Just four days after the last DP World Tour season finished the new one begins on Thursday and it does so with two events with the first to tee off being the co-sanctioned tournament with the PGA Tour of Australasia in the Australian PGA Championship.
Given that the PGA Tour of Australia still allows LIV golfers into their events Cam Smith was able to take advantage of a rare DP World Tour start to win the title last year. He will be out to defend against a pretty good field for this early in the campaign.
Recent Winners
2023 – Cam Smith
2020 – Adam Scott
2019 – Cam Smith
2018 – Cam Smith
2017 – Harold Varner III
2016 – Nathan Holman
The Course
We are at the Royal Brisbane Golf Club in Brisbane this week. This will be the second time this tournament has been staged at this venue and it is a par 71 which measures 7,085 yards. 14 under won around here last year but you would imagine now that the majority of the field have had a spin under their belt we are looking for a slightly lower score than that but conditions should ensure scoring doesn’t get out of hand this week.
The course itself is one with wide open fairways and little in the way of rough so the test on this track is to stay out of the strategically placed bunkers and fire into the greens and use your touch to score well. Conditions in this part of the world are usually firm and very fast and there is nothing to suggest that will be any different this week. Wind is always in play on the Australian tracks so that is something to bear in mind.
The Field
When you consider that this is the first tournament of a new season and Christmas is approaching the field that has been assembled this week is very good. It helps that it is a chance for the LIV golfers to play and a number of those have taken up the chance. They include the defending champion Cameron Smith, Marc Leishman, Joaquin Niemann, Laurie Canter and another home man in the shape of Wade Ormsby.
Even though the DP World Tour season finished just last week there are a few players who have headed over from Dubai to open up their campaign this week. They include Min Woo Lee, who will be looking for a win on home soil, as well as the European pair of Adrian Meronk and Robert MacIntyre. Adam Scott, Cam Davis and Lucas Herbert are among the bigger home names who are sure to draw a decent crowd this week.
Market Leaders
Cameron Smith has won three of the last four of these Australian PGA Championships and he is no bigger than 9/2 on the best prices to make a successful defence of the title. He has successfully defended this title before and has a game which is ideal for this part of the world and particularly this course with there being no real test off the tee. He will know the importance of winning this from a ranking point of view and looks the man to beat but he’s plenty short enough.
Min Woo Lee is next in the betting at 7/1. He has a decent record in this tournament. He was fourth in it on debut in 2019 and then third here last season so he clearly likes being in this part of the world. He comes here having finished in the top 15 in the season finale last week and prior to that he was seventh in the Irish Open, T14 at the BMW PGA Championship and he was well in the Open de France before he fell apart over the weekend. He has won in Australia on the DP World Tour and he is another who should be respected.
Cam Davis is one of the few regulars on the PGA Tour who are in this part of the world this week and he is 9/1 to win his home PGA Championship. Davis was seventh here last season where a poor season round held him back a little. He was also third the start before that in this event albeit on a different track so we know he can perform on home soil. He has played three tournaments on the PGA Tour in the fall and gone 3-T7-T12 but he hasn’t teed it up since the ZOZO Championship five weeks ago which is a concern.
Adam Scott is a former champion of this tournament although he won it on a different course to the one it is being played on this year. He was only T28 here last year but he did shoot a couple of decent rounds to suggest that if he can find four good rounds he could go well here. I think the problem he has is the lack of bite off the tee on this course takes away his strength which is driving the ball and others just fare better from there so even at 12/1 he isn’t for me.
Main Bets
Marc Leishman is now firmly ensconced on the LIV Golf scene but he is performing pretty well on there and in his last five starts he has finished second twice so for all that it is only three rounds and the pressure is off financially, he is clearly hitting the ball well to be second in that company on a couple of occasions. That makes me think that in conditions he will know pretty well and often thrives in that he has a solid chance of delivering a decent week. You would imagine the winner will come from the head of the market this week and it might be that Leishman is the best value of those towards the top of the betting.
The other main bet I like this week is the player who was a runner-up here last year in Jason Scrivener. To be fair the Australian hasn’t had the best season on the DP World Tour in the one which just concluded but one of his better efforts came in similar conditions in the Qatar Masters where he registered a top 10 finish. We know he can go well around here because he did it last year and he might have been even closer to Smith a year ago but for an indifferent third round. If he can put four together like he did in Qatar then he might find some joy here.
Outsiders
Whenever a course sets up for a second shot I’m always one to lean towards Eddie Pepperell. He tends to open this season in South Africa or wait for the UAE events to come around at the start of the year so it might be something that he is teeing it up in Australia for the next couple of weeks. Pepperell is a former winner of the Qatar Masters where at the time he won that event it was very much a second shot golf course with no real rough to speak of, much like he is on here. Pepperell was eighth in strokes gained on approach on the DP World Tour last season and if his irons fire here he could go very well.
The other man I’ll take a punt on is Wade Ormsby. He is another who has made his way to the LIV Golf scene and you would have to say he hasn’t really done anything of note on that circuit but he did win on the Asian Tour earlier in the year which is interesting. That shows he can still play the game and I don’t think any tournament winner of relatively recent times should be going off at 200/1 even allowing for the class acts in this field. Ormsby is Australian so he’ll know these conditions and I’ll pay to see what he can deliver in them.
Tips
Back M.Leishman to win Australian PGA Championship (e/w) for a 1/10 stake at 21.00 with William Hill (1/5 1-7)
Back him here:
Back J.Scrivener to win Australian PGA Championship (e/w) for a 1/10 stake at 46.00 with Betfair (1/5 1-7)
Back E.Pepperell to win Australian PGA Championship (e/w) for a 0.5/10 stake at 71.00 with Betfair (1/5 1-7)
Back W.Ormsby to win Australian PGA Championship (e/w) for a 0.5/10 stake at 201.00 with Betway (1/5 1-7)
