BMW International Open: Classy Couvra great each-way value at 35/1

• Look to Belgium for clues in Germany

• Strong putting required in Munich 

• Now read my John Deere Classic preview here

---

Tournament History

The DP World Tour heads to Germany for the final event of the European Swing - the 36^th edition of the BMW International Open. 

Since 2011, and prior to the pandemic, the tournament alternated between two venues - the Golf Club Gut Lärchenhof and the Golfclub München Eichenried (the event's permanent home between 1997 to 2011) but we're again returning to the Golfclub München Eichenried for the sixth renewal in-a-row.

---

Venue

Golfclub München Eichenried, Munich, Germany

---

Course Details

Par 72, 7,347 yards
Stroke index in 2024 - 71.37

Designed by Kurt Rossknecht and opened in 1989, Golfclub München Eichenried is a flat, tree-lined course with greens that usually run quite slowly. There are water hazards on 10 holes and scoring here is generally low - although as the course has matured and the trees have grown, it has lowered slightly. 

A 20-under-par score wouldn't be enough in the early years, but players would gladly take that now that the course has matured. 

Li Haotong and Thomas Pieters played off for the title in 2022, after both men had posted -22, but that was the first time since 2009 that anyone went deeper than -19.

The greens were formerly quite slow but they were changed form a Bentgrass/Poa Annua mix to pure Creeping Bentgrass before the 2019 edition.

---

Weather Forecast

---

TV Coverage

Live on Sky Sports all four days, starting at 11:30 on Thursday

---

Last Eight Winners with Pre-event Exchange Prices

2024 - Ewen Ferguson -18 60.059/1
2023 - Thriston Lawrence -13 120.0119/1
2022 - Li Haotong -22 80.079/1 (playoff)
2021 - Viktor Hovland -19 8.88/1
2020 - Event Cancelled
2019 - Andrea Pavan -15 110.0109/1 (playoff)
2018 - Matt Wallace -10 44.043/1 (Golf Club Gut Lärchenhof)
2017 - Andres Romero -17 510.0509/1

---

What Will it Take to Win the BMW International Open?

The 2017 winner here, Argentina's Andres Romero, was a tournament invite and he wasn't a member of the DP World Tour, so no stats were produced for him but I've looked at the stats for the last ten course winners, not including Romero, and here are their average rankings for the nine.

Driving Distance 37.8
Driving Accuracy 24.8
Greens In Regulation 15.6
Putting Average 18.5
Scrambling 19.4

Hitting it a long way used to be the secret to success here before the course matured and the trees grew but length is much less of a relevance here now and I'd favour accuracy off the tee over power.

The last three course winners have ranked only 41^st, 43^rd and 49^th for Driving Distance and David Horsey was able to win here ranking just 68^th for DD in 2010.

Last year's winner, Ewen Ferguson, ranked eighth for Driving Accuracy, the runner-up in 2023, Joost Luiten, ranked second for D.A and Horsey ranked seventh for Driving Accuracy in 2010, with the runner-up that year, Ross Fisher, topping the DA stats.

In 2011, Pablo Larrazabal won the title for the first time ranking second for DA but keeping it straight off the tee hole-after-hole isn't absolutely imperative given the 2022 and 2023 winners ranked only 42^nd and 46^th for Driving Accuracy.

Ferguson ranked tied seventh for Greens In Regulation last year and five of the top eight ranked ninth or better for GIR. The first and second six years ago ranked second and first for Greens In Regulation, Els ranked first for GIR in 2013 and two years earlier, Larrazabal had ranked second when he won but he won the second of his two titles (nine years ago) ranking 32^nd for GIR and the 2023 winner, Lawrence, only ranked 35^th, so it's clearly not a vital stat either.

The 2009 winner, Nick Dougherty, ranked second for Putting Average and Larrazabal ranked 10^th a year later. On the next occasion the event was staged here, in 2013, the second and third had PA rankings of second and fourth but the winner, Ernie Els, ranked 50^th and the next three winners (excluding Romero) ranked 27^th, 35^th and 38^th but putting has been a key metric in the last four years, since the new greens have been established.

