Soudal Open: Casey worth chancing at 30/1

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Soudal Open tournament history

First played in 1910 and won by Frenchman, Arnaud Massy, the Belgian Open, which is now known as the Soudal Open, has been staged only intermittently since its inception.

Lee Westwood won two editions in 1998 and 2000, but it dropped off the DP World Tour schedule after his second win before returning 18 years later in a different format.

The Belgian Knockout - a match play/stroke play hybrid tournament - was staged only twice but it was staged at this year's venue - Rinkven International.

Spain's Adrian Otaegui beat Benjamin Herbert in the 2018 final and Guido Migliozzi comfortably disposed of Darius van Driel in the 2019 final. 

After another break of a couple of years, the Soudal Open returned to the schedule four years ago as a regulation 72-hole stroke play event won by Sam Horsfield, who now plays on the LIV Golf circuit.

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Venue

Rinkven International Golf Club, Antwerp.

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Course details

Par 71, 6,940 yards
Stroke Average in 2025 - 71.15

Rinkven has been in existence since the early 1980s. Originally designed by Belgian golfer and coach, Paul Rolin, the venue has undergone a series of changes, and it's expanded to include two 18 hole courses - the North and the South. This week's course is a composite of the two.

According to the event's website back in 2019, the venue is set in "a wonderfully peaceful area of natural "Kempense" fenland just 15 km outside the city of Antwerp". The website goes on to describe the course used has a "mixture of woodland and parkland holes with water coming in play on several holes".

Rinkven was described as an exposed, flat, parkland course with poa annua tees, fairways and greens with a par of 72 and a really short yardage of just 6,622 when it was used to stage the now defunct Telenet Trophy (won by Lee Slattery by four in -21) on the HotelPlanner Tour 16 years ago but it now measures just shy of 6,700 yards with a par of 71 and the smaller than average greens have been changed from poa to bentgrass.

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Weather forecast

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TV coverage

Live on Sky Sports all four days, starting at midday on Thursday.

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Last four winners with pre-event Betfair Exchange prices

2022 - Sam Horsfield -13 26.025/1
2023 - Simon Forsstrom -17 150.0149/1
2024 - Nacho Elvira -18 100.099/1
2025 - Kristoffer Reitan -13 160.0159/1 (playoff)

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Soudal Open stats

None of the eight players to reach the semi-finals in each of the two Belgium Knockouts staged here hit it far off the tee and accurate types thrived.

With tree-lined fairways that all made sense but it's a been a slightly different story in this format.

Here's the last four results here with all the traditional stats and Strokes Gained numbers.

(Key: DD - Driving Distance; DA - Driving Accuracy; GIR - Greens in Regulation; SC - Scrambling; PA - Putting Average)

2022
Sam Horsfield -19 - DD: 5, DA: 58, GIR: 15, SC: 2, PA: 13
Ryan Fox -17 - DD: 32, DA: 61, GIR: 12, SC: 60, PA: 2
Yannik Paul -17 - DD: 66, DA: 23, GIR: 7, SC: 3, PA: 26

2023
Simon Forsstrom -17 - DD: 30 DA: 62, GIR: 16, SC: 1, PA: 24
Jens Dantorp -16 - DD: 27, DA: 41, GIR: 54, SC: 22, PA: 1
Thorbjorn Olesen -14 - DD: 21, DA: 55, GIR: 54, SC: 22, PA: 3

2024
Nacho Elvira -18 - DD: 32 DA: 42, GIR: 11, SC: 18, PA: 5
Romain Langasque -17 - DD: 9, DA: 17, GIR: 38, SC: 15, PA: 1
Nicklas Norgaard Moller -17 - DD: 1, DA: 72, GIR: 11, SC: 18, PA: 17
Thomas Pieters -17 - DD: 28, DA: 60, GIR: 18, SC: 55, PA: 7

2025
Kristoffer Reitan -13 - DD: 5 DA: 61, GIR: 17, SC: 31, PA: 3
Ewen Ferguson -13 - DD: 40, DA: 4, GIR: 57, SC: 3, PA: 7
Darius Van Driel -13 - DD: 25, DA: 2, GIR: 17, SC: 1, PA: 24

(Key: SG-T - Strokes Gained: Off the Tee; SG-A - Strokes Gained: Approach; SG-ATG - Strokes Gained: Around the Tee; SG-T2G - Strokes Gained: Tee to Green; SG-P - Strokes Gained: Putting)

2022
Sam Horsfield -19 - SG-T: 51 SG-A: 3, SG-ATG: 32, SG-T2G: 12, SG-P: 5
Ryan Fox -17 - SG-T: 55 SG-A: 1, SG-ATG: 37, SG-T2G: 13, SG-P: 8
Yannik Paul -17 - SG-T: 33 SG-A: 4, SG-ATG: 26, SG-T2G: 4, SG-P: 25

2023
Simon Forsstrom -17 - SG-T: 38 SG-A: 13, SG-ATG: 1, SG-T2G: 2, SG-P: 27
Jens Dantorp -16 - SG-T: 12 SG-A: 35, SG-ATG: 6, SG-T2G: 8, SG-P: 9
Thorbjorn Olesen -14 - SG-T: 67 SG-A: 14, SG-ATG: 18, SG-T2G: 23, SG-P: 3

