In the 2021 European Golf Tour, the Dutch Open is seeing some drastic changes as ex-golfer, Simon Dyson, brands it a ‘very tricky’ event to preview.
After a year away, KLM is no longer the event’s sponsor, and Indian consultancy company, TCS, has taken the title. KLM was the longest title sponsor of the Open; lasting from 1981 to 1990, and from 2004 to 2020.
Dyson commented: “It’s a shame that they’ve lost the sponsor with the history of the event. I look at my trophy and I see all my past winners, and it’s the best names in European gold who are on that trophy. So it is sad that it’s dropped down a little bit.”
The competition also sees a change in course to Bernardus in The Netherlands, which has only been open since 2018, with one of its courses being named ‘The Dutch’.
‘Little information’ about the course can be found online, but Dyson suggests that it looks like those of previous years: “They are quite long and wide open, so I would look for somebody who probably drives it well, hits the ball far off the tee, and hits a lot of birdies. I would expect it to be quite a low-scoring week.”
Finally, this year’s competition has a ‘minimal’ purse of £1 million which is half the amount of that of 2019, and according to a British newspaper, the coronavirus pandemic has had a “profound” financial impact to the prize money.