Fitzpatrick last year, which is a fairly useful pairing history if one is trying to avoid total embarrassment in front of galleries armed with camera phones.
The keen golfer has become a familiar figure at the event, and his return gives the 2026 BMW PGA Championship Celebrity Pro-Am a sharper sporting crossover: Formula 1’s modern British star stepping into one of European golf’s most recognisable settings.
Zak Brown Adds McLaren Muscle To The Pro-Am Field
Brown, meanwhile, returns for his second outing at Wentworth Club after playing the 2025 edition with Justin Rose. That is another rather tidy four-ball résumé, and one that suggests McLaren’s golf diplomacy department is functioning beautifully.
Since taking the helm in 2017, Brown has overseen McLaren Racing’s expansion across the global motorsport stage. The team won back-to-back Formula 1 Constructors’ Championships in 2024 and 2025, while the wider McLaren operation now stretches across IndyCar, F1 Academy, F1 Sim Racing and, from 2027, the World Endurance Championship.
For a golf crowd, Brown brings a different sort of celebrity appeal. He is not merely adjacent to motorsport success; he is one of the people shaping it. Put him beside Norris at Wentworth and the pro-am starts to feel less like a casual celebrity knockabout and more like a meeting of competitive obsessives temporarily separated from their preferred machinery.
A Star-Studded Start To The Festival Of Golf
“We’re thrilled to once again welcome Lando Norris and Zak Brown back to the BMW PGA Championship Celebrity Pro-Am, courtesy of our partners at DP World,” said Darrell O’Hora, Championship Director of the BMW PGA Championship.
“The pair brought incredible energy and atmosphere to last year’s event, and we look forward to adding to our great memories together in a few months’ time.
“More exciting names will be announced soon for this year’s Celebrity Pro-Am, with it once again shaping up to be a day to remember, and we hope to see fans of all ages joining us as part of the Festival of Golf this September.”
That last line matters because the BMW PGA Championship is now much more than four days of tournament golf. Staged just outside Central London, it has become a full week of sport, hospitality, music and crowd theatre, with the Celebrity Pro-Am acting as the front door to the whole thing.
Wentworth’s Big Week Blends Golf, Music And Spectacle
The 2026 BMW PGA Championship will feature world-class golf, the Celebrity Pro-Am, the Spectator Village and live entertainment on the Amazon Leo Live Stage.
British festival favourites The Kooks have already been confirmed as the Saturday headline act, which should help keep the atmosphere lively once the golf bags have been zipped and the sensible shoes begin marching towards the music.
More than 100,000 spectators are expected across the week, which tells you something about how the event has grown. Wentworth is no longer simply a place where the golf cognoscenti gather to inspect ball flights and debate wedge grinds.
It is a polished sporting festival with enough going on to tempt the enthusiast, the casual fan and the friend who claims they are “only here for the atmosphere” but somehow ends up loudly critiquing putting strokes by lunchtime.
Tickets, Travel And Premium Options
Tickets are on sale now at etg.golf/BMW2026Tickets, with options covering the Tuesday practice day, Wednesday Celebrity Pro-Am and all four days of tournament golf.
For those wanting to upgrade the experience, Treetops presented by Buffalo Trace and Premium Experience options are also available. BMW Group owners will again receive preferred parking benefits, while a free shuttle service from Virginia Water railway station will be available to all spectators.
Early booking is being encouraged after last year’s BMW PGA Championship drew a record attendance. General admission sold out completely across Wednesday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday, while Treetops presented by Buffalo Trace packages sold out on all tournament days.
That is the practical bit. The less practical bit is this: if you want to see a Formula 1 world champion try to persuade a golf ball to obey basic instructions in front of thousands of people, Wentworth in September is probably the place to be.
Formula 1 Meets Fairways At Wentworth
The charm of the BMW PGA Championship Celebrity Pro-Am lies in its ability to make brilliant people look reassuringly mortal. Racing drivers, musicians, actors and elite athletes arrive with confidence, rhythm and competitive pride. Then golf quietly removes the wheels.
Norris and Brown will bring star power, yes, but also a certain human comedy. The first tee at Wentworth has a way of shrinking egos to a more manageable size. A Formula 1 paddock may be noisy, political and brutally fast, but at least the steering wheel does not slice itself into the trees.
For the fans, that is the appeal. The Celebrity Pro-Am gives the BMW PGA Championship its opening burst of theatre before the serious business of tournament golf begins.
And in 2026, with McLaren’s most recognisable figures back on the tee, Wentworth gets a little more horsepower — even if the only thing being driven is a golf ball with a deeply uncertain future.
General Admission, Treetops presented by Buffalo Trace and Premium Experience tickets are available at etg.golf/BMW2026Tickets
