The North Course of Green Eagle awaits the field of the European Open, as the DP World Tour lands in Germany.
Since being relaunched, seven of the nine events have been hosted in Winsen with every edition since 2017 taking place at Green Eagle.
Rasmus Hojgaard and Jordan Smith are amongst the favourites, both coming in at 20/1.The same price is set for the defending champion, 21-year-old Tom McKibbin.
It was his first DP World Tour win and the question will be whether he can go back-to-back. With extremely long holes, driving is key in Winsen – so it's interesting to see McKibbin ranks ninth for shots gained off the tee and sixth for driving accuracy. He does drop down to 49th for driving distance, but a top 20 - or maybe even a top 10 – finish should be looked at.
Continuing to look at driving stats, the Spanish duo of Alejandro Del Rey (80/1) and Ivan Cantero pop up intriguing options (225/1).
Del Rey ranks 14th for shots gained off the tee and second for distance, the highest among those at Green Eagle, while Cantero is 12th in that stat and fifth in shots gained. Odds for both to make the Top 20 are good but look around for the possibility of simply backing them to make the cut.
A German has never won the European Open at Green Eagle, although many have come close. Maximilian Kieffer and Marcel Siem were both runners up last year, while Bernd Ritthammer and Allen John have fallen just short in previous years.
If this is the year a German gets over the line, it could well be Freddy Schott (150/1). Having turned 23-years-old this week, he will look to be capping his birthday celebrations with his first DP World Tour win.
The stats provide plenty of reasons to back him; 25th for shots gained off the tee, ninth for driving distance whilst still 50th for accuracy, plus 18th for greens in regulation and fifth for greens under regulation.
There's a lot to like. He comes in at 6/1 for a top 20 finish and 10/1 for top 10.
