Dutch Dyson And Fisher In The Netherlands

The KLM Open returns to the Kennemer Golf and Country Club, which explains why bookmakers are rating Simon Dyson among the favourites to take out the European Tour event.

Dyson is a KLM Open specialist, winning the tournament three times in nine attempts and posting a total of five top-15 finishes. The KLM Open has been played at two courses during Dyson’s time on the European Tour, with the Kennemer Golf and Country Club hosting the 2006, 2007, 2008 and 2009 editions. Dyson took out the 2006 and 2009 competitions, in between finishing 27th in 2007 and 12th in 2008. No-one else comes close to matching Dyson’s record in the KLM Open.

Bookmakers are reluctant to lay Dyson because not only is his KLM Open and Kennemer Golf and Country Club form out of the top drawer but also he has played well in recent weeks. Dyson has strung together finishes of 28th, 18th and 22nd leading in to his pet event and, before that, he had posted July 2013 results of fifth, 12th and ninth. Dyson is trading at odds of 19.00 with several bookmakers, including Betfred and BetVictor to win the KLM Open and he is one for the tournament portfolio in view of his great numbers.

The only golfer standing between Dyson and outright KLM Open favouritism is Ross Fisher, who is available at odds of 17.00 with the majority of bookmakers. Fisher won one of the two KLM Opens at the Kennemer Golf and Country Club that did not go the way of Dyson, taking out the 2007 title, and his other two appearances at the venue resulted in finishes of 20th and 47th. One has to respect Fisher’s chance of winning the KLM Open because he travels to the Netherlands off the back of his fifth place in the Omega European Masters. That was Fisher’s highest ranking on the European Tour this year.

Many KLM Open tournament head-to-head markets feature Dyson and Fisher so it is a case of identifying the golfers whom one would like to oppose against them. Both Dyson and Fisher have been paired with Joost Luiten, with Dyson trading at odds of 1.91 with Stan James and Fisher available at odds of 1.80 with Betfred. Luiten has played in eight KLM Opens, missing the cut five times. Three of those missed cuts occurred at the Kennemer Golf and Country Club so, even though Luiten was runner-up to Fisher in the 2007 KLM Open, the Dutch golfer is worth opposing with Dyson and Fisher having better credentials on the Zandvoort layout.

Tommy Fleetwood is making his first visit to the Kennemer Golf and Country Club but his recent results, which include one first and one ninth, make him interesting at odds of 1.91 with Betfred to finish higher in the KLM Open than Rafael Cabrera-Bello. Cabrera-Bello has played tidily in recent weeks but he missed the cut both times that he played in previous KLM Opens at the Kennemer Golf and Country Club. Even allowing for the fact that Fleetwood is a Kennemer Golf and Country Club novice, the Englishman should be the favourite versus Cabrera-Bello.

If one is willing to have a stab at a long-priced KLM Open competitor then Paul McGinley may be worth a small play at odds of 151.00 that are available generally. McGinley, who will captain the Europe team in the 2014 Ryder Cup, has participated in three KLM Opens at the Kennemer Golf and Country Club, finishing 22nd in 2006, second in 2008 and 26th in 2009. McGinley would have gone close to winning the ISPS Handa Wales Open two weeks ago had he not fired 77 in the third round. As it was, McGinley still managed to end the tournament in eighth place, seven strokes adrift of Gregory Bourdy. McGinley’s course and recent form is not that of a 151.00 outsider. McGinley is trading at odds of 13.00 with BetVictor to finish in the KLM Open top 10, while Bwin is offering odds of 4.10 about a McGinley top 20.