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Once again, the European Tour has to be applauded for innovation. A month on from the Scandinavian Mixed, in which men and women competed in the same event, we have another dual-gender event. This is more akin to the Victorian Open in that men and women compete at the same venue but have separate competitions that have, importantly, the same amount of prize money. In the inaugural events two years ago, the men’s event was sanctioned by the Challenge Tour, but the Ladies European Tour didn’t sanction the women’s event. This time, the men’s event is sanctioned by the main European Tour and the women’s event is sanctioned by both the Ladies European Tour and the LPGA Tour. The two competitions will play the first two rounds over the Galgorm Castle and Massereene golf courses, before focusing only on the Galgorm Castle course over the weekend. There will be a traditional 36-hole cut involving the top-60 and ties, but there will also be a second cut after 54 holes for the top-35 and ties. It is the same format as in the inaugural event two years ago. The main course, Galgorm Castle Golf Club, is a short par-70 with an official yardage of 7,005 yards. There are only two par-5s, both on the back nine, and there are two very short par-4s (less than 330 yards), both on the front nine. Collectively, these were the four easiest holes when this course was used for last year’s Irish Open and for all that the back nine is much longer, the front nine is much tougher with the exception of those two short par-4s. Massereene Golf Club is 200 yards shorter and will play much easier. These are both tree-lined parkland courses. In addition to last year’s Irish Open, Galgorm Castle has hosted the Northern Ireland Open on the Challenge Tour every year since 2013 with the exception of 2019. That was the first ISPS Handa World Invitational. Even with the Northern Ireland Open, this course has been host to an innovative tournament format: after three rounds of strokeplay in 2017, the top-24 players competed in six-hole strokeplay knockout matches. Thankfully, that is one innovation that has not been retained. In short, there is plenty of course history for the main course used this week, but as all but one tournament was on the Challenge Tour, there is a paucity of stats for previous tournaments bar the 2020 Irish Open. With that caveat in mind, the following are offered as angles to identify players who should contend this week. Angle to consider: 1. The par-4s are important around Galgorm Castle Whether it is the lack of par-5s or the two very short par-4s that provide the key scoring opportunities, it is clear that good scores are borne out of playing the par-4s well here. John Catlin won the 2020 Irish Open and ranked 1st for par-4 scoring while the top-4 ranked for par-4 scoring all finished in the top-5 on the leaderboard. It is a similar story in the 2020 Northern Ireland Open when the top-5 in par-4 scoring all ranked in the top-8 on the leaderboard. There were no stats for this event in 2019, but the winner of the 2018 and 2017 Northern Ireland Open ranked 1st for par-4 scoring that week. Given that these were Challenge Tour events, there are few other stats available. 2. Driving accuracy is a key stat This can only be derived from the 2020 Irish Open played in September, so the rough may have been a little thicker than this week, but the top-two on the leaderboard were Catlin and Aaron Rai. At the start of the week, they ranked 3rd and 4th, respectively, in driving accuracy on the European Tour that season. The fairways are tree-lined on this short course, so this fits the course profile. 3. Greens in regulation is also a key stat Still at the 2020 Irish Open for an event with anything other than basic scoring stats and while the top-two were amongst the most accurate drivers on Tour, another feature is again accuracy all the way from tee to green. While Catlin’s game is built more around scrambling, Rai entered the week in 3rd position on the European Tour’s greens in regulation category. Third-placed Maverick Antcliff was ranked 10th in that category and 7th-placed Jordan Smith was ranked 2nd in greens in regulation on that European Tour at the start of the week. That stat was clearly a good predictor of who would compete that week. Selections The above angles have been used to create a shortlist from which the following players has been selected. Marcus Armitage The winner of the European Open last month also has a good record on at Galgorm Castle with four top-25 finishes in six previous visits. His greens in regulation and strokes gained: approach the green stats are good, but it is his overall play that sees him ranked inside the top-20 for strokes