Ben Coley's golf betting tips: Omega European Masters preview and best bets

Golf betting tips: European Masters

2pts e.w. Harry Hall at 28/1 (bet365 1/5 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8)

1.5pts e.w. Sergio Garcia at 40/1 (BetVictor 1/4 1,2,3,4,5)

1.5pts e.w. Antoine Rozner at 40/1 (General 1/5 1,2,3,4,5,6,7)

1pt e.w. Guido Migliozzi at 66/1 (bet365 1/5 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8)

1pt e.w. Davis Bryant at 66/1 (bet365 1/5 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8)

1pt e.w. Gregorio de Leo at 100/1 (General 1/5 1,2,3,4,5,6,7)

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There are tournaments that are about history, there are tournaments that are about prestige, there are tournaments that are about local significance, there are tournaments that are about the golf course, and there are even tournaments that are about all of these things combined. And then there's the Omega European Masters, which really is about one thing above all else: location.

High up in the Swiss Alps, Crans-Montana boasts the most breathtaking views of the season and its golf course, Crans-sur-Sierre, is a perfect fit. Almost anywhere else in the world we might pick fault in these absurdly small greens, many of them perched up and artificially made smaller still, and we'd worry that as many as three driveable par-fours only highlight much of what's wrong with the modern game. Here, though, everything is harmonious for the least serious in a run of high-quality events as the DP World Tour shines through autumn.

It's a pity in some ways that this clashes with the Walker Cup, a purists' alternative which takes place at a wonderful course, but there's time to enjoy both on what's an otherwise quiet week for professional golf. That scheduling dimension is another small part of what makes the European Masters work (post-PGA Tour season, pre-Irish Open/Wentworth) and while elsewhere we tend to get hung up on who is playing rather than where, in this tournament it really doesn't matter. I could even watch YouTube golf with this backdrop.

And, mercifully, the forecast is sublime. There's always a threat of misty mornings delaying the start here, but after a wet and stormy British Masters which was always on the back foot, those heading from Sutton Coldfield to Switzerland are in for glorious sunshine. No wonder Ryan Gerard is making the trip across from Georgia and that Sergio Garcia heads a clutch of LIV players who join their former colleague, Patrick Reed, in the field.

Before we go on, it would be remiss not to mention the horrific way this town began the year. Many will recall news of a fire at Le Constellation bar which resulted in 41 deaths, young Italian golfer Emanuele Galeppini among them. Aged just 17, Galeppini was based in the Middle East where he played at the Tommy Fleetwood Academy at Jumeirah Golf Estates in Dubai. He had aspirations to play collegiately in the USA, too. No doubt, this will be an appropriately sombre renewal of what is, in the end, just a golf tournament.

As touched upon, Crans has its share of quirks. Those small greens have often meant that a high greens-in-regulation count is crucial, but in recent years the formula has... well, there just hasn't been one. Ludvig Aberg secured his first pro win here by out-hitting the opposition, then Matt Wallace succeeded him with a short-game clinic. Bookending these were two differing wins for one player, Thriston Lawrence: first, in 2022, his approach play was outstanding; last year, a scorching-hot putter got the job done.

Course form isn't the be all and end all but we certainly see some players come alive here. That's highlighted by the fact that Wallace was runner-up to Lawrence on both occasions. Scott Hend lost play-offs in 2016 and 2017, both to players who have won this title more than once. Four of the last 12 renewals, dating back to 2013, were won by a multiple champion and all this despite a high turnover of participants. But to add to this sense that the rule book gets left at the foot of the mountain, four of the last six were course debutants.

One thing that has travelled with the players is form in a more general sense. For a golf course so unalike others we've seen lately, it's striking that as many of 11 of the last 15 winners came here on the back of a top-10 finish. This might be much about nothing, but there's an argument you do need to be in control through the bag to avoid the big scores this course can push you towards, and that confidence counts for a lot when you have to trust your numbers, which is vital up in such thin air.

