European Tour, BMW International Open Preview
By Ryan Hamilton – @Golftipster5
After last week’s US Open Test, the Tour players will look forward to a more forgiving course with the BMW International Open held at Golfclub München Eichenried. I was going to avoid players that played the US Open because of how long it was going to take to fly over to Munich from San Diego however BMW put on a flight for all the players playing this week to come over. Eduardo Molinari posted on his socials that it has saved him 24hours by flying at 2:45am European time & landing 11 hours later all from the comfort of a bed. They will still have some jetlag to recover from, but they should all be climatised by Thursday. This week might still favour the non-US Open players as they will have more time to practice & get their game in shape ahead of the predicted high scoring if previous years are anything to go by
Course
Golfclub München Eichenried takes its turn to host the BMW International Open. The competition alternates each year between this week’s hosts & St. Eurach Lad-Und-Golfclub. It 7,283yards make up the par 72 course consisting of 4 par 3s,10 pars 4s & 4 par 5s. Winning scores in the previous 5 events at this course haven’t been lower than -15 so winning scores expected to reach double figures again. Thundery showers are predicted to last Thursday & Friday so players might have to anticipate some rain delays which could mean hanging around to finish 2nd rounds on Saturday & even a late Sunday finish.
Previous winners at Golfclub München Eichenried
2019 – Andrea Pavan Score -15
2017 – Andres Romero Score -17
2015 – Pablo Larrazabal Score -17
2013 – Ernie Els Score -18
2011 – Pablo Larrazabal Score -16
@Golftipster5 Selections:
Antoine Rozner 28-1 SkyBet 7 Places
Rozner has spent the last few weeks stateside playing in the Byron Nelson, PGA & Memorial making use of his invites. He’s back in Europe this week for the 1st time since a MC in Tenerife looking to add to his 2 European Tour titles. His average scores this year is 69.67 ranked 17th on Tour which he will need this week as a winning score looks likely to be in the high to mid-teens. Another stat I like this week is his greens in regulation which he currently sits 14th with 70.96%. At 28-1 I feel like he has been overpriced this week, but the field does include Major winners & World no 12 &14 Louis Oosthuizen & Victor Hovland if he recovers from his eye injury. I was expecting low 20s so happy to take him on at 28-1. Current form reads 18-MC-MC-MC-15.
Eduardo Molinari 50-1 Skybet 7 Places
I wasn’t going to include any players that played the US Open this week but having seen Eduardo is already in Munich I’m happy to play him this week at 50-1. He didn’t have the best of starts to the year with a few missed cuts but looks to of found something in his game over the last few weeks since his T28 in Tenerife he has contended twice in his last 4 events & had a very successful US Open when he was expected to miss the cut by many. He like Antoine is another player who hits plenty of greens. His 69.21% of greens in reg has him ranked 36th on Tour. Molinari will attempt to go one better than 2019 where he finished 3rd 2 shots off the playoff. Current form reads 35-2-MC-8-45
Stephen Jaeger 70-1 Unitbet 6 Places
Stephen is playing on a sponsor invite this week & will look to gain enough race to Dubai points to get himself some more invites as he looks to possibly earn his European tour card. The Munich born German has had a stella year on the Korn Ferry Tour. Since the Covid restart he has had 2 wins, 3 2Nd places & 5 top 10s which has moved him from 526th in the world ranking to a record high 119th. There are only a handful of players playing this week that are ranked above him, with his 2 wins he sits just 1 win away from an automatically Card for the PGA tour for next season but this week he looks to give his game a go against the best Europe has to offer on home turf. He is one of the best putters on the Korn Ferry tour ranking 4th in Putting average per green in regulation & 7th in average putts per round. Current form reads 38-2-53-2-5
Outsider
Marcel Schneider 200-1 SkyBet 7 Places
Marcel has had an up & down year so far this year. The world no 366 has had 2 top 10s with a few missed cuts from 9 events this year. The German stats wise is on the average mark in every category but that is expected from the year he has had. He should be able to draw on the positives from his last event the Porsche Open where he finished 7th shooting -3 overall. At 200-1 I’m happy to take this on especially with the event being home soil again. Current form reads 7-MC-MC-MC-8
Other notables
Louis Oosthuizen 7-1 how much will the US Open & a 10-hour flight to Germany of taken out of him. At 7-1 this was simply too low for me to even try to take.
Pablo Larrazabal 55-1 – Clearly loves this track he has won twice her before
Takumi Kanaya 66-1– like Hoshino last week he has lit up the Japanese Tour this year & looks to take advantage of a sponsor invite this week
Good Luck with all Bets
@golftipster5