Thomas Pieters 22/1 © Asian Tour
The European Tour now moves back to mainland Europe and Belgium for the Soudal Open. This event has moved from its early incarnation as a stroke play event, then to a knockout tournament – and to be honest I really liked that format – then to a combined stroke play/knockout event and is now back to being a straight 72-hole stroke play tournament.
This week’s venue is the Rinkven International Golf Club which sits on the outskirts of Antwerp and opened for play in 1981. The original course was designed by Belgian golfer and course architect Paul Rolin, but a masterplan for the venue was put in place by Russell Talley of Hawtree Ltd in 2014 and the first phase of those works finished in 2016.
