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Defending champion Hansen in pessimistic mood

22/05/2008

Denmark's Anders Hansen has said he does not expect to retain the BMW PGA Championship title he won last year.

Hansen, who secured the coveted trophy at Wentworth after a sudden-death playoff win over England's Justin Rose in 2007, has played down his chances of recording a second consecutive success.

The previous year's champion has only won the tournament on two occasions - and then it was in back-to-back years as Colin Montgomerie enjoyed a three-year reign at the famous Surrey course between 1998 and 2000.

And despite talking up his chances of playing well at this particular venue, Hansen said "the odds will not be on [his] side".

"I think winning it two years in a row hasn't happened many times," he told the European Tour website.

"But things were on my side last year, with coming here and winning it, so in the same situation you never know."

Hansen, who also won the tournament in 2002, continued: "Obviously it's a great feeling to be back from last year and I have some great memories here.

"I seem to have been playing pretty good golf around this golf course for, I don't know, I think I've been here seven times and I've had pretty good results almost every time.

"For some reason I always felt good here, or always played well here."

The players begin to tee off this morning at 07:00 BST, with Gary Orr, Emanuele Canonica and Zane Scotland in the first group.

The final group begin their rounds at 15:30 BST with Jamie Donaldson, Henrik Nystrom and Jean-Baptiste Gonnet due to be the last men out on the course.