Ahead of the start of the BMW PGA Championship there is still time to look at the various side markets that have been priced up for the tournament. This is a world class field and with that brings golfers from all across the globe to see it up this week.
We have markets covering the majority of the nations that have multiple players teeing it up this week and there are three of them that we are looking to get after over the course of the week.
Top Asian
This market appears to be all about the former champion Byeong-Hun An who is the favourite and I guess that is understandably so but he has been out on the PGA Tour in recent times and this is his first European event since Dubai so he’ll need to adjust to the conditions. When he won this in 2015 he was purely a European Tour player and he hasn’t really contended here since.
Hideto Tanihara was third here last year and if he had got off to a fast start instead of opening with a 76 he may well have snatched the title but he went into the event off the back of that excellent run at the WGC Match Play but this year his form has been a lot quieter. Kiradech Aphibarnrat is the second favourite in this market and his record in England is acceptable but he’s never really cracked it here. A case can be made for the likes of Jeunghun Wang, Ashun Wu and the wily Thongchai Jaidee but I like the Chinese star Haotong Li, who has already won this year.
Li won the Dubai Desert Classic, seeing off a seriously good field in the process, so he won’t be in awe of those he is competing with this week and I actually think this course suits him given his wonderful greens in regulation strength, which is very much a requirement for this track. Since winning in Dubai he’s done a bit of globetrotting into big money tournaments that haven’t really suited him but this one does and at 15/2 he looks a corking each way bet in the Top Asian market.
Top Swedish Player
The defending champion Alex Noren is understandably all the rage for this market and that is completely understandable given the undoubted quality that he possesses but there are so many demands on the time of a defending champion in these events that I always think they are vulnerable.
In truth this isn’t a deep field with realistically the only two Tour winners this year likely to make up any sort of competition for Noren unless Robert Karlsson rolls back the years. The two in question are Alexander Bjork, winner of the China Open, and Joakim Lagergren, who triumphed in the recent Rocco Forte Open. I respect Lagergren but it is Bjork for me here.
He is a solid iron player but it is his scrambling ability that really interests me here and having finished with a 66 in the final round here 12 months ago he has shown that he can score on this new layout. He’s in prime form and at 4/1 he could be the value alternative to Noren, who while defending champion, was way down the field prior to that amazing final round 12 months ago.
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Top South African
There are a number of South African’s in the field this week, with Branden Grace clearly the standout one among them, and that is reflected in the betting market where he is a warm favourite at 7/4. He may go on to win but with a busy Sunday in Dallas and the trip over he isn’t for me.
A lot of the South Africans teeing it up here are big hitters of the ball but can be wayward off the tee which you don’t want to be here so that could open the field up for Thomas Aiken, who we know will hit a lot of greens and if he can get the putter working should have a solid week in him. Aiken was fourth here a couple of years ago and in the top 10 two years prior to that so he can go well here. At 17/1 I’ll have a dabble on him to lead the South African charge this week.
Tips
Back H.Li Top Asian (e/w) for a 1.5/10 stake at 8.50 with Skybet (1/4 1-3)
Back him here:
Back A.Bjork Top Swedish Player for a 2/10 stake at 5.00 with Boylesports
Back him here:
Back T.Aiken Top South African (e/w) for a 1/10 stake at 18.00 with Betfair (1/4 1-3)
Back him here:
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