The opening round of the Abu Dhabi Championship, the first Rolex Series event of the 2019 European Tour season, takes place out in the UAE on Wednesday, with a stellar field looking to put themselves in a good early position for a big prize at the end of the week.
This tournament is often a low scoring one so those who harbour hopes of being crowned the champion on Saturday will need to find a sub-par score over the first 18 holes. That should ensure some decent golf on Wednesday.
[the_ad id=”25958″]
First Round Leader
As ever with the Rolex Series events we’ll have a dabble on the first round leader. Whenever we look at this market we always need to make sure we know what the conditions and format are like. There are two waves of start times, a morning one and an afternoon one, and with the wind expected to pick up in the afternoon it would seem that the earlier starters might have an advantage on Wednesday.
Two men who have wonderful tee times and who are not immune to fast starts are Louis Oosthuizen and Matt Wallace. I’ve mentioned on many an occasion how quickly Wallace begins tournaments and his record in the first round has been good for a while. He has the game to do well around here so he’ll be one of my bets while Oosthuizen won in South Africa just before Christmas and began that event with a 62. He eats up fairways and greens and should get plenty of putts to the hole. At 33/1 he can do alongside Wallace in the first round leader portfolio.
[the_ad_group id=”3624″]
Wednesday 3 Balls
As ever in big field European Tour events the players go out in groups of three in the opening round with half of them in the morning wave and the other half in the afternoon slot. There are some big groups taking to the course on Wednesday too with Louis Oosthuizen, Henrik Stenson and Dustin Johnson headlining the morning session and Eddie Pepperell, Ian Poulter and Thorbjorn Olesen heading up the afternoon band of players. Plenty of other great groups have come out in the draw too and most of them have been priced up for us to get stuck into.
Robert Karlsson/Richard McEvoy/Joost Luiten
Match tees off at 03.20 GMT
The first group to tee off on Wednesday sees the Swedish veteran Robert Karlsson out with the now tournament winner Richard McEvoy and the talented Dutch star Joost Luiten in the first round of 2019 for all three men.
I think Luiten is the one to be on here. He is over his injury issues and I am expecting him to kick on and have a big 2019 now. He is wonderful off the tee and relentless into the greens and if he is just solid with the putter he should have too much for the other two. Karlsson’s best days are behind him whereas McEvoy doesn’t strike me as someone who is ideally suited to the desert. Luiten looks a near gimme at even money.
Lee Slattery/Sam Horsfield/Thomas Detry
Match tees off at 09.25 GMT
At the other end of the tee off list comes Lee Slattery, Sam Horsfield and Thomas Detry in a three ball which should not lack for power or indeed quality in the final group to go out onto the golf course on the opening day.
I’m expecting big things from Thomas Detry in 2019 after his success alongside Thomas Pieters in the World Cup for Belgium towards the end of last year. He has threatened to win a few tournaments in the latter part of the year, including one in this part of the world and I think he’ll take some beating in this group. Horsfield rates as the biggest danger but his putter doesn’t deliver as much as I’d like while a lack of length could go against Slattery. I’ll side with Detry here.
Tips
PLACED – Back L.Oosthuizen First Round Leader (e/w) for a 1/10 stake at 34.00 with Boylesports (1/5 1-6)
Back him here:
Back M.Wallace First Round Leader (e/w) for a 1/10 stake at 46.00 with 888sport (1/4 1-5)
Back him here:
WON – Back J.Luiten to beat R.Karlsson & R.McEvoy for a 3/10 stake at 2.00 with LeoVegas
Back him here:
Back T.Detry to beat L.Slattery & S.Horsfield for a 3/10 stake at 2.25 with Coral
Back him here:
Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2019
