European Open Winners

The European Open, has for obvious reasons, been dominated by the top British golfers over the years. They have always enjoyed a home ground advantage, are acclimatised to the conditions, and more importantly, have been the definite crowd favourites.

What is a bit disarming is that there have not been more players from continental Europe to succeed at the richest tournament - bar the Majors and World Golf Championships - of the European Tour. As already mentioned this could well be due to the fact that more and more young European golfers are been enticed to the States by golfing scholarships at American universities and, of course, the lure of bigger prize purses! Even more intriguing is the number of antipodeans who have been successful at the European Open.

It is a well-known fact that many rising stars from New Zealand and Australia prefer to cut their teeth on the lesser European Tour before making across the Atlantic to try their hands on the PGA Tour 2007 US Open winner, Australian Geoff Ogilvy, made no bones of the fact that his best years were in fact when he was on the European Tour.

“The PGA Tour sorely misses that sort of atmosphere (of the European Tour). I hear that the Nationwide Tour has it, but this one (the PGA Tour) doesn’t. There’s too much money out there. In Europe they all travel together. It’s like a family, really. Or a circus,” he said.

The American fraternity are not known to support the European Tour, and this trend is pretty obvious when you consider that only two Americans have won the European Open in its 30-year history.

Recently, however, the likes of Phil Mickelson and Jim Furyk have broken the shackles and contested tournaments in Malaysia, Hong Kong and South Africa, and hopefully this will set a precedent for the rest of the top golfers of theUnited States.

European Open Winners

Will Colin Montgomerie snaffle the European Open for the second time? Visit William Hill to check out the latest European Open odds, and back the probable 2008 European Open winner. Take a look at our betting tips and betting guide pages for more information.