BlogEuro Masters Preview and Picks

The Buzz:

This is a special week in golf.  First there is no PGA Tour event as there is a week built into the schedule to accommodate having four FedEx Cup events.  Players didn’t want to play in four straight playoff events and then have to play in either a Ryder Cup or President Cup, so a “off” week is in the schedule.  So that benefits the other tours, but the European Tour and this week’s Omega European Open is really the only big time event that gives out world ranking points.

This event played in Switzerland has always had a tough time.  Since it’s up high in the 8,000 foot range, they can’t play it much later than the last week in September because of it getting cold.  So for years in was always a September staple, but that is a bad month with the FedExCup playoffs happening.  If you look at this year’s Race to Dubai list, just in the top-25, ten of the players like Sergio Garcia (#2), Jon Rahm (#3), Rafael Cabrera Bello (#4), Francesco Molinari (#6), Justin Rose (#7), Rory McIlroy (#9), Henrik Stenson (#14), Patrick Reed (#17), Charl Schwartzel (#19) and Branden Grace (#25) are participating in the FedEx Playoffs.  Even with the week off, none of them are going to fly 4,000 miles to play in a tournament in Switzerland.  So the answer was to switch this event to the week after the British Open and that proved to be just as terrible as players would take the week off because they needed to get ready for the WGC-Bridgestone and PGA Championship.  So neither solution worked and after two years in July this event is switching back to September.  Now the good news, come 2019 the PGA Tour is looking to end the season three weeks earlier on Labor Day weekend, so if this event can move to mid-September, they have a good chance of getting a good field, specially if this event leads into the Ryder Cup.

The tour moves on to Switzerland and the Omega European Masters.  Let me take a few paragraphs to tell you that this is a special place and could be one of the most scenic stops in golf.  Of course your going to say that Pebble Beach isn’t bad, but the Golf Club Crans-sur-Sierre has a special appeal that makes it as pretty as Pebble.  It’s the Pacific Ocean which makes Pebble so special, at Crans-sur-Sierre it’s the scenic views of the Alps and the mountain tops of the Matterhorn and Mont Blanc that takes your breath away.

Ever since the Golf Channel started showing European Tour golf in the late nineties, I have been a fan of several events but the two that I have loved the most were the Dubai Desert Classic and the Omega European Masters.  Love watching them play golf from Dubai and Switzerland, so much that both became bucket places for me to go visit one day.  In 2011 I had a chance to join my wife on a trip to Switzerland and cross off one of those places off the list, Cans-sur-Sierre.

I saw it for the first time by accident.  I took a train from Venice to Geneva, and when the train was traveling between the Alps in the Rhone Valley, I saw what looked like structures at the top of one of those 8,000 foot mountains.  The closer I got, the more I realized they were big ten story structures, but by feeble mind didn’t know what they were.  I asked the train conductor, and he said it was the ski resort Crans Montana, but that never registered in my mind that it was the community of Crans-sur-Sierre.  A couple of days later my wife and I journeyed to see Crans-sur-Sierre and that was when it hit me that those buildings that I saw from the train was the site of my bucket list location.

What strikes one about the golf course is that it’s in the middle of town.  It’s much smaller than you can image it being but lovely anyway.  Walking the course you go out to the fourth hole, and you feel on top of the world.  I don’t think there is a prettier hole in all of golf, the hole sits on top of the bluff, looking to the Southwest way above the Rhone Valley with the Alps in front of you.  Just an awesome sight and something that every golfer should experience.

History of Crans-sur-Sierre and changes to the course over the years:

The history of golf at Crans-sur-Sierra can be traced back to 1905. Arnold Lunn, who owned the Palace Hotel, was persuaded that the pastureland to the west of the hotel was ideal for a golf course. Two Englishmen Freemantle and Gedge were commissioned, and the first nine holes were opened in 1906 to be followed by the second nine in 1908.

The golf course was abandoned during World War I but was reopened in 1921 thanks to hoteliers, Elysée Bonvin (Hotel du Golf) and Albert Bonvin (Beauséjour). In 1924, the Crans-sur-Sierre Golf Club was founded, with René Payot as its first President. Shortly after the opening, architect Harry Nicholson was commissioned to add improvements.

A large number of greens were remodelled and additional bunkering, thus creating the overall layout at Plan-Bramois that remained unchanged until 1997. In 1995 Severiano Ballesteros was commissioned to make it more challenging to the professionals on the European Tour and even more attractive for the many golfers that visit this resort.

After two redesigns, the course opened with new greens with various contours and slopes, new tee boxes installed and obstacles added or modified.

In 2013, it was announced that the course would undergo more renovation.  In the first year of a four-year project, the 10th, 12th, 13th and 17th holes of the course have been renovated to make the course harder and more gallery friendly.  Water will now come into play at the 10th, 12th and 13th greens making all of them more challenging.  For the 17th hole a stream crosses the 17th fairway about at the landing zone, so drives will have to be more accurate.  With the changes to the 13th green, it now will have room for over 3,000 spectators to look down on the action.

For the 2015 tournament all the bunkers on the front none were updated and fairways at 1, 2 and 4 rebuilt.  The 9th hole has been redone with a new green that will be able to handle more people and be more attractive.  The 5th hole has been lengthened by 25 years so it won’t be pushover as it was in past years.  One other major change, the 14th hole had 38 yards taken off, and par reduce from 71 to 70.  The hole will be a brute at 559 yards.

Close to six million dollars was spent on these changes over the four years and since 2015 the course has played pretty much the same.

Here are some of the secrets of what it takes to play well at the Omega European Masters:

Key stat for the winner:

I don’t know if anyone noticed, but three of the last eight winners led the greens hit category, Alex Noren in 2009, Thomas Bjorn in 2011 and Richie Ramsay in 2012.  In 2015 Danny Willett and in 2014 David Lipsky were both T-2nd so this must tell you something.  This all changed last year as Alex Noren ranked T-26th, still in the eight years of stats being kept, five of the eight were either first or second and only three were out of the top-ten.  I would still say that greens hit is an important category because even though Alex Noren was T-26th in greens hit when he won last year, for the year he was 18th on the European Tour.  So hitting a lot of greens is very important for this week.

Here are some more key stats to look to for this week:

• Length is not an issue on this course since at just under 6,850 yards its one of the shortest on the European Tour.  But of those at the top of the leaderboard the last eight years, hitting fairways has mixed results with three players in the top-ten, .  The course is tight with a lot of trees running along the fairways, so if you miss the fairway the odds are you will be behind a tree, so yes you have to be straight.
• Another thing to think about.  Crans-sur-Sierre is at 8,000 feet so the ball will travel about 10 to 15% further than sea-level courses.  So the 6,900 yard figure is misleading, the course will play closure to 6,200 yards for this year.
• Water hazards come into play on 6 holes all of the back nine.  The course does have a lot of undulation and winds do pop up in the afternoon coming up the valley.
• Weather can change drastically because of its location and several past events have had fog problems.  For this year the weather will be nice the first two days with highs in the mid-60s and no rain.  But the weekend will be dreadful, with showers and temperatures in the high 50s on Saturday but dropping to the high 40s for Sunday.  So look for a sturdy winner that can play under all conditions.
• Also listen to a lot of player complaints wondering why this even it being played in September instead of July when the weather is much better.
• There are eight events left before the three tournament playoff series so this will be a perfect week for many to pick up more race to Dubai points.