George O'Grady, the PGA Tour's chief executive, received an email from Sergio Garcia last week that expressed the wish that the PGA Championship at Wentworth would be a success.

Despite at least two fairly large diversions, it was. Which no doubt will have pleased the very concerned Senor Garcia.

"It was a very nice email," said O'Grady. "Sergio wished us all the best for the Championship and said that he was with us in spirit. I think the very fact that he was sending his best wishes shows that, in a way, if you're a member of the European Tour and you're not here, it hurts."

Thomas Bjorn may have chortled at that. Because he had raised, with some vehemence, his dismay that Garcia and three other European Tour members, had elected to stay in the United States rather than return home to support their native Tour's flagship event.

What he meant was that he didn't want Garcia in spirit. He wanted him in person and this little matter will probably fester until the time for entering the next PGA Championship comes around.

Or perhaps until the amount of next season's prize money is announced.

The Players Championship, which is roughly the American equivalent, has $8 million on offer. The PGA fund stands at $5.25 million (#2.7 million).

As for the other subject of debate, if that's not too polite a word for it, it has became an unseemly drag. The Tour Players Committee had investigated the matter that has become known as Jakartagate; the unsavoury incident in which Colin Montgomerie replaced his ball in the wrong place after a storm in Indonesia.

That has led to a storm in the ranks.

When the inquest was concluded, Montgomerie was officially cleared of culpable misconduct, the Tour's procedures were not condemned and it was announced that the affair was dead. But the behind-the-scenes muttering continued.

Until Gary Evans stepped forward and expressed, on behalf of "98 per cent of the Tour players", so he claimed, grave doubts about the handling of the affair.

And where did that get anybody?

It got Evans into pretty bad odour, for a start. Not exactly because of what he was insinuating but because he had claimed to speak for the Tour members when, according to the Tour, he didn't.

The Players Committee, chairman Jamie Spence and 14 elected members, spoke for the players and for Evans to suggest otherwise was, according to O'Grady, " enormously disrespectful."

Whatever. The question now is what's going to happen to Evans if he doesn't apologise.

Despite all that, some splendid golf was played, BMW, the new sponsors, said that they were pleased and so was everybody else except Paul Broadhurst who used words like "hate" and "detest" to describe his feelings for the West Course.

Lots of others thought it was superb, especially Paul McGinley who, on the day that he shot 64, put it forward as a model set-up for European Tour courses.

When he had finished at a handy four-under-par, Broady had mellowed a little and said that he was putting the PGA in his diary for next year. He couldn't remember how many years he'd been going to Wentworth but his best finish, in the years he'd made the cut, had been 33rd.

This year he was joint-18th. The lad is on the march.

Steve Webster consolidated his recent arrival at the upper echelons of the Tour with a five-under finish that earned him joint-11th and another nice little cheque for #43,000. It also won him qualification for The Open Championship at St Andrews in July as one of three leading non-exempt players.

He arrived at Wentworth in his new Porsche and would have driven away in a #60,000 BMW if he hadn't holed in one at the wrong hole. It was the 14th they were giving the car for, Steve. Not the fifth. Expensive mistake.

Angel Cabrera was a worthy winner of the big cheque.

He played his big game to get to the top of the leaderboard and showed the strength of his mind to stay there as McGinley faltered at the 70th and 71st holes.

McGinley was trying to win for his mate, Darren Clarke, who had been called away in mid-tournament to go to the bedside of his wife, Heather, who is receiving treatment for cancer.

Mrs Clarke was in everybody's thoughts at the end. Golf and its silly little problems were put firmly into context.

Read previous Michael Blair columns atwww.icBirmingham.co.uk/post/blair