Ben Coley tipped the 190/1 runner-up in last year's KLM Open. He has six selections, all at big prices, in a bid to go one better.
- The International hosts Dutch Open
- 20/1 the field with strong wind forecast
- 190/1 runner-up in last year's preview
Golf betting tips: KLM Open
1.5pts e.w. Dan Bradbury at 40/1 (Coral, Ladbrokes 1/5 1,2,3,4,5,6,7)
1.5pts e.w. Antoine Rozner at 45/1 (Betfred 1/5 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8)
1pt e.w. Grant Forrest at 60/1 (bet365 1/5 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8)
1pt e.w. Matthew Jordan at 60/1 (Coral, Ladbrokes 1/5 1,2,3,4,5,6,7)
1pt e.w. Rikuya Hoshino at 150/1 (BOYLE Sports 1/5 1,2,3,4,5,6)
1pt e.w. Matthew Baldwin at 275/1 (bet365 1/5 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8)
Another week, another national open to look forward to on the DP World Tour and with names like Seve Ballesteros, Bernhard Langer, Jose Maria Olazabal and Sewsunker Sewgolum on the roll-of-honour, this is another which carries plenty of clout.
Times though do change and as we await a young Dutch golfer to truly take the torch from Joost Luiten, and wonder why Patrick Reed has decided that no golf between majors is preferable to travelling even to an event he's actually played before and one within a couple of shots from a massive airport, this year's field is more about promise and potential than it is star power.
Angel Ayora seems destined to go on to achieve great things in time and heads the betting again at a course he's played twice, which is one or two times more than many of those he's contended at in his second season on the circuit. Under calm conditions and with Reed and others absent, this would have looked a fine opportunity, but that's where we meet trouble – wind is forecast, and plenty of it over the first two days.
It's not that Ayora can't handle it, but we saw last year how differently The International can play when it blows. We'd had Spanish and Italian champions at this relatively short, modern, links-style set-up in two prior renewals, but in came Scotland's Connor Syme as the course bared its teeth. Two more of his compatriots were in the top five and a Swede chased him home on a leaderboard of shot-makers who thrive in such weather.
That Swede, Joakim Lagergren, five shots too good for the rest but two behind Syme, had been recommended here at 190/1 owing to a fine record in the Dunhill Links and a play-off defeat at Doha, a Middle East course which so often shares things in common with leaderboards in Scotland. Had it been calm, these form lines might've carried less significance; as it is, they seem like a really good place to begin once more.
Regardless of that, in the wind the four par-fives here are not easy, particularly the 15th which played over-par last year. And, rarely for any course at this level, it's a par-three that's played easiest over the last two renewals combined, with the 11th just over 100 yards and representing a big birdie chance. There are enough of those around this short, quirky mix of five par-threes, four par-fives, and just nine par-fours.
Returning to the forecast, there is at least a hint that teeing off early on day one could prove to be an advantage, because Friday afternoon is when gusts of up to 30mph begin to drop to almost nothing before the weekend begins. Hour-by-hour wind forecasts that won't bear fruit for three days come with obvious caveats, but this seems a sensible way to sift through a lengthy list of candidates.
Bald shout at big prices
Starting at the bottom, MATTHEW BALDWIN is my favourite bet and I was thrilled to see him back what could be a favourable set of tee-times.
Baldwin lies 142nd on the Race to Dubai and was a lowly 168th last year, so let's make no mistake: he's a big-priced outsider for a reason having largely struggled over the past couple of seasons. The exemption which kept a card in his pocket now expired, he has work to do if he's to avoid a trip to Qualifying School or a return to the HotelPlanner Tour next year.
However, prior to last week's missed cut at altitude in Austria, there had been signs of promise and they date back to when he turned 40 in February. Since then he'd made seven cuts in a row and even throwing in last week to cover eight performances, every one of them shows positive tee-to-green numbers. He's been struggling with the putter, but his long-game has seemingly returned.