And it's that thin air which colours some of the course correlations, none stronger than with the Kenya Open. There was a play-off here in 2019 which featured two winners of that event and another with a fabulous record in it. Lawrence has won at less extreme altitude at Eichenried, there's a very clear albeit dated connection with Fanling in Hong Kong, and even the Belfry ought to offer some clues given that Alex Noren and Rasmus Hojgaard have won at both and all of Wallace, Lawrence, Richie Ramsay and Sebastian Soderberg could have.

Above all else, I've always felt the way into this event is to focus on tidy players with very good wedge games, a theme which has endured. It's often most illuminating to focus on the less high-profile contenders in order to understand what enabled them to produce career-best golf or something close to it, and the likes of Soderberg, David Lipsky and Ramsay, plus runners-up Alfredo Garcia-Heredia, Lorenzo Gagli and Alex Bjork, are all similar in profile to more illustrious course specialists, like Thomas Bjorn, Miguel Angel Jimenez and Noren.

I'd struggle to split Matt Wallace and Rasmus Hojgaard at the head of the betting and therefore considered the latter given his slightly bigger price, while I do feel former Mexico City champion Patrick Reed will like this, but an each-way play on course debutant HARRY HALL is preferred.

As mentioned, lack of course knowledge has been no hindrance here lately and I think Hall is going to love this place. This is a player with one of the best short-games on the PGA Tour and while sometimes erratic from tee-to-green, he comes here with his irons beginning to fire and hitting more fairways than can often be the case, too.

Three starts running now, Hall has gained strokes with his approaches and this includes two PGA Tour events prior to last week's effort at the Belfry. Fifth place at the Wyndham was especially encouraging, a ranking of seventh in strokes-gained approach about as good as it gets for Hall, and he backed it up with 24th in a tournament won by the world number one, again hitting the ball better than he had done previously.

Hall did tread water somewhat for much of the weekend at the British Masters, but four birdies in the final six holes should send him to Switzerland in fine spirits and he will have absolutely no issues with the altitude, as he's lived in Las Vegas for a long time having gone to college there. There's substance to this idea, too, as his record of 8-15-26-9 in the Shriners, held at altitude near to that home of his, is excellent.

And returning to the way his irons have started to warm up, there's scope for more here because Hall's issues tend to be from long range. He ranked second for approaches inside 100 yards on the PGA Tour this season and there are two former Crans champions inside the top 10. Last year he was 36th, one place behind Wallace, and he was alongside Aberg in 17th place the year before.

If we look at the 50 to 125-yard bucket, Hall has been 29th and 30th over the last two seasons and higher still back in his rookie campaign, so far never leaving the top 50 in four years, and along with his brilliance around the green this is a fine formula for picking off cheap birdies at Crans before hunkering down for the sneaky-hard holes, of which there are enough to keep a lid on scoring.

With his driver perhaps less of a handicap here than it was at a rain-softened Brabazon, Hall's name leapt of the page and I hope he can demonstrate that he's come to the right place in order to secure his first DP World Tour win.

LIV duo Thomas Detry and SERGIO GARCIA also appealed to varying degrees and it's the Spaniard who is preferred.

Detry's long-game remains too much of a concern and he's generally been underwhelming outside of LIV Golf this year, whereas Garcia contended in one of just two DP World Tour starts, finishing fourth in a similar field to this one in Bahrain.

Since then he's added four top-10s on the LIV circuit, three of them top-fives, and the latest of those was last time out in Indianapolis, where he chased home Michael La Sasso and Jon Rahm at a course made for long drivers, finishing alongside Bryson DeChambeau in third.

That's strong form even if the lack of depth is plain to see and it's enough to compel me to side with Garcia back at a golf course where he won in 2005, has never finished outside the top 25 in six attempts, and enjoyed so much that he once lived just the other side of the out-of-bounds fence.

