After three weeks of DP World Tour inactivity for Europe’s rank and file, two Spanish jaunts lead into The Belfry and the first tournament on UK soil, the British Masters, at the start of next month.
First stop in Espana is a new port of call, the Lakes course at Infinitum in Tarragona, a Greg Norman design south of Barcelona, short by today’s standards at 6963 yards, a par 70 curiously assembled with no par five until the 16th, then two in the last three holes.
As the name suggests, there’s mucho agua with water coming into play on 13 holes. The dogleg par-five 18th is the pick, having a lake on the right for the drive and a long stream to the left to catch a wayward second, plus a sandy waste carry off the tee. Par fours of 509 and 514 yards look formidable but with two risk-reward short par fours as well, we can expect plenty of birdies in a week of variable weather but finishing with a warm, bright Sunday.
Spaniards always play with pride and feel comfortable in their home country and that old fox Pablo Larrazabal, already a winner at Pecanwood in South Africa, will be hard to beat. As that sixth tour victory was preceded by third place at the Ras Al Khaimah Classic and was followed by a fifth in Qatar on his latest outing, that adds up to a tip-top start to the campaign by the 2008 Rookie of the Year, one of the tour’s real characters.
Larrazabal’s form stands up well against market leaders Bernd Wiesberger and Rasmus Hojgaard and I prefer him to Wiesberger who has been replaced by Sepp Straka as top Austrian after the latter’s February breakthrough victory at the Honda Classic.
Straka needed only to par the last at Hilton Head on Sunday to force his way into the Heritage playoff and must be kicking himself for hitting three poor shots in a row from the middle of the fairway. Even so, his US success will hopefully elicit a strong response from Wiesberger whose 2022 form has so far been underwhelming.
More to my liking is one of the Hojgaard twins from Denmark. After his Ras Al Khaimah victory, Nicolai is the higher ranked (80th to 108th) but to my eye Rasmus is the one who will go farthest.
After four steady outings in the Gulf, Rasmus, a triple winner well before he reached 21 and clearly destined for stardom, has put in two eye-catching efforts on the PGA Tour, sixth in the Corales Puntacana in the Dominican Republic and 18th at the Texas Open, whereas his longer-hitting sibling has missed all four US cuts.
One we know is in form is American Sihwan Kim, who won for the second time in a month on the Asian Tour at the weekend. True, it was a pretty modest affair, a mixed stableford tournament in Thailand where the runner-up was the world 98th-ranked (but very much on the way up) woman golfer Maja Stark, but he did show a bit of form in the UK last year with a pair of top-tens in the Hero and Cazoo.
The gifted Chinese player Haotong Li is unpredictable but would win this at his best and showed up well at Waialae (12th despite a poor Sunday) on the PGA Tour followed by third in the Ras Al Khaimah Championship in the Gulf. He is worth risking at 60/1 in a field where there are question marks against pretty well everybody.
Some are proving impossible to win with so for the final pick go for a youngster who can only get better, Matti Schmid, top amateur at the Open at Sandwich last year, then runner-up at the Dutch Open shortly after turning pro. The ambitious German hasn’t quite hit his stride yet this year but third place in the Steyn City Championship in South Africa, a new event on the DP World Tour, was a step in the right direction.
Big-hitting South African Wilco Nienaber, French prospect Julien Brun and local hopes Adri Arnaus and Nacho Elvira look best of the rest while young Brits Ewen Ferguson, surprise winner in Qatar, and Matthew Jordan, who might have won there but for a wretched piece of luck, also come into the conversation.
- Zurich Classic of New Orleans Golf Betting Tips 2022
ISPS Handa Championship in Spain Golf Betting Tips 2022
- 2pts each-way Rasmus Hojgaard at 18/1 (Betfair) 7 places
- 1pt each-way Pablo Larrazabal at 25/1 (William Hill) 6 places
- 1pt each-way Sihwan Kim at 50/1 (Betfair) 7 places
- 1pt each-way Haotong Li at 66/1 (William Hill) 6 places
- 1pt each-way Matti Schmid at 60/1 (William Hill) 6 places
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