That we return to conditions he so enjoys is vital to the case. Born in Southport and raised on a diet of coastal golf including when he won a big amateur title in Norfolk, Baldwin has always been a good player in the wind and when his DP World Tour breakthrough came in 2023, no wonder it was by the sea in South Africa, where St Francis Links threw up a serious test of links smarts.
Baldwin spreadeagled the field in much the same way that Syme and Lagergren did here last year and Syme's performance at the same course in 2024, when he led through 54 holes, underlines the obvious similarities between them. Ewen Ferguson, one of the other Scots in the mix here, was third behind Baldwin at St Francis and there were players from Norway and Sweden alongside him, too.
Baldwin also has correlating form in Doha (10th) and at Le Golf National (fifth), where 2024 KLM Open champion Guido Migliozzi had won previously, and Ferguson has contended. So has Marcus Kinhult, beaten by Migliozzi in a play-off, and while very much inland, Le Golf National is an exposed course which has long favoured quality iron players who can cope with breeze and limit mistakes, particularly when hitting high-risk approach shots.
There's a lot to like about Baldwin at massive odds, then, and the snags are his putting and his performance last week. There's not much I can say on the former except that he ranked as high as 20th in Turkey recently and was field-average in China before that; it's not a club that has ever been reliable and he'd struggled prior to his victory three years ago. We'll take our chances.
As for last week, Thursday's birdie-free 75 is obviously concerning but he responded really well with a Friday 68, his bogeys coming at two of the three toughest holes on the course. He made a couple of nice putts, too, and you'd have to hope that round is the kind of thing an experienced campaigner who knows his game is close can use as a springboard.
Under ideal conditions, I'm really keen on Baldwin at the prices.
GRANT FORREST is what you'd call a more realistic winner and he looks primed to go well.
Forrest was 13th here last year despite holing very little, and that performance can be doubly upgraded given that he'd been struggling. It was his best effort of the year to that point, and he went on to underline his wind and links credentials with 22nd in a high-class Scottish Open before winning the Nexo Championship in Aberdeen.
Tough conditions were in play throughout that and Forrest excelled, leading the field from tee-to-green just as he had in elite company at The Renaissance four weeks earlier, and it's no coincidence that his other standout performance over the closing months of the campaign was 11th place in the Dunhill Links, where he'd been 10th twice previously.
Also 15th in Doha this year and having been fifth in the last Irish Open to have been played on a links course, Forrest should be thrilled to return to The International, particularly as he does so on the back of a return to form in Austria. He finished 12th on a fiddly course last week, the kind he's far less suited to, and every part of his game fired.
It looked like an ideal way to prepare for a return to the style of golf he knows and Forrest can be a big player in his search for a third DP World Tour title. The first two came in his native Scotland, and if he's to add another beyond the UK and Ireland then this looks the place.
DAN BRADBURY already has three wins and the next step for this northern flusher is to challenge for a PGA Tour card.
One of the very best iron players on the circuit, he has so much more to offer if able to sharpen up on and around the green. Dating back to the Nedbank late last year, he has four top-six finishes including a win from just six positive putting displays, evidence of the damage he can do when the flat stick behaves.
It has done lately, enough for sixth place in Spain last time having stumbled out of the gates following a long break in Turkey before that. Five strong rounds of golf have followed that one bad one and he looks primed for a big summer, with this, the BMW International Open and a handful of other events appearing suitable on paper.
A winner at Le Golf National and fifth in Doha, it makes sense that The International would suit and so it proved when he shot a closing 66 for seventh place last year. That followed seven missed cuts in nine starts with nothing better than 32nd, meaning that he returns in much better shape this time.
I wouldn't have Bradbury down as a complete links natural but this modern, inland version, likely to demand quality approach play in strong winds over the first couple of days, looks right up his street and from seventh in the Race to Dubai, this is a great chance to take a big step towards a career-best season and the rewards that would bring.
Jordan will like what he sees
Back towards the top of the betting, the better players have been eased to tempting prices on account of the weather, but links (or links-like) golf demands a different set of rules and under these, I'm not sure there's a more likely contender than Jacob Skov Olesen in the event that a draw bias does not emerge.