He's not played here since 2019 but was imperious from tee-to-green back then having said: "I've always enjoyed these kind of golf courses: tight, not particularly long but you have to drive the ball well and you have to be accurate. That's usually the courses that I thrive on."

And we've seen this ring true much more recently, as he was fourth back at his beloved Valderrama in June and eighth at Fanling in March. These are the two courses at which he won LIV Golf titles and in both cases, he was able to put his dated course experience to use. Notably, his next best finish was second place at Sentosa, five years after he'd won an Asian Tour event there.

Viewed that way, the idea that he could return after seven years away from Crans and immediately rekindle his love for the course doesn't seem so fanciful. And given that LIV players have contended for the two DP World Tour events they could take part in since the Open, I remain of the view that they're to be respected if they've remained competitive on that circuit, which Garcia has.

There's an element of the unknown when it comes to his state of mind and any additional pressure he feels given the acrimonious nature of his departure from the DP World Tour, but to a degree that was answered in Bahrain. Garcia remains a high-class player in the right grade at the right course, he has both here, and I'm happy sacrificing some places for what looks a very generous 40/1.

ANTOINE ROZNER is the other player priced under 50s who appealed and I'm going to include him despite a nagging worry that the putter will catch him out.

That has generally been the case this year and explains why he finished ninth and 24th in Qatar and South Africa, despite ranking first and second in strokes-gained tee-to-green across those two events. Rozner has remained in similar form since, often on the fringes of contention, but was back in the mix in Denmark two starts ago before fading.

Although things didn't work out there it was another step towards adding to his tally and I love the way he backed it up at the Belfry, for two reasons in particular: he'd never previously played well there, 21st comfortably his best finish, and he drove the ball well again, that one-time strength that had become a weakness seemingly on the right path once more.

I'm convinced there's a lot more to come from Rozner if he does straighten out the driver and with signs that he's done so, am willing to take on board some putting risk at a course he loves, one where he's made five cuts in five, finished a best of fourth in 2022, and did in fact putt well last year, the first time he's lit these greens up.

Prior to that, Rozner's success at Crans had come from more quality ball-striking, his irons particularly good. He in fact led the field in strokes-gained tee-to-green in each of his first two starts here and was 21st and ninth in his next two, never properly rewarded because of the putter but showing that he really does love the place.

He's shot a best of 62, three rounds of 64, three more of 66, and nine more of par or better from the 20 he's played around here, so after finishing 13th and 21st across two less suitable courses to begin this second half of the DP World Tour season, I just couldn't leave him out of the staking plan.

Romain Langasque is the one I have in the end omitted, despite having been taken with the way he spoke to Sam Harrop and I at the Belfry last week. Langasque signed off a 10-minute chat with 'I'm very confident' and while he'd go on to miss the cut, that was solely down to poor putting, his long-game looking good as it has for a while.

Previously the 54-hole leader in Denmark and with all the correlating form you could wish for thanks to a fine record in Kenya and plenty of good stuff at Eichenried and the Belfry in the past, Langasque was sorely tempting, but he's often flattered to deceive in this tournament and is therefore reluctantly passed over.

Instead, I'll include both Italians who made the shortlist, GUIDO MIGLIOZZI and GREGORIO DE LEO.

Where Migliozzi is concerned, selecting him is down to the fact that he always comes alive here and has done ever since finishing 33rd in 2019, when he'd been off for seven weeks yet opened with a round of 65 on his first look at the course.

Two years later, the event having been cancelled due to Covid in 2020, Migliozzi finished seventh after a closing 65 and it would take him more than a year to better that result anywhere. Along the way, despite largely miserable form coming in, he carded a couple of 66s and finished mid-pack at Crans.

In 2023 he again returned from a long break to finish 13th behind Aberg, this time shooting rounds of 61 (Friday) and 63 (Sunday) despite having not broken 67 since April, in 2024 his form had tailed off with three missed cuts in five yet he finished eighth, and last year he'd gone MC-MC-MC-MC-MC-MC-41 yet stepped up massively for 13th.

