European Tour: Rory McIlroy to contest PGA Championship

McIlroy shot a final round 66 to win the 2014 PGA Championship

Rory McIlroy has been added to the field for the BMW PGA Championship.

The 2014 winner missed last year's event through injury but has committed to taking part in the first of eight tournaments on the European Tour's Race to Dubai series.

The world number seven joins England's Paul Casey and Tommy Fleetwood in the field at Wentworth from 24-27 May.

The tournament will feature extra Ryder Cup points in advance of the match at Le Golf National from 28 September.

The European Tour has ruled that any Ryder Cup points earned by players between the PGA Championship and the Made in Denmark tournament on 2 September will be multiplied by 1.5 on both the World Points List and the European Points List in order to boost the selection chances of in-form players.

"I'm very much in agreement with what [European captain] Thomas Bjorn and [European Tour chief executive] Keith Pelley have come up with there," said McIlroy.

"You want the in-form players playing on your Ryder Cup team. It doesn't matter who they are or what they've done, so placing a higher importance on those events closer to the Ryder Cup is a good thing and hopefully I play well in those events and cement my place on the team as quickly as possible."

The four-time major winner will be making his first appearance at Wentworth since the course was renovated last year and McIlroy believes the overhaul will make it "much more playable".

"It was always a great golf course but sometimes it could get very tricky with some of the lies you could get," he told the European Tour.

"For them to re-grass the place and for it to look as good as it does is great, and I'm looking forward to playing it."

McIlroy, who began his European Tour season with top three finishes in Abu Dhabi and Dubai, registered his first win in 18 months at the Arnold Palmer Invitational earlier this month.

He came from seven shots behind to beat Shane Lowry when he won at Wentworth in 2014 but missed the cut the following year and has yet to return to the Surrey course.

"I've had a weird relationship with Wentworth. I had the win there back in 2014 but I haven't really done much else," said McIlroy.

"I think I had a top five back in 2009 but it's been a place of high frustration for me so I'm looking forward to going back and trying to solve the puzzle again. At least I do have good memories there."