We’re off to Germany for our golfing fix this weekend as the BMW International Championship gets underway on Thursday with the play taking us through to Sunday evening. Four days of high-class sporting action is played out live on Sky Sports with the first tee time set for 10.30am GMT. Here are our top BMW International Championship betting tips.
Golfclub Munchen Eichenried in Munich provides the setting and it’s a course that offers a unique challenge that will separate the challengers from the champions. Those serious about contending this prize must firstly make the cut before pushing themselves into contention for a final round on Sunday. There’s a whopping winner’s cheque up for grabs and that has resulted in a strong field.
Back in Munich
Golfclub Munchen is a familiar venue to followers of this competition and it played host to the BMW International Championship for 15 straight years before we saw a brief shift to Cologne. That’s worth remembering if you are a follower of the trends and course form and, if that’s the case, you can disregard a few results when studying the numbers. We’re back at the tournament’s spiritual home and players will see that as a positive.
It’s also worth noting that the course has undergone massive improvements in recent years, including changes to the layouts and better drainage, making for faster greens. The name may be the same, but this course presents a few different challenges to it did when hosting the BMW in years gone by. With that in mind its clear punters have a real task on their hands in predicting this weekend’s winner, but that has been factored in by bookmakers and there’s plenty of value in the outright betting markets. The risk is worth the reward.
Past outings have resulted in some low scoring rounds of golf with each of the last five champions handing in a winning score of -10 or better. Ernie Els came good five years ago with -18 and that return has been beaten only once since, Fabrizio Zanotti notching one less a year later in a play-off. Armchair fans will be hoping this weekend’s renewal falls into line and the weather suggests it will with playing conditions looking as close to perfect as we could hope for.
Wallace Aiming to Double-Up
Matt Wallace scooped this title last year with a score of -10 at Golf Club Gut Larchenhof and bookmakers, seemingly at a loss to nail down this year’s winner, have taken their lead from that and priced two-in-a-row for Wallace as favourite. He sits proudly atop the outright betting to retain his crown with backers able to get no more than the 12/1 currently being offered up by Unibet. If you do fancy a play on Matt Wallace, we suggest going with Unibet as every other firm we checked were offering only 10/1 on the same outcome. That’s quite a difference and it shows just how respected this man is on the trading floor.
Fans favourite Sergio Garcia is rated as the main danger with the Spaniard priced up as second favourite in the list. Again, there seems to be a difference of opinion amongst betting firms regarding the chances of Garcia. Ladbrokes are happy enough to offer a cracking 14/1, which is market best price, while the vast majority of their rivals are stuck at 12/1, some even as tight as 11/1. Getting the most value for your stake money is crucial to punters serious about making a profit from betting over the course of a season.
Plenty of Value Around
Matthew Fitzpatrick completes the first three in the betting and he comes in as a 14/1 shot, a price available to those taking advantage of the generosity of William Hill. That price is offered by most major firms who all seem to be in agreement that Fitzpatrick will be a major player this weekend and a man who’s sure to be in the running at the business end of the competition. Others worth a mention are Martin Kaymer at 16/1 (Bet365), Rafael Cabrera Bello at 25/1 (Ladbrokes) and Joost Luiten who can be backed at 25/1 with Ladbrokes.
Punters looking to back a nice price with the benefit of each-way can take advantage of 1/4 the odds a place 1-2-3-4-5. Some firms are offering more places but are only 1/5 the odds a place and some mark up shorter prices to compensate for the extra places, so be careful who you trust. As well as the outright betting, you can also play one of the many specials markets available, including first round leader, top 10 finish, to make the cut or not and top European player. There’s plenty to choose from with prices to suit every type of punter, including those eyeing a bulky pay out.
Kaymer Looks Overpriced
A case could be made for many of the leading contenders going close to winning this weekend but we’re happy to have our money on the chances of Martin Kaymer who looks to have been overpriced by the traders. He’s a man who will be eager to put on a show this weekend, will enjoy the backing of the crowd and is more than good enough to ask questions of the leaders. We were surprised to see him line-up with a 16/1 price tag attached to his chances and he’ll go much better than his quote suggests, we are sure of that.
The selection has winning form in this competition and he dominated when taking the prize back in 2008. That’s a while ago now but he’s good enough to repeat the feat and we expect the challenges of this course to play to his advantages.
It may be worth waiting to see how he starts and the kind of mood Kaymer is in before getting your cash down, but you can do that easily enough by taking advantage of the in-play betting markets. Back Kaymer each-way in the outright betting at a cracking 16/1 with Bet365.