Course form can be overplayed but around quirky ones like this it often pays to side with players who seem out of sorts but can be relied upon to click into gear, a policy which almost paid off with Wallace 12 months ago and could now do so with Migliozzi, especially as he's actually been hinting at something good for a little while.

Three times in five starts now he's been inside the top 20 at halfway, the only missed cut during this run coming by a single shot, and last week saw him gain strokes in all departments before finishing well for 37th at a penal course in difficult weather.

Second place in Turkey in the spring was a nice reminder of how threatening Migliozzi is when presented with a chance and that came during a similar run of form and at a tree-lined course, the type he so enjoys. As well as often threatening here, he's won in Kenya and Belgium, been sixth at Valderrama, and 10th at Eichenried, all of them handy pointers.

Migliozzi's younger compatriot, DE LEO, was seventh in that same Turkish Open having led at halfway (despite a slow play penalty in the final round), then added eighth at Rinkven followed by fourth up in the Tyrolean mountains in Austria.

Alone, those three lines of form would make him an interesting runner but if we go back a further year, there's a top-five finish in Kenya which he's since supplemented with a good share of 23rd, his first meaningful form of the 2026 season.

That De Leo is so effective at altitude should come as no surprise as he was born in Biella, a town in northern Italy which lies at about 1300ft above sea level and is just 30 miles from the border with Switzerland. In fact, though the journey takes a while, Biella is only 60 or so miles from Crans as the crow flies, so this should feel local enough to him.

De Leo won at altitude in Spain on the Alps Tour and while he missed the cut by a single shot on his Crans debut, his approach play and work around the greens were both good. Returning now a more rounded player, one who is accurate, above-average with his irons and a good putter, I expect him to improve on that and make the weekend.

From there we could see him in the mix again as he put in a seriously eye-catching display when 30th at the Belfry. Strip out the par-five third, which he somehow played in four-over, and De Leo's remaining 68 holes were on a par with all bar the champion, who beat him only narrowly.

Above-average iron play for the 10th start running underpinned that performance and if he can putt as he did back in the spring, De Leo could help form a strong Italian challenge, which everyone could get behind in the circumstances.

Others on a long list of options include recent contender Marcus Kinhult and home hope Joel Girrbach, who was ninth in Scotland and has hit the ball well despite missing two cuts since then. He finally cracked Crans when seventh last year and is bidding to become the fourth home winner in a row on the DP World Tour, something he achieved on the HotelPlanner Tour where his sole title was in the Swiss Challenge.

But it's DAVIS BRYANT who rounds off my selections.

Twice this year, Bryant has finished runner-up, first at altitude in Nairobi, then at altitude in Austria. His first big effort on the DP World Tour came in Munich, at Eichenried, which is at altitude too albeit less extreme than this. And all this makes sense, because Bryant is from Colorado, his home town even higher up than Crans.

He's supremely accurate and a deadly putter, both positives here, and his approach play has been as solid as De Leo's, gaining strokes in every single start since April. Last week he ranked first in fairways and ninth in putting and that very much is Bryant as his best, which he's been at or close to for a while now in what's his second season on the DP World Tour.

Bryant was 11th on the PGA Tour in July too, hasn't missed a cut since March, and while initially put off by a poor debut at Crans last year, further inspection reveals it was his worst putting display on record. Note that all the courses he's returned to having putted badly the first time, he's done much better the second, including the Belfry where he'd ranked 60th last year but was among the best this time.

Providing Bryant putts better there's every reason to hope he might just be the latest Crans champion to capture this title on the back of a top-10 finish. Among the few who come from the top 10 last week to compete here in Switzerland, he's the value choice in my eyes even if he's attracted support as expected.

Posted at 20:00 BST on 31/08/26

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