BMW Open 2012

After a pulsating US Open last week, action returns to mainland Europe for the BMW Open Championship to be played at the Gut Larchenhof GC outside Cologne, Germany. Home favourite, Martin Kaymer won’t have far to travel. The Dusseldorf native and Mettmann GC member can sleep in his own bed this week, an added bonus after the grueling 4 days in San Francisco. It’s been awhile since he won but he definitely has shown signs of a return to winning ways and he will be happy with his tied 15th at The Olympic Club last week. At 8/1 he may be a bit short but further study of the lineup suggests that this may not be too bad a price. A class standout player returning to form has to be considered. I’m a big fan, think he has the right attitude and the overall game to dominate on the European Tour and contend regularly at Majors. I like Ross Fisher, as regular readers well know, but just cannot believe he is as low in the betting as he is this week. In fact the odds on Ross are so low (16/1) it makes the 8/1 on Kaymer more appealing with Paddypower.
  Paul Casey returns to action this week too following his injury worries. He made a return a couple of months ago and had some decent scores before further injury problems sidelined him again. I would like to think he is teeing it up this week believing he can compete over the 4 days, having been practicing the past couple of weeks or so. I can’t see how he is making the trip to simply “make up numbers” and test his competitiveness and at 60/1 I find it very tempting. If at 90% fitness he could go well here on a track that suits his game.
 Raphael Jacquelin had an impressive US Open last week. Comes here so in great form and is one of those players that tends to feed off new found form for a period and at 50/1 he is great value this week also. Thomas Aiken can be backed at 80s, very tempting, but I have to confess I’m not sure what state the South African’s game is in at present as he hasn’t played much this season. Shane Lowry is hot & cold, has the potential to be a multiple winner on tour and I am waiting for him to settle down and start being more consistent. 100/1 this week is not to be sneezed at but the 50s about Jacquelin seems to be the wiser selection.
Henrik Stenson (22/1), Sergio Garcia (11/1) and even Retief Goosen (25/1) could challenge for the title but the odds don’t excite me and in my opinion are not great value, so the chance is taken on Casey and the decision to back Jacquelin over Lowry is made. Good luck if you follow me on these.

 TIP 1: 4 pts WIN Martin Kaymer @ 8/1 Paddypower

TIP 2: 1 pt e/w Paul Casey @ 60/1 Paddypower

TIP 3: 1 pt e/w Raphael Jacquelin @ 50/1 Paddypower