The first round of the DP World Tour Championship is in the books, which means that there is just three rounds of the European Tour season left, the next of which comes along on Friday when the second round of the tournament is played.
It was a low scoring first day out in Dubai where many of the big hitters came to the fore so we are set for a cracking day of action on the Earth Course at the Jumeirah Golf Estate as we reach the halfway stage of the event.
Round 1 Recap
After an entertaining first round of the tournament it is the French player Mike Lorenzo-Vera who holds a one shot lead from the twice former champion Rory McIlroy. ML-V shot a nine under opening round with McIlroy on eight under. Another former champion comes next on six under in Jon Rahm while our pre-tournament pick Tom Lewis is alongside Tommy Fleetwood in fourth spot. Marcus Kinhult and Rafael Cabrera Bello are the only other two men within six of the lead.
It was a wipeout day for us in the betting front on Thursday with our two first round leader bets never really getting off the mark and Lowry never being at the races in the two balls, so as with last week there is plenty of work for us to do moving forward in the event in that regard. Hopefully we can balance the books on Friday.
Friday Betting
There is a second round leader market available for those who want to have a go at it to do so. Understandably McIlroy is a pretty warm favourite although that might be doing a disservice to Lorenzo-Vera whose lead was no fluke. Jon Rahm is a 6/1 shot which might be of interest although even then he is giving up a couple of shots to McIlroy before the off. I didn’t really see much to suggest that anyone else is in the mix.
If there is one thing this Final Series has told us though it is that there are low rounds out there at any point, and as we saw with Louis Oosthuizen last week, even the best can struggle, albeit his travails were largely down to ill health having been suffering with kidney stones. It might be a market I get involved in later in the week but not now.
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Friday 2 Balls
As with the opening day, the field goes out in two balls on Friday but the order of them have changed. The pairings are now designated by leaderboard order which means the final group onto the golf course is Mike Lorenzo-Vera and Rory McIlroy and they tee off at 08.50 GMT. Jon Rahm and Tom Lewis are out 10 minutes before then and Tommy Fleetwood goes out with Rafa Cabrera Bello at 08.30.
There are some other groups which should see a lot of attention over the course of the day, not least the one between two class acts in Francesco Molinari and Justin Rose. A bit earlier in the morning Matt Wallace and Bernd Wiesberger form a good looking group. I’ve looked at all 25 pairings and there is one bet that I like on the card.
Marcus Kinhult vs Thomas Detry
Match tees off at 08.20 GMT
Two of the younger element of the European Tour go out in the fourth to last group of the day when the current British Masters winner Marcus Kinhult goes out alongside the talented Belgian player Thomas Detry for the second 18 holes.
The Swedish player went round in a shot less than Detry on Thursday but that was only because the Belgian saw his putter go stone cold after he birdied the opening three holes. If you look at the statistics for that first round, Detry was third in driving distance, eighth in accuracy and fourth in GIR which all show his long game is in wonderful nick. Kinhult matched Detry in greens hit and was much better on the greens but his long game left a lot to be desired overall and he made three bogeys as a result. I think Detry can use his long game to good order here and get the job done as I would be surprised if he putts as badly again.
Tips
Back T.Detry to beat M.Kinhult for a 4/10 stake at 2.10 with Betfair
Back him here:
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