Lyoness Open: Weak field provides plenty of value

The European Tour makes its annual trip to Austria this week for the Lyoness Open at Diamond Country Club, which has hosted the event since 2010.

Home favourite Bernd Wiesberger won the title in 2012 and is rightly a strong favourite to claim his second victory of a consistent season, but at 5/1 the big-hitting Austrian is hard to back in our Lyoness Open betting tips.

The vagaries of the world rankings mean that 2015 winner Chris Wood has withdrawn from the event to improve his chances of remaining 60th in the world and therefore qualifying for next week’s US Open.

And that means Wiesberger and Joost Luiten are the only players ranked inside the world’s top 100 in a weak field which offers plenty of value lower down the betting market.

A prime example is England’s Matt Wallace, who won six times on the Alps Tour last year and made his breakthrough on the European Tour with victory in the Open de Portugal just a month ago.

Wallace finished 38th the following week and perhaps understandably missed the cut in the BMW PGA Championship, but wisely skipped last week’s Nordea Masters and offers plenty of appeal here at 60/1.

Zander Lombard was unable to repay our trust in Sweden, but it’s worth keeping faith in the talented South African, who lost out in a play-off to Alvaro Quiros in Sicily last month.

Lombard led by a shot after 54 holes in Austria last year before a disappointing closing 74 left him down in fifth place, but the 22-year-old is learning all the time and is our second Lyoness Open betting selection at 40/1.

And for a real outsider, Austria’s Lukas Nemecz is available at 300/1 in the outright market or 28/1 for a top-10 finish as he looks to make a step up in class on home soil.

Nemecz has finished first and third in his last two starts on the Alps Tour and will be looking to follow in the footsteps of Wallace by making the most of his chance here.