European Tour: Previewing the KLM Open in the Netherlands

The PGA TOUR may be getting its new season off and running this week, but the European Tour is counting down to its finale, and this week we have the KLM Open in the Netherlands.

The KLM Open is one of the longest-running golf tournaments in history, with this being the 100th edition of the event since its inception in 1912.

Sixty years later, and it became a part of the inaugural European Tour season, and it has stayed on the calendar ever since, one of just six tournaments to have done so.

This year’s tournament will be held at The International for the first time, the eighth different venue in the Netherlands to have played host to the event.

It takes over from The Dutch course in Spijk, which was the host course last year, when China’s Ashun Wu took his third victory on the European Tour.

The par-73 course will give the players a much different test to the one they would have faced last week at the Porsche European Open. There are no 630+ yard par-5s this week.

Instead, the course, situated just outside Amsterdam, will provide a more stern test of accuracy off the tee, including a trio of par-3s over 190 yards in length. The card is split into a front nine of 37 and a back nine of 36, making up the 73.

Since the tournament became part of the European Tour in 1972, three men have gone on to win a hat-trick of titles, including Severiano Ballesteros, who was the first to do so. The Spaniard won this event in 1976, 1980 and 1986, with the former being the first of 50 titles he would go on to win on the Tour.

Bernhard Langer is another of the three-time winners of the KLM Open and the only one to win it in three different decades. He took his first in 1984, before winning it again in 1992. He had to wait another nine years before getting his third, doing so in 2001.

The final man to have sealed the triple in the Netherlands is the Englishman Simon Dyson. His three wins all came in a six-year spell. His first came in 2006, before winning the event again in 2009. Dyson wrapped up his third title two years later to join a unique group to have done so.

There are other former winners in the field, including the likes of Lee Westwood, who won this tournament 20 years ago, 2015 champion Thomas Pieters, 2017 winner Romain Wattel and two-time champion and home favourite Joost Luiten.

The Dutchman won this event in both 2013 and 2016, as he succeeded at Kennemer GC and The Dutch, respectively. Meanwhile, Ashun Wu will be looking to become only the second man to retain the title, following in the footsteps of American Bob Byman, who won back-to-back KLM Opens in 1977-78.

The Chinese star will kick off his week alongside Luiten and the all-time Ryder Cup points record holder, Spain’s Sergio Garcia. Former Masters champion Patrick Reed continues his European tilt, and he plays the first two rounds alongside previous KLM Open winner Pieters and England’s Matt Wallace.

Meanwhile, Martin Kaymer makes his return to the European Tour after a long break away from the game. He will partner with the 1999 champ Lee Westwood and Spain’s Jorge Campillo on Thursday and Friday.

The action gets underway in the Netherlands on Thursday morning, with trios teeing off on both the 1st and 10th. Wilco Nienaber, Hyowon Park, and Sven Maurits will start from the 1st, while Marcel Siem, Ben Evans and Max Schmitt get their weeks underway from the 10th, with both groups starting at 07:45 local time (GMT+2).

Selected Tee Times (* = 10th tee start):

08:25* & 13:25: Ashun Wu (CHN), Joost Luiten (NED), Sergio Garcia (ESP)

13:15 & 08:15*: Patrick Reed (USA), Thomas Pieters (BEL), Matt Wallace (ENG)

13:25 & 08:25*: Martin Kaymer (GER), Lee Westwood (ENG), Jorge Campillo (ESP)