After an inauspicious start last week, we’re persevering in offering a betting angle for punters here at SA Tour Golf. We bring you tips for the DP World Tour’s Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship and the PGA Tour’s American Express from Gary Lemke (three-time SA Sports Writer of the Year and golf magazine editor) and Mike Green (former Sunshine Tour communications manager).
GARY LEMKE says:
World number 20 Shane Lowry is the top-ranked player in the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship field and he’s at 14/1 to win the tournament. Ahead of him in the betting are Tyrrell Hatton (11/1) and Tommy Fleetwood (12/1). A player who has made 11 successive cuts since last missing it at the Masters is Thomas Pieters. He’s available at 22/1 to win it and 9/2 to finish in the top six. He loves this event, having finished second in 2016 and winning it last year. He simply has to be a pick.
Without any 2023 form line, one needs to take a bit of a flier here, but a man who signed off 2022 with a win and is teeing up here is Poland’s Adrian Meronk. He is a golfer who has climbed into the top 50 in the world and has the ability to go higher than his career high of No47. He’s at 35/1 to win and 7/1 to finish top six. My third pick here is Tommy Fleetwood. He loves playing in the sun – as South Africans know from the Nedbank Golf Challenge – and he will enjoy his time in the Middle East. Put Tommy in at 12/1 in your win and place selections.
Last week’s Sony Open in Hawaii turned out to be an event where it might have been better to take a dart and throw it at a board with the name of the field given how it unfolded. Unfortunately, the wrong “Kim” won, with Si Woo Kim shooting 67, 67 and two 64s to see off Americans Hayden Buckley, Chris Kirk and Andrew Putnam, with the other “Kim”, Tom, missing the cut. But don’t leave out Tom Kim this week at 25/1 to win and 5/1 for a top five. A player I have been watching for a while and who I had a flutter on last week, is Tom Hoge. He made the cut but rounds of 68, 70, 67 and 67 were only good enough for tie 41st. Tough crowd! But, I’m liking his consistency and he looks to be a player improving all the time, despite being 33.
I’m going to have a small bet on Hoge at 45/1 to win this week’s American Express, while he is also 9/1 to place in the top five.
It’s hard to look past Jon Rahm (13/2) to win and 13/10 for a top five, because the Spaniard has hit the ground running this year and is on a mission to get back to No1 in the world. He is also a past winner (2018) of the event. Another who has a proven track record in the tournament is Patrick Cantlay, but for my last pick I’m going with a player whose talent hasn’t quite matched his results over the years. But on any given week Tony Finau is up there with the best and the world No12 is 16/1 to win this week and 33/10 to finish top five.
MIKE GREEN says:
With the break the locals have had over the holiday period, there’s not much form to look at for the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship if you want to take a bet on performances of the 10 South Africans in the field.
There’s also not much by way of good South African showings from last year’s event to go by, so we might as well plunge right in and make a couple of suggestions based on what players looked like they might be able to do when they last played in December in the Alfred Dunhill Championship at Leopard Creek.
Thriston Lawrence has increasingly looked the part at international level, as evidenced by his three wins last year on the DP World Tour. If he can kickstart his 2023 campaign without having to resort to jumper cables, then at 56/1 for the win, 12/1 for top five, 13/2 for top 10, and 13/4 for top 20, he’s a good bet. Hennie du Plessis at 151/1 for the win is an attractive proposition. And, for safety’s sake, he’s at 29/1 for a top five, 13/1 for top 10 and 6/1 for top 20.
In the United States, Dean Burmester gets his 2023 season underway at the American Express. At 126/1, he’s not in the conversation for the win with some of the players in the field. But we know how good he can be when he’s on, and he was close to on in the last tournament of last year. Refreshed now, he’s very attractive at 23/1 for top five, 19/2 for top 10 and 9/2 for top 20.
