The European Tour heads back to Belgium this week as stroke play and match play combine once again for the Belgian Knockout. The tournament was a success on debut last year, helped by the backing of Thomas Pieters and the home star is behind the event once again.
Adrian Otaegui walked off with the first title of this event last year and he’ll be looking to get into the match play stuff and defend his crown. Some good players have got behind Pieters to support the event so there is a decent field on show this week.
Recent Winners
2018 – Adrian Otaegui
The Format
144 players take part in the tournament with the first two rounds of it being the traditional strokeplay as normal. At the end of the second round the field will be cut as normal with the top 64 players progressing to the second half of the tournament.
The event from there becomes nine-hole knockout with three rounds of matches on the Saturday and three more on the Sunday to determine the overall champion. Each match will be strokeplay scoring so they will go the full nine holes which means that our champion and runner up will play 90 holes this week.
The Course
We are at the Rinkven International Golf Club in Antwerp once again this week where the 18 holes being used are a composite set up from the North and South courses. It is a par 71 which measures just 6,924 yards so there is no need to be overly long to be successful around here, as we saw 12 months ago.
We also saw in that inaugural event that tee to green specialists are the way to go. There are one or two fairways out here that offer some freedom from the tee but by and large they are tight and the greens are not the biggest either so playing this course from the short grass is the way forward, especially over the weekend when the match play stuff comes along. I’m all for tee to green specialists this week but those who putt well preferably.
The Field
The tournament host, if you can call him that, Thomas Pieters is the headline attraction in the field this week and he is joined by fellow Belgian stars Thomas Detry and Nicolas Colsaerts to give the crowds in Antwerp this week something to get excited about. There are some seasoned winners on show this week as well including the defending champion Adrian Otaegui.
Last week’s champion in Denmark, Bernd Wiesberger, also tees it up this week as does the man he beat on Sunday in Robert MacIntyre. Richie Ramsay, Tom Lewis and Matthew Southgate are all in the field while the likes of Alex Levy, Andrea Pavan and Matthias Schwab give proceedings a true European flavour.
Market Leaders
It is Thomas PIeters who is the favourite to win the tournament this week. It highlights how open the format is and how competitive the field is that he is 22/1 to come out on top. He will have a lot of behind the scenes and media stuff to do this week which is always enough to put me off and while I hope for the event that he gives a good account of himself, just being on the course on Sunday would be a decent enough effort. He’s not for me this week.
Thomas Detry is the second favourite this week at 28/1. I’ve been thinking that he has been knocking at the door to win for a while but his last few efforts have been pretty uninspiring it has to be said. You wouldn’t think he would lack for inspiration this week however with him playing in front of home crowds as well as friends and family and things. I wouldn’t be surprised if he goes in this week but I’ve had my fingers burnt enough by him recently to swerve him.
Bernd Wiesberger and Adrian Otaegui come next in the betting at 30/1. We know about the credentials of the Spaniard around here after he waltzed off with the title 12 months ago while Wiesberger won last week. He looked pretty emotional after that victory, understandably so, and I wonder what he will have left in him. The champion this week will play 90 holes in four days so the Austrian will need something left. That is enough of a concern for me to swerve him.
Two men who went well in Denmark last week are high up in the betting here as Romain Langasque and Robert MacIntyre both slot into the betting at 33/1. Both are in good touch at the minute and in truth there isn’t a whole lot to dislike about either of them perhaps with the exception of a lack of match play experience at this level. You are getting a decent price if you can put that to the back of your mind however.
Main Bets
I’ll take a couple of main bets this week. The first one is Robert MacIntyre, who was high up on my shortlist last week so I was sweating like crazy when he was in contention and actually quite happy when he walloped that ball out of bounds on the penultimate hole. To be fair to him though for the previous 70 holes he did nothing wrong. He drove the ball brilliantly and he had a lot of irons dialled in and that was the thing I took from the week to take into this one. You will have to score this week and the irons are what sets up the scores. MacIntyre putted lovely on some tough greens in Denmark last week and with that backing up his effort in the British Masters we know he is a man in form. At 33/1 he’s worthy of support.
Another man who I was impressed with from tee to green last week was Matthias Schwab and having seen his good Austrian mate get himself in the winners’ enclosure I’m sure he will be inspired to do likewise here. Schwab safely made the knockout stage here last year where he went down in extra holes to Oliver Fisher but he looked to have improved in that time so in theory he should deliver a decent outcome in this one. The only thing that held Schwab back last week was that he holed nothing but they were undulating greens unlike these ones so he should go better with the flat stick and is worth taking at 40/1.
Outsiders
A couple of players who have the long game and putting stroke to get themselves into the knockout stages have caught my eye and from there this is anyone’s to win. I took Alejandro Canizares last week and for much of the tournament it looked like I was getting paid out in some way shape or form. That didn’t materialise but given that he has pretty much the same profile as last year’s winner I will support him again this week. To be fair to the Spaniard, his irons were not as pinpoint as they usually are last week but every other area of his game was in good order. If he can use that confidence to tighten up the irons then he should not be far away here.
Niklas Lemke caught my eye at the British Masters when he struggled in the third round winds but aside from that enjoyed a pretty positive week with a top 10, his second of the season. His long game was very good that week and he putted nicely too. The same happened again last week when the extreme winds of the Saturday caught him out but conditions shouldn’t be as testing here so I’m expecting good things. You can do a lot of damage on this course from tee to green and with him being tidy around the greens he can see off weaker opponents in the knockout action. He’s young enough and good enough to put up a bold showing here.
Tips
Back R.MacIntyre to win Belgian Knockout (e/w) for a 1/10 stake at 34.00 with Boylesports (1/5 1-8)
Back N.Lemke to win Belgian Knockout (e/w) for a 0.5/10 stake at 101.00 with Boylesports (1/5 1-8)
Back them here:
Back M.Schwab to win Belgian Knockout (e/w) for a 1/10 stake at 41.00 with Betfair (1/5 1-8)
Back A.Canizares to win Belgian Knockout (e/w) for a 0.5/10 stake at 67.00 with Betfair (1/5 1-8)
Back them here:
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