Olesen is a former winner of the Amateur Championship with five top-fives in 10 starts dating back to Doha. He's also been inside the top five in the Dunhill Links and the Nexo Championship and had there not been that nagging doubt over his late-early set of tee-times, the young Dane would've made the staking plan.
Instead we'll chance MATTHEW JORDAN again despite his disappointing effort when selected for the Soudal Open recently.
The plus side is that he fared better on his sole subsequent start in Austria, where for the fifth time in seven he produced good tee-to-green numbers and we saw further promise from his approach play. Twice in three starts now a department which used to be his weakness has been his strength, ranking seventh in strokes-gained approach on both occasions.
Ultimately the game is about results and these stats are undermined by finishes of 40th and 43rd, but that's all down to the putter and he's never likely to be in a lengthy slump with that club. Strong also off the tee and typically good around the greens, it's those irons which suggest to me that this big talent can get over the line at some stage soon.
Links golf is the best platform. He's been fifth and 10th in the Dunhill Links, fifth and 10th at Doha where he held the lead on Sunday, and has gone close to winning at Le Golf National. More than that, this former winner of the Lytham Trophy and the St Andrews Links Trophy has two top-10s from four starts in the Open, including at the course he played growing up, Royal Liverpool.
My suggestion therefore is that he will have sat at home regretful that he didn't enter this event last year and should love The International. He's not played this event since it left Bernardus, where 16th place is also encouraging, but can right the wrong by contending if able to putt more like he did in the spring.
Filippo Celli has a good record in this, won the Silver Medal for leading amateur in the 2022 Open and fared better last week, but I felt his price was short even before seeing his draw. Lagergren and young Scottish player Cameron Adam are others out late who respectively will and should enjoy this and those who can wait until the last moment before betting may wish to take a final look at the forecast come Wednesday night.
As things stand now, I want to give ANTOINE ROZNER another chance after a performance packed with promise in Austria.
Rozner now has seven top-30s in eight starts, all courtesy of top-class tee-to-green displays. Unfortunately, his short-game improvements came to a shuddering halt and he was never in the mix, but a good finish ensured that he kept the wheels turning.
To my eye he's still one of the best players on the DP World Tour, ready to soon remind everyone of that, and he's another with form lines I liked: third to Baldwin at St Francis Links, sixth at Yas Links, 11th at Le Golf National, fourth and 10th in the Dunhill Links, and three top-10s in a row at Doha.
He's played well here, too, finishing 21st back in 2019 – several months before he became a DP World Tour member and lost a play-off by the coast in Mauritius, where he later won – and his missed cut in 2024 came when in largely poor form, having missed two cuts in three.
Rozner is another quality iron player, one of the very best in this field, and I've always felt his advantage is pronounced in the wind. That was certainly the case when he beat Migliozzi to the Qatar Masters at another venue. Win number for may not be far away.
Finally, while Matteo Manassero made some appeal (yes, again) along with Paul Waring, I'll take a chance in RIYUKA HOSHINO.
Again we're following a similar path as this is a player who has won at Doha, and who later finished 10th here when leading the field in strokes-gained tee-to-green.
All that helped him to earn a PGA Tour card for last year and while losing it, he threatened to hang on when contending at a very windy Port Royal in Bermuda, so there's plenty to suggest that conditions this week will be to his liking.
Perhaps he'll be inspired by Kota Kaneko's victory – personally, I'm of the view that the success of Jayden Schaper will have contributed to the success of Casey Jarvis, Yurav Premlall and Ryan van Velzen recently – and last week's 26th place was his best since 14th in Dubai.
There could be more to come back at a course he's played before and while strokes-gained data must be taken with a pinch of salt, clearly his short-game has been much better of late. That'll come in handy with the breeze in mind and he strikes me as being a big price at three-figures.
Posted at 16:00 BST on 02/06/26
Safer gambling
We are committed in our support of safer gambling. Recommended bets are advised to over-18s and we strongly encourage readers to wager only what they can afford to lose.
If you are concerned about your gambling, please call the National Gambling Helpline / GamCare on 0808 8020 133.
Further support and information can be found at begambleaware.org and gamblingtherapy.org.