2024
Nacho Elvira -18 - SG-T: 43 SG-A: 12, SG-ATG: 34, SG-T2G: 22, SG-P: 3
Romain Langasque -17 - SG-T: 31 SG-A: 17, SG-ATG: 56, SG-T2G: 27, SG-P: 4
Nicklas Norgaard Moller -17 - SG-T: 7 SG-A: 10, SG-ATG: 27, SG-T2G: 3, SG-P: 53
Thomas Pieters -17 - SG-T: 54 SG-A: 7, SG-ATG: 17, SG-T2G: 16, SG-P: 9

2025
Kristoffer Reitan -13 - SG-T: 10 SG-A: 21, SG-ATG: 6, SG-T2G: 2, SG-P: 28
Ewen Ferguson - 13 - SG-T: 5 SG-A: 60, SG-ATG: 3, SG-T2G: 14, SG-P: 6
Darius Van Driel -13 - SG-T: 9 SG-A: 11, SG-ATG: 9, SG-T2G: 1, SG-P: 36 

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Is there an angle in?

Adrian Otaegui, who won here in 2018, was a very impressive winner of the Andalucía Masters at Valderrama in 2021 and form at both Karen Country Club and Muthaiga in Kenya has come to the fore too. All three venues are fiddly tree-lined tracks.

The Belgium Knockout winner in 2019, Guido Migliozzi, won the Kenya Open at before he won here in 2019 and the 2022 winner of this event, Sam Horsfield, finished eighth in the Kenya Open and third in the Kenya Savannah Classic at Karen in consecutive weeks in March 2021 but the best correlating course after last year's edition of this event is Muthaiga.

Darius Van Driel, who won the Kenya Open there in 2024, and Ewen Ferguson, who led there by four with 18 to play in 2022, were both beaten in the playoff and last year's runner-up at Muthaiga, John Parry, finished tied for fourth with Thriston Lawrance who finished runner-up at Muthaiga in 2022.

Form at Muthaiga was well and truly confirmed as a great place to start but what was also noticeable last year was just how well represented form at Golfclub München Eichenried was.

The three winners of the BMW International at the tree-lined Golfclub München Eichenried between 2022 and 2024- Haotong Li, Lawrence and Ferguson- all finished inside the top four and ties and the last four runners-up in Germany all have form at Rinkven too.

Jordan Smith, who has finished second in Germany in each of the last two years, put in a charge in round four (matched at a low of 3/1) before finishing tied for fourth, the runner-up to Lawrence in Germany in 2023, Joost Luiten, sat third at halfway in Belgium last year, and Thomas Pieters, who lost a playoff in Germany to Haotong Li four years ago, finished runner-up to Elvira here two years ago.

The British Masters venue, the Belfry, also correlates very nicely too..

Migliozzi lost a playoff there five years ago, the 2023 British Masters winner, Thorbjorn Olesen, was third here in 2023 and Nicklas Norgaard Moller won at the Belfy in 2024, having finished tied for second here, beating the Lawrence by two strokes.

Several lowly ranked players have performed nicely here and at the Jeremy Pern designed Diamond Course, that hosted the Austria Open up until 2021 but that's fairly old form now, so I won't go into detail.

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Is there an identikit winner?

We don't have much evidence to go on but the last three winners have both gone off at a triple-figure price and many of the placed players have also been outsiders so don't be afraid to back a longshot or two.

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Winner's position and Betfair Exchange price pre-round four

 

2022 - Sam Horsfield - solo second, trailing by one 4.216/5
2023 - Simon Forsstrom - led by one 3.3512/5
2024 - Nacho Elvira - led by four 1.758/11
2025 - Kristoffer Reitan - tied 22^nd, trailing by nine 1000.0999/1

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In-play tactics

Prior to last year, it looked like being up with the pace was the place to be here and siding with the frontrunners from very early on looked like the way to play the event in-running.

Horsfield was in the van throughout, sitting tied first after rounds one and two and solo second, trailing by just one, after the third round, and the next two winners, like Slattery on the HotelPlanner Tour back in 2010, won wire-to-wire.

It looked like a really tough place to play catch up and Ferguson was matched at as low as 1.041/25 in-running 12 months ago just before he bogeyed the 72^nd hole, having led from halfway, but we can't describe it as a frontrunner's track after Reitan's miraculous victory last year.

The Norwegian, whose career continues to skyrocket (just won the Truist Championship on the PGA Tour), was matched at a 1000.0999/1 before he shot 62 on Sunday to make up a nine stroke deficit.

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Casey worth chancing

Aaron Rai's back nine at Aronimink on Sunday to secure his first major championship was quite brilliant but he wasn't the only player to finish the event in style.

Casey Jarvis, who very nearly won three DP World Tour events in-a-row when he finished second at the Joburg Open in March, caught the eye when he posted a bogey-free four-under-par 31 on the tough back-nine on Sunday. He's worth chancing at 32.031/1 around a course that should suit his eye.

His first victory on the DP World Tour, at the end of February, was in the Kenya Open at the tree-lined Karen Country Club. There's every reason to think he can take to Rinkven despite his poor course form figures reading MC-37.

He's a completely different player now and after an underwhelming short spell in the States, where 20^th in the Zurich pairs event alongside Canada's A.J Ewart was the highlight, he can return to winning ways on the DP World Tour.

His victory in Kenya was immediately followed by a dominant performance in his national title at Stellenbosch Golf Club (won by three strokes) and I'm surprised the 22-year-old isn't a bit shorter after Sunday's sublime finish to his first US PGA Championship appearance.

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