2020 Euram Bank Open Golf – Tournament Outright Tips and Betting Preview

The European Tour returns in full with the start of the UK swing next week but before then there is a chance for those who want to do so to warm up with another glorified Challenge Tour event as the Euram Bank Open takes place in Austria, beginning on Wednesday.

Given that the real stuff returns next week the field for this tournament is limited at best but there is still a tournament to be won and we won’t get paid out any differently for finding the winner this week as we will next week. This event has been on the Challenge Tour for a couple of seasons so we have some form to go by.

Recent Winners

2019 – Calum Hill

2018 – Darius Van Driel

The Course

We remain in Austria this week in the Alps region of the country as the Golf Club Adamstal stages the tournament for the third year in succession. This is one of the shorter courses professional golf will be played at. It is a par 70 but it only stretches to 6,473 yards at its longest. It is gnarly and fiddly and has fairways that have large slopes on them which makes it tricky. There is set to be rain on the opening day of the tournament so we could be seeing target practice come the weekend.

Given the lack of length of the course, emphasised by the fact that two of the three par 5s are less than 500 yards, this is a placement of the tee sort of track with the real emphasis coming in iron play and short game. We’re looking for players who can handle a bit of altitude as well and generally with that in mind form at the Omega European Masters is likely to standout here. That is the theory at the very least.

The Field

There is no point in dressing this field up to be anything that it isn’t. By normal European Tour standards it is incredibly weak but to be fair this tournament doesn’t carry the prize pool or the rewards that a usual week would so it is understandable. Nevertheless there are half a dozen players in the top 200 in the world who are teeing it up, with the headliner being the man who snatched the early lead last week in Joost Luiten.

The other five men in the top 200 in the world who are teeing it up here are Francesco Laporta, Adri Arnaus, if indeed he does tee up, Oman Open winner Sami Valimaki, Scott Vincent and Garrick Higgo. Other names to catch the eye are Rikard Karlberg, John Catlin, Sebastian Heisele, Oscar Lengden, Bernd Ritthammer and Marcel Schneider. There is a chance this could be extremely competitive even as a second tier make up field.

Market Leaders

Joost Luiten went into last week as the favourite to win the tournament and although he led after the first round he never truly threatened to win the event. He is the favourite to win here too at 11/2 and while having shaken the rust off last week he could offer more appeal, the fact he never threatened, is never the most reliable with the putter and surely is just honing his game ahead of the real stuff coming, I’m happy enough to leave him alone again here.

Lorenzo Gagli and Adri Arnaus are the joint second favourites at 16/1 this week. Arnaus was meant to tee it up last week and never did so you are taking your chances that he is in the field this week if you back him. Even if he is I wonder if his tee to green strength will be as effective around here where there is no massive test off the tee in terms of pure ball striking. Gagli is of much more interest it must be said and I’ll go deeper into his chances below.

Rikard Karlberg comes next in the betting at 20/1. He is another player who shook off the rust last week with a mid-position finish. He hits any shortlist given that he has experience of the course. Not only has he tasted the course before but he finished fourth in a field not too dissimilar in quality to this one. Given what the winner Calum Hill has gone on to achieve you could argue it was stronger. The Swede must be respected. It is 22/1 bar the quartet.

Main Bets

I’m all over Lorenzo Gagli this week. I mentioned above how form at Crans-sur-Sierre or the Omega Masters could be important this week and the Italian was only edged out in a play-off in that tournament last season. What was more appealing about that was Rory McIlroy was part of the bonus holes which was eventually won by Sebastian Soderberg. What that means is he was keeping extremely good company that week, much better than he’ll face here. He shook off the rust last week with a fair T25 finish which followed on from wonderful form pre-lockdown when he went T10 T12 in Oman and Qatar. You’ve got to think strokes gained on approach is a key statistic this week and he is fifth on tour in that element. Interestingly the four players above him don’t tee it up here. Gagli isn’t the best on the greens but he’s far from the worst. I think he’s a huge runner this week.

I’m going all-Italian for my main bets this week as my second choice is Francesco Laporta, a player who I’ve had my eye on for a while, largely for his exploits on the Challenge Tour last season where he ended up topping the rankings in fine style, but also for his display in Abu Dhabi earlier in the campaign where he led at halfway and was still second with 18 holes to go before finding the competition a little hot to handle in the final round. This is nothing like that though and a man who sits third in strokes gained around the green and in the top 25 in strokes gained from tee to green should be right there here.

Outsiders

There are a couple at three figure prices who have caught my eye this week. The first of those is Joel Sjoholm, the man who actually leads the European Tour in strokes gained around the green. That isn’t all that catches my eye, he is also fifth in strokes gained from tee to green and right outside the top 20 in strokes gained on approach. It all comes apart with the short stick in his hand but nobody really has much of an advantage this week when it comes to the greens because most of the field haven’t seen the golf course before and those who have can’t have played more than eight competitive rounds here. At 100/1 the Swede merits a small wager.

The other player who takes my fancy is another Joel in Joel Stalter. He is one of the players who does have course form and he finished in the top 10 here last season. He ended up in the top 15 last week but was two off the lead with 18 holes to play. He wasn’t the only one to struggle on Sunday so I’m prepared to give him a chance here. The Frenchman has a couple of pieces of form on the European Tour, notably his top 10 in Mauritius a couple of season ago and at a bit of a monster price given his course experience, I’ll get involved here.

Tips

Back L.Gagli to win Euram Bank Open (e/w) for a 2/10 stake at 17.00 with William Hill (1/5 1-6)

Back F.Laporta to win Euram Bank Open (e/w) for a 1/10 stake at 29.00 with William Hill (1/5 1-6)

Back them here:

Back J.Sjoholm to win Euram Bank Open (e/w) for a 0.5/10 stake at 101.00 with Betfair (1/5 1-7)

WON – Back J.Stalter to win Euram Bank Open (e/w) for a 0.5/10 stake at 126.00 with Betfair (1/5 1-7)

Back them here:

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