European Tour will transition from northwest Sweden to Aizenbrugg, Austria for the Lyoness Open tournament from the Diamond Golf Course this week. The 2016 edition will feature a relatively limited field as the focus around the golf world begins to shift towards the U.S. Open next week. That means we won’t get any big names here like Rory McIlroy, Jordan Spieth, Jason Day or Sergio Garcia. However, there will be some opportunities to make some money betting this event and we have broken down the field to give you the best possible betting plays.
Event Details
Event: Lyoness Open
Category: European
Date: June 9-12
Location: Diamond Golf Course, Atzenbrugg, Austria
It has been 26 years since Bernard Langer won the first edition of the Lyoness Open all the way back in 1990 when it was formally known as the Australian Open. After a brief period in which the tournament went dark, the Lyoness Open returned to the European Tour in 2006 and has been a staple ever since.
Atzenbrugg itself is a small municipality in the lower part of Austria. It has a small population – right around 2500 people – so welcoming an event of this capacity will increase the amount of people in the area significantly.
Past Five Winners
2015: Chris Wood -15
2014: Mikael Lundberg -12 (Playoff)
2013: Joost Luiten -17
2012: Bernd Wiesberger -19
2011: Kenneth Ferrie -12 (Playoff)
What To Know About The Course
No winner has ranked worse than 24th in Driving Accuracy at this course with the average ranking of 12.66 in that category for the past tournament winners. Driving Distance will still be important but the numbers are proof that it won’t be as important as DA at the Lyoness Open. It’s certainly worth noting that four of the past five winners have ranked in the top-10 in Greens In Regulation so that is an important statistic to keep an eye on this week. Joost Luiten is the only Lyoness Open winner to rank outside the top-11 in Scrambling so that is one more key number to consider before making your bets this week.
The Field
The 2013 winner Luiten hasn’t shown his best form over his last couple of starts but he has had his share of success at this tournament over the years and it makes sense that he is listed as the betting favorite to win outright at +700 odds. The defending champion Chris Wood is in fine form after coming out on top at the BMW PGA Championship and he joins the 2012 winner Bernd Wiesberger as a solid bet for this week at +900 odds. Gregory Bourdy, Richie Ramsay and James Morrison round out the betting favorites with 2014 winner Mikael Lundberg a notable longshot at +150000 odds to win outright.
A Good Matchup To Bet: Joost Luiten over Bernd Wiesberger
With so many relative unknowns heading in to this weekend it only makes sense to stick with what we known and go with the outright betting favorite Luiten to come out on top in his matchup with Wiesberger. Luiten fell off big time following a strong start at Wentworth his last time out but he will be determined to bounce back and deliver a much better performance in the final stop before the U.S. Open. Meanwhile, Wiesberger went in to last year’s tournament as a hot favorite but hit a brutal seven-over-par 79. He shouldn’t do that bad this week but we like Luiten to deliver a better performance than Wiesberger at this year’s edition of the Lyoness Open.
Top-Five Pick: Chris Wood
Wood delivered an outstanding wire-to-wire performance when he won this tournament last year as he never fell outside of the top three. That was after he never fell out of the top-five at the Lyoness Open the previous year. His course form is off the charts and he enters this week on fire after a victory at the BMW PGA Championship. Wood has all of the intangibles to succeed again here this week so we will make him our lock to finish in the top-five at the Lyoness Open.
Top 10 Odds To Win The Lyoness Open
Bernd Wiesberger +650
Joost Luiten +650
Chris Wood +850
Gregory Bourdy +1550
James Morrison +3250
Richie Ramsay +2550
Richard Bland +3550
Lucas Bjerregaard +3250
Johan Carlsson +3550
Jordan L Smith +4550
