BMW International Open Each-Way Tips: Perez can return to cruise speed

Matt Cooper
20 June 2022
4:00 min read

Victor Perez looks back to his best.

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Matt Cooper, fresh from a 33/1 winner las time out, has three each-way picks for the BMW International

"It’s a layout that should suit his excellent long game (11th for Strokes Gained Tee to Green this season and eighth for Approach) and I think there's a good chance he isn't done with the success this summer."
Victor Perez 1pt each-way @ 29.028/1

Main Bet: Victor Perez 1pt each-way @ 28/1

More Saudi golf head-scratching is likely this week in Munich. Will we LIV and learn? Possibly. Maybe. Who knows?

The ramifications of the first LIV Golf Invitational two weeks ago (in which this column found the 33/1 winner Charl Schwartzel) rumble on. Or trundle on for the DP World Tour which is stuck in a rather tortured rut, lacking the firepower of the PGA Tour to take any kind of strong stance.

So the rebels play this week but might not be able to play the Scottish Open in two weeks time. Or something.

If nothing else, Greg Norman is guilty of plunging the sport into some outstandingly tiresome and irritating debates.

Meanwhile, we're back at Golfclub Munchen Eichenried for the golf, the most common host of an event that first landed on the schedule in 1989, but which in recent years alternated with Gut Larchenhof.

It's a nice spot, a tree-lined parkland set-up that is rather flat but features a nice closing stretch that offers a great degree of volatility late on a Sunday, notably the short par-4 16th (319-yards), the long par-3 17th (205-yards) and the par-5 18th which is 568-yards but a big chunk of that distance can be avoided with a daring line from the tee that cuts the dogleg.

Last year each of the top three went birdie-bogey-birdie over that trio of holes and the thrills extend further back.

In 2009 Argentina's Rafa Echenique covered the back nine in just 27 blows, completing his charge to the line with an albatross-2 at the last to grab solo second.

Eight years later his compatriot Andres Romero appeared becalmed in the final round, parring the first seven holes. He then made seven birdies in 11 holes to claim a superb victory.

Who might catch fire this Sunday? Well, I wonder if Frenchman Victor Perez has been a little overlooked.

A semi-finalist at last year's WGC Dell Technologies Match Play he struggled through the rest of the year.

He made more cuts early this year, started to appear on the front page of leaderboards and then won the Dutch Open last month at Bernardus. A week later he led the European Open by one after 54 holes before finishing third.

He missed the cut last week in the US Open but he can bound back to the form that preceded it on his course debut.

It's a layout that should suit his excellent long game (11th for Strokes Gained Tee to Green this season and eighth for Approach) and I think there's a good chance he isn't done with the success this summer. There is more to come and it could easily start this week.

samooja kalle europea.jpg

Next Best: Kalle Samooja 1pt each-way @ 66/1

While not believing that Kalle Samooja, the Finn whose flying final round of 64 overhauled Perez at the European Open in Hamburg, is of the same long-term quality as the Frenchman, I do wonder if he isn't another who has been a little overlooked.

That first win on the DP World Tour came from nowhere, after three missed cuts and he followed it with another abbreviated week at the US Open.

Some might also argue that it really was the consequence of just one lap.

But he did shoot 67 in the second round last week at The Country Club. Not enough to earn him a weekend in Boston, but decent scoring.

Samooja might revert to poor golf, but the win might also free him up a little and I'm willing to give him a go on this return to Germany.

He has a decent record at the Emirates GC, a track that is also flat with a back nine that demands to be attacked on the final day. He's played it four times, also landed a top 30, he was tied fourth in 2021 and T12th this year.

He's also lost a play-off at Crans in the European Masters. Munich is not at such a high altitude, but the air is a little thin so that's another little tick in the box.

Final Bet: Marcus Armitage 1pt each-way @ 50/1

Final pick Marcus Armitage is another winner of the European Open at Green Eagle GC, in fact Samooja succeeded him, but that's a coincidence rather than by design in these picks.

I just rather like that the Englishman is bubbling towards a decent finish, has a good chance on this course and is a nice price.

He missed the cut in his first start of the year at the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship, but has missed just one more since then.

Of those ten cuts made all but one was a top 40, six were top 25s and there was something to be said for at least one round every time.

In his last five starts, for example, he has been tied fifth at the Qatar Masters in Doha, was tied second heading into the final round of the British Masters at The Belfry, he made the cut at the Dutch Open despite lying T107th after 18 holes, and on defence of the European Open last time out he was tied eighth at halfway.

He's played plenty of flattish parkland track in northern Europe very well with top 10s at Mount Wolseley, Diamond CC, The Belfry and Galgorm Castle.

He's also got a top 10 at Crans and two top 10s at Randpark in Johannesburg so he also has altitude ticked.

* Having difficulty working out the place returns? Fret no more - you can easily work out your returns with our new each way calculator.