An old event returns to the European Tour this week with the Porsche European Open on the schedule again. This is the first time the tournament has been staged since 2009 when Christian Cevaer won at the London Club.
The revamped and reformed event has shifted from the English capital to Germany this year and it falls at a good time of year to have attracted a high class field. There are major champions, WGC champions and many other successful golfers in the field so this should be a quality tournament in keeping with its prestigious history.
The Golf Resort Bad Griesbach is the venue this week with the Beckenbauer course the one staging the event. The course would cost you a tidy few euros to play but if you were to pay the fee you would play it as a par 72 but the pros will play it as a par 71 this week. A par 71 which measures 7,188 yards in total.
We don’t really have much to go by in terms of how the course will play as this is the first time the course has hosted a European Tour event but it has been used for the Challenge Tour for the last three years so certain players might have a course knowledge advantage.
From what I can tell of the course there is water in play on most of the holes and a good number of them are fairly long, particularly three of the par 5s and the set of par 3s so length will be helpful this week although you are going to need full control of your golf ball for sure.
The high calibre of players teeing it up this week is led by Bernd Wiesberger. He’s 15/1 to land the title ahead of Charl Schwartzel who is back from the States. The former Masters champion is 18/1 ahead of another man jetting in from across the pond in Hunter Mahan. He is 20/1 and it is 25/1 bar that trio in what looks a really open betting contest.
One of those at 25/1 is actually a man I like this week. Regular readers of my work before I started this blog will know how much of a Byeong-Hun An fan I am. Indeed I’ve backed him a couple of times on this blog and I’ve been waiting for the chance to back him again and I think this could be the week.
With no course form to go on current form might be the best indication this week and An is in good form having won a pretty competitive tournament in Korea last week. He also has the advantage of having played this course when he was on the Challenge Tour. He finished 12th and with his ability to drive the ball as good as it is I’m expecting another big run from him here.
His short game seems to have come back which is a positive and at 25/1 he looks a pretty obvious place to start when forming a team to go into action this week.
Keeping with the current form theme I’m going to go with Lee Slattery next. Slattery is as hot as anyone right now having won the Russian Open and then followed that up with a runner up spot in the KLM Open where he missed a short range putt on the 72nd hole to force a playoff.
That is good playing by anyone’s standards and while they have been in lesser quality fields than this there is no doubt Slattery is heading to Germany in good nick. He took last week off to recharge the batteries but we’ve seen a number of players this season finally win and maintain that form and if he can do likewise 66/1 will look a huge price pretty quickly.
Heading into the three figure prices one man that stands out is Lucas Bjerregaard. The Dane actually surprised me in Italy last week. I didn’t think the course suited him but he hung around and only a short birdie putt he missed on the 71st hole cost him a place in the playoff.
I suspect this course could suit the big hitting Dane more and better still he has some good form around here having finished 12th here in 2013 on the Challenge Tour. That course knowledge coupled with good recent form makes him appeal at 150/1.
Continuing down the betting I always like to take a home player where I can and one German that stands out is Marcel Schneider. Schneider is still getting going at this level but he began the year with a top 10 on a tricky track in Morocco and since then he has finished fifth on this course on the Challenge Tour.
Schneider produced a top 20 finish on the other German event earlier in the season which shows he has no issues playing in front of a home crowd and he went well enough in the Czech Masters a few weeks ago for me to chance him at 250/1 in the hope that course knowledge serves him well.
Finally I’m going to plump for a winner on this course in the shape of Jake Roos. He won the Challenge Tour event here last year and judging by his recent form he appears to be going along nicely enough to go well here again.
The South African’s tee to green stats recently have been very solid and with the knowledge of these greens he should make scores around here. Roos was in the top 15 on a tricky track in France and he made the top 10 in Russia recently so he’s showing enough that with confidence of winning here he could deliver something much better than his 300/1 price suggests he will.
Back B-H.An to win Porsche European Open (e/w) for a 1/10 stake at 26.00 with Boylesports (1/4 1-5)
Back L.Slattery to win Porsche European Open (e/w) for a 1/10 stake at 67.00 with BetVictor (1/4 1-5)
Back L.Bjerregaard to win Porsche European Open (e/w) for a 0.5/10 stake at 151.00 with BetVictor (1/4 1-5)
Back M.Schneider to win Porsche European Open (e/w) for a 0.5/10 stake at 251.00 with Boylesports (1/4 1-5)
Back J.Roos to win Porsche European Open (e/w) for a 0.5/10 stake at 301.00 with Betfred (1/4 1-5)