gained: total on the European Tour. John Catlin Even beyond the fact that he won last year’s Irish Open, Catlin is a very good fit for the Galgorm Castle course. He ranks inside the top-10 again for driving accuracy and inside the top-20 for strokes gained: approach the green. He won the Austrian Open in April when not showing any form beforehand so his recent finishes are not a concern. Wil Besseling Another complete player who ranks inside the top-25 for strokes gained: total. He has finished in the top-20 in his last two starts recorded top-10 finishes here in 2016 and 2018 so should be confident heading into this week. Connor Syme And another complete player which shows consistency at a very high level even though, like Besseling, yet to win a maiden European Tour title. Syme has the form to play well here, as he did when finishing in the top-10 in 2019. Very accurate tee-to-green with a high ranking for driving accuracy and greens in regulation, as well as a top-15 ranking for par-4 scoring. Yet again, Syme has the profile to be a very strong contender at a European Tour venue. Josh Geary Has been in very good recently, finishing 2nd and 11th in Challenge Tour events this month. His game is based more around his short game – similar to Catlin – as he ranks 1st in strokes gained: around the green and 4th in putts per GIR on the European Tour. Should feature in this event if he can be accurate off the tee. Darius Van Driel As someone ranking inside the top-25 for driving accuracy on the European Tour, there should be no concerns about Van Driel’s accuracy off the tee. Given that he finished 2nd in the European Open last month (his third top-10 in three months) and he has two top-15 finishes here, he could be a strong contender. Maverick Antcliff As a person who led after 36 holes in last year’s Irish Open and finished 3rd overall, Antcliff is another who is expected to be a strong contender particularly as he ranks inside the top-10 for strokes gained: approach the green. Has been close to winning on this Tour a number of times – e.g. he finished 2nd in the Canary Islands Championship two months – but as a three-time winner in China in 2019, he is certainly capable of converting chances to win. Dale Whitnell Whitnell is another yet to win on this Tour, but he has won on the Challenge Tour (2019 KPMG Trophy) and he has featured in a number of tournaments recently, particularly the Irish Open when he finished 4th. Ranking inside the top-30 for strokes gained: approach the green, he should fair well on the Galgorm Castle course. Steven Brown Brown finished in the top-5 in the 2014 Northern Ireland Open and with a game based more around accuracy than power, he should fare much better at this week’s venue than in previous weeks. Richard Mansell Mansell is another with a good record at this venue with finishes of 10th in 2019 and 23rd in 2020 (Northern Ireland Open). Ranked inside the top-25 for greens in regulation on the European Tour, he should fare well this week if he can accurate off the tee. Hugo Leon Leon missed out on a Challenge Tour title three weeks ago by a single shot and then finished inside the top-15 in last week’s Cazoo Open on the main European Tour. In this form, and against this field, he is worthy of interest.
Niall Kearney Kearney is a more obvious selection. He finished in the top-15 in the BMW International Open last month and 4th in the Canary Islands Open the month before that. He finished in the top-25 in the Northern Ireland Open here last year, but importantly he has proven himself to have become a very consistent player at this level. He ranks 16th in scoring average on the European Tour and that is built around top-25 rankings for driving accuracy and scrambling. Both should be relevant this week. Tips 3-9; -3.50pts 0.25pts e.w. Marcus Armitage 25/1 (VBet 1/4 1-2-3-4-5) 30th 0.25pts e.w. John Catlin 25/1 (Betway 1/5 1-2-3-4-5-6-7) 7th 0.25pts e.w. Wil Besseling 30/1 (Paddy Power, Betfair Sportsbook 1/5 1-2-3-4-5-6-7) mc 0.25pts e.w. Connor Syme 33/1 (Unibet 1/5 1-2-3-4-5-6) 32nd 0.25pts e.w. Josh Geary 66/1 (Boyle Sports 1/5 1-2-3-4-5-6-7) mc 0.25pts e.w. Darius Van Driel 80/1 (Paddy Power, Betfair Sportsbook 1/5 1-2-3-4-5-6-7) 7th 0.25pts e.w. Maverick Antcliff 45/1 (Sporting Index 1/4 1-2-3-4-5) 26th 0.25pts e.w. Dale Whitnell 66/1 (Betway, Boyle Sports 1/5 1-2-3-4-5-6-7) 11th 0.25pts e.w. Steven Brown 90/1 (Paddy Power, Betfair Sportsbook, Boyle Sports 1/5 1-2-3-4-5-6-7) mc 0.25pts e.w. Richard Mansell 50/1 (VBet 1/4 1-2-3-4-5) mc 0.25pts e.w. Hugo Leon 80/1 (Mansion Bet, 10Bet, Sort Nation, Redzone 1/5 1-2-3-4-5-6-7) 7th 0.25pts e.w. Niall Kearney 80/1 (Bet365, VBet, Sporting Index 1/4 1-2-3-4-5) mc
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