Andrew's German Challenge Preview (2025)

After a few weeks where my players failed to make the cut, it was rewarding to see some good performances from all three of our players. However, they don’t pay out for moral victories and Albert Boneta had three great days and a weak Sunday. If you played the FRL market, he picked up half a win in that at 60/1, and he did pick-up a chopped place, but from a co-lead at 54 holes to finish T6 was bitterly disappointing. We move on!

The Tournament

Things will be very different this week. In fact, I can’t imagine there’s a tour with such a huge week-on-week change. Last week was a 6,474 yard par-70 in the foothills of some Czech mountains. This week we’re over the German border in Bavaria, and the test is a 7,479 yard par-72. That probably gives you a clue as to what to expect. If not, here’s the role of honour (this is the fifth year of competition here): Angel Hidalgo, Alejandro del Rey, Francesco Laporta and Rasmus Neergard-Petersen. That’s a list of very good players. It is also a list of bombers.

Okay, Rasmus doesn’t hit it off the planet, but he’s powerful. Hidalgo and del Rey aren’t quite one-trick ponies, but it is very obvious what they do. A review of the rest of the leaderboards shows something similar throughout – the occasional plotter will make a top ten (the likes of Deon Germishuys and Jamie Rutherford, who finished T9 last year) but in general we’re looking for the classiest bombers we can find in the field.

If this were the KFT, that’d be a simple case of reviewing the order of merit. But if you go back through my previews you’ll note that it has been a long time since these boys took on a long course. That simply isn’t the MO of the HPT. That does give us an opportunity to find the right players and hopefully stay ahead of the market. There isn’t much else to say. The Bavarian course means that German, Austrian and Czech players will again be close to home and there are some who may have a say. The weather is expected to co-operate and we shouldn’t see a significant draw bias. Other than power off the tee and general class, I’m looking for current form but I wouldn’t put any unusual emphasis on any other aspect of players games.

https://www.windfinder.com/forecast/ingolstadt

The Selections

So, in looking for classy bombers, I very quickly came to Luis Masaveu. The young Spaniard may have been discarded by LIV but I’m not giving up on him. He was third in one of his three HPT starts so far this season and despite struggling at Valderrama last week as a substitute, this is far more suitable as a course and as a standard of golf. He ranks 18th on the LIV tour for driving distance, and finally playing a suitable course at this level I think he can be dominant. The majority of those ahead of him on the betting market are simply not long enough to compete here.

At much longer prices, I have a couple of others to consider. First is Lauri Ruuska. Last year, whilst struggling on the DPWT, he did rank 22nd for driving distance (ahead of the likes of Ludvig Aberg and Gavin Green) and he’s another who’ll have been waiting for this opportunity. He was eighth here in 2023 (his last start) and 21 st the year before. He’s very generously priced to take advantage of this setup.

Finally, Aymeric Laussot is an obscure name to most fans, I imagine. Unless you’ve been ignoring golf for a few years, however, you’ll note that the French wave is real. Laussot is another of the talented young athletes coming out of the French system – in his case with a few years of seasoning over in the US, where he played for TCU and wasn’t half bad. He’s joined this Tour courtesy of a solid performance on the Alps Tour last year – including a win at Sokhna GC and a second at New Giza GC (two of the longest on that tour, at 7,620 and 7,338 yard respectively for each par-72.)

• Luis Masaveu, 40/1

• Lauri Ruuska, 225/1

• Aymeric Laussot, 600/1

All 1pt e/w, ¼ odds 5 places, Bet365.