The DP World Tour heads from the UAE to Bahrain this week for the second running of the Bahrain Championship, the third full field event of the International Swing part of the 2025 season and one which should present a decent week of golf.
Dylan Frittelli was the inaugural champion of this tournament a year ago and the South African will be back in Bahrain looking to make a successful defence of the title but a decent enough field for this time of year will oppose him.
Recent Winners
2024 – Dylan Frittelli
The Course
We are at the Royal Golf Club in the Kingdom of Bahrain this week. This track was used for the inaugural showing of the tournament so the players who played last year might have something of a slight advantage. The course is a par 72 which measures 7,302 yards but as ever in this part of the world the air is fairly dry so the ball flies further so it will play a fair bit shorter than that. The track is exposed though so any wind will provide any defence to the golf course.
This is only the second time this tournament has been played, although the course was used for an event more than a decade ago, so we are still working out which statistics are relevant but the early indication is that length is important because there isn’t too much punishment for missing the fairways here and the further down you are the shorter the irons into the greens you have. Clearly in an event of this kind a good putter is needed but comfort in the breeze and length would be the two factors to look for the most.
The Field
Although this tournament is still in the days of establishing itself on the calendar and some big events are taking place in America over the next few weeks, there is still a perfectly acceptable field on show for the week with six players in the top 100 in the world and they include the highest ranked of them in Thorbjorn Olesen. The other five in that elite bracket are Romain Langasque, David Puig, Laurie Canter, Jordan Smith and Rasmus Neergaard-Petersen.
We also have eight of the top 10 in the early race to Dubai rankings on show this week with Daniel Hillier the highest ranked and he will be looking to strengthen his position in proceedings, as will fourth placed John Parry and fifth ranked Johannes Veerman. The others in the top 10 are Elvis Smylie, Alejandro Del Rey, Ryggs Johnston, Canter and Marcus Armitage. Patrick Reed, Sebastian Soderberg and Ewen Ferguson are some of the others to take notice of going into the week.
Market Leaders
We have joint favourites on the best prices for the tournament this week with LIV Golf pair David Puig and Patrick Reed favourites in different places. Both men can be backed at 16/1 if you shop around. Reed heads to Bahrain having had top 10 finishes in the last two tournaments and you would imagine a links setup would suit. He is on debut here though while the last four DP World Tour events Puig has played he hasn’t finished outside the top 12. He is also on debut here.
Thorbjorn Olesen is next in the betting at 18/1. He has had a couple of acceptable efforts to open up 2025 even though he wasn’t in contention in either of them but on an exposed layout I think he has to be taken seriously here. He has won the Dunhill Links Championship in the past so we know he can handle an exposed layout and in a Ryder Cup year I think he is a player who needs to be kept onside in events where he can bolster his hopes of getting points such as this.
Laurie Canter is next in the market at 20/1. He was third in the Dubai Desert Classic a couple of weeks ago and that line of form is probably the best in the tournament so on that evidence he could take a fair bit of beating. Canter was second in Mauritius last season which shows us that he can go well on exposed tracks and he isn’t too short off the tee either so there is a lot to like about the Englishman at 20/1 this week.
The only other player in the field shorter than 28/1 is Johannes Veerman. The American can be taken at 22/1 to win the tournament. I really liked him last week where he played himself into contention and then out of it in the next round and I guess that lack of consistency could be a problem on what is likely to be a low scoring event. He won the Nedbank Golf Challenge at the back end of 2024 but couldn’t crack the top 25 here last year.
Main Bets
This is a rare week where there is only one main bet that I like. That comes in the form of Sebastian Soderberg who ticks plenty of boxes. Of the market leaders I would probably have played Thorbjorn Olesen if he was a little bigger. I wouldn’t be surprised if he goes in at all but at half the price of the selection I can pass him over fairly comfortably this week. Others I looked at included Rasmus Neergaard-Petersen and Julien Guerrier but I’m not quite as sold on either as I would like to be.
Soderberg was in the top 10 here last year and comes into the week off the back of a T5 finish in the Ras Al Khaimah Championship last week. He was third in the Mauritius Open last year which is an exposed track like this one and he was second in three different tournaments in 2024 so at this level he is a major player let alone in a field which is lacking depth like this one is. Having shaken off the DP World Tour rust last week I think Soderberg is a leading runner here.
Outsiders
I’ll go with three outsiders this week with the first of those the man who delivered the goods for me at the Mauritius Open in the form of John Parry. He won there and with the wind expected to be a little lively here there is no reason why he can’t go well here too. Parry hasn’t done a huge amount since he won in Mauritius but you have to think that the Dubai Desert Classic field was as good as it gets and while he would have been disappointed with last week I’m not going to write him off yet. Parry showed in Australia and South Africa at the beginning of the season that he can handle windy conditions and he feels like a big price here.
Jayden Schaper has had a quiet start to the season but there is no quibbling at a T13 at the Mauritius Open and T21 at the Dubai Desert Classic and if his overall record in Mauritius is anything to go by, where he has finishes of T9-6-T13 then he could be a live outsider this week. Schaper had five top 10 finishes in 2024 and another bunch of top 20 finishes so he is very consistent and the exposed nature of this track and everything that comes with it helps then he could very well run well in conditions that should bring the best of his game out.
Daniel Brown is the other bet that I like this week. He put together some really good form on links and exposed tracks last year and that followed on from his win in Northern Ireland the year before. It is fair to say that he hasn’t really done much this year but you have to separate the bigger events from these weaker ones and generally his form at this level has been good for a while. If the wind blows we know he won’t be found wanting and he can shape the ball however it is needed. This might be the week where he lights his 2025 spark and I’ll pay to see if it is.
Tips
Back S.Soderberg to win Bahrain Championship (e/w) for a 1/10 stake at 34.00 with Unibet (1/5 1-6)
Back J.Parry to win Bahrain Championship (e/w) for a 0.5/10 stake at 101.00 with Spreadex (1/5 1-6)
Back J.Schaper to win Bahrain Championship (e/w) for a 0.5/10 stake at 101.00 with Spreadex (1/5 1-6)
Back D.Brown to win Bahrain Championship (e/w) for a 0.5/10 stake at 131.00 with Spreadex (1/5 1-6)
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