The front three last year ranked 13^th, first and 10^th for PA, Lawrence ranked fourth in 2023 and the front three in the rankings all finished inside the top seven and ties, The first four home three years ago ranked second, seventh, first and ninth for PA and the front three in 2021 ranked fourth, first and second.

Looking at the Strokes Gained data for the last five editions here (the only renewals with SG data), it's a bit of a mixed bag but Putting is again the key metric.

Andrea Pavan ranked seventh in 2021, with the player ranked number one for SG: Putting, Sebastian Soderberg, only tied for 14^th, but the top ranked player has finished inside the top four places in each of the last four renewals.

---

Is There an Angle In?

Ferguson had finished inside the top 30 in each of his two previous starts but his 27^th in the KLM Open in his penultimate start was his best effort since March so he couldn't have been described as bang in form and that's a bit of a theme here.

Although he'd won the Joburg Open six months earlier, Lawrence went off at a big price in 2023 because he arrived in Germany on the back of a poor run of form.

The South African had missed three of his previous four cuts and he'd recorded just one top 20 finish all year.

Haotong Li had inconsistent 2022 form figures reading 12-MC-32-3-33-MC-6-26-MC-37-18 before he won here three years ago and the two course winners before Viktor Hovland in 2021 were woefully out of form.

Andrea Pavan's best finish in his 12 starts prior to his victory here in 2019 had yielded just one top-20 and he'd missed five cuts, and Romero's form in 2017 was appalling.

In five worldwide starts, 71 was the best round score he'd achieved, and he'd missed every cut. Those two both went off at huge prices this has been a reasonable event for longshots of late.

The last ten course winners have all been winning for the first time that year, so being out of form hasn't been a barrier to success at Golfclub München Eichenried. 

---

Course form not as crucial as it once was

 

Thomas Bjorn and Pablo Larrazabal have both won here twice and Sergio Garcia traded odds-on before eventually finishing second in both 2011 and 2017, but recent history suggests course form or even course experience isn't essential.

Ferguson had course numbers reading MC-21-MC, Lawrence had finished 36^th on debut in 2022 before winning two years ago, Li had missed the cut on his only previous visit six years before he won (also missed the cut when defending last year), like the 2010 winner, David Horsey, Hovland was playing here for the first time when he victorious in 2021, and the 2019 winner, Andrea Pavan, had previous course form figures reading MC-MC-56.

---

Look to Belgium for clues

 

It's becoming increasingly evident that this venue correlates very nicely with another tree-lined track - Rinkven International Golf Club in Antwerp, home of the Soudal Open.

The last three winners of this event - Ferguson, Lawrence, and Li - all finished inside the top four at Rnkven in May, and the last three runners-up here all have form at Rinkven too.

Jordan Smith, who finished tied for second alongside David Micheluzzi behind Ferguson last year, put in a charge in Belgium in May (matched at a low of 3/1) before finishing tied for fourth, the runner-up to Lawrence here two years ago, Joost Luiten, sat third at halfway in Belgium, and Thomas Pieters, who lost in a playoff to Li three years ago, finished runner-up to Nacho Elvira in Belgium last year. 

---

Winner's Position and Exchange Price Pre-Round Four

2024 - Ewen Ferguson - tied for the lead 4.131/10
2023 - Thriston Lawrence - T4th, trailing by three 12.011/1
2022 - Li Haotong - one stroke clear 4.03/1
2021 - Viktor Hovland - three strokes clear 1.292/7
2020 - Event Cancelled
2019 - Andrea Pavan - T8th, trailing by four 50.049/1
2018 - Staged at Golf Club Gut Lärchenhof
2017 - Andres Romero T4th, trailing by three 32.031/1
2016 - Staged at Golf Club Gut Lärchenhof
2015 - Pablo Larrazabal T5th, trailing by five 22.021/1

---

In-Play Tactics

Ferguson sat second after round one and he was leading or tied for the lead thereafter 12 months ago.

Li won wire-to wire three years ago (although it was far from straightforward) and Hovland was never far away in 2021. He sat tied for 18^th and four off the lead after round one, but he was up to second at halfway and clear with a round to go.

In 2019, Pavan led after round one, before falling off the pace and rallying on Sunday and Ernie Els won wire-to-wire in 2013 but a fast start hasn't always been imperative.

Back in 2006, Henrik Stenson beat Padraig Harrington and Retief Goosen in a playoff after the three had started the event with rounds of only 71, 70 and 73 respectively and Lawrence sat tied for 47^th after round one in 2023.

The losing playoff protagonist in 2022, Thomas Pieters, sat tied 29^th, trailing by seven, after round one and Matt Fitzpatrick, was beaten in the playoff in 2019, having sat tied for 85^th after round one, so a slow start can be overcome, and this is not an easy place to front run.

The 2023 third round leader, Joost Luiten, who was a 1.75/7 chance when he led by three, hit a low of 1.42/5 in-running, Pieters was matched for plenty at odds-on before losing the playoff in 2023 and even though he won comfortably in the end, it wasn't plain sailing for Hovland in 2022.

Having drifted to 1.910/11 in-running on Sunday, he was fortunate that none of his closest pursuers played well and that his two-under-par 70 was easily enough.

Plenty of players have traded at a short price before flaking late on and in 2019 we saw four men trade at short odds without winning!

Martin Kaymer was matched at a low of 2.3211/8, Matt Wallace 2.01/1, Matthias Schwab 1.784/5 and the beaten playoff protagonist, Fitzpatrick, hit a low of 1.21/5!

It's hard to convert from the front here and we've seen winners come from as far as five strokes back but since 1997, no course winner had been outside the top eight places with a round to go. Romero, who trailed by three in fourth place six years ago, was a 32.031/1 chance with a round to go but after starting the final round with seven straight pars he was matched at a high of 190.0189/1! He finished the event with seven birdies in his last 11 holes so late drama here is not just a possibility, it's a regular occurrence.

---

In-form Reed a worthy favourite

The in-form LIV golfer, Patrick Reed, heads a wide-open market and he contended strongly here on his only previous appearance last year, eventually finishing 13^th, having sat tied for fifth with 18 to play.

Given he won the US Masters in 2018, it was no surprise to see him take to this tree-lined track and he's a worthy favourite after his victory in Dallas on Sunday in extra-time.

The 34-year-old won the Hong Kong Open in November, when he shot 59 in round three around another tree-lined venue, Fanling, and he finished third in Augusta in April, so he's been in fine fettle for a while now.

He's the only man in the field trading at less than 20/121.00 and he looks highly likely to contend.

---

Classy Couvra great each-way value

There's a clutch of quality young players emerging on the DP World Tour this season and one or two of them look like future superstars.

Recent winners, Marco Penge, Eugenio Chacarra, and Kristoffer Retain have all impressed to varying degrees but the one with perhaps the highest ceiling is the 22-year-old Frenchman, Martin Couvra, who's a bafflingly big price with the Sportsbook at 35/136.00 with eight places.

Couvra missed the cut at the Soudal Open at the end of May but that's his only poor performance since he missed the cut at the China Open in April.

Martin Couvra is having a debut Tour season to remember pic.twitter.com/5VjDUU0QU6

-- DP World Tour (@DPWorldTour) June 30, 2025

He followed that weekend off with a fifth place finish in the Hainan Classic and a victory in the Turkish Airlines Open. Since missing the cut in Belgium, following his maiden win in Turkey, he's finished eighth in Austria and second in Italy last week, where he was caught and passed by fellow Frenchman, Adrien Saddier, on the back-nine on Sunday.

He did very little wrong in Tuscany and another high finish is highly plausible given he ranked seventh for Putting Average in Turkey, eighth in Austria and ninth last week in Italy.

He's making his course debut this week but that doesn't put me off in the slightest given he won the Turkish Islands Open around another tree-lined course on debut - Regnum Carya - and I thought the industry-best 35/136.00 with the Betfair Sportsbook was impossible to ignore.

---

Now read more golf previews and tips here

---