The DP World Tour returns after a month off for The Open and the Olympic event and it resumes with a tournament which is getting more and more popular as the Czech Masters continues the Closing Swing part of the campaign.
Todd Clements was a surprise winner of this tournament a year ago and he is back in the field looking to make a successful defence of his title but there are a number of players looking to lift it from him.
Recent Winners
2023 – Todd Clements
2022 – Max Kieffer
2021 – Johannes Veerman
2019 – Thomas Pieters
2018 – Andrea Pavan
2017 – Haydn Porteous
2016 – Paul Peterson
2015 – Thomas Pieters
2014 – Jamie Donaldson
The Course
We are on new ground this week for the first time as we have left the Albatross Golf Resort behind and we now head to the PGA National OAKS Prague. The course is a par 72 and as ever in this tournament the track is a bit of a monster as it can stretch to 7,592 yards. We don’t really have a lot more information to go on other than that but pictures that have been used on Twitter suggest that it is a bit of a parkland track where the key is keeping the ball in play.
In pretty much every renewal of this tournament, length has been a feature of those who are in the mix and given the length of the course I don’t really see why that would be any different here but I do think that there is going to be an element of management around here and a premium on shots into the green. It might take a while but at some point you would imagine the scoring will be good here so keep weak putters out of the equation.
The Field
Although this isn’t the highest profile event on the DP World Tour and clashes with the beginning of the playoffs over in America, we still have a couple of players from the top 100 in the world rankings on show this week in Ryo Hisatsune and Romain Langasque who will be looking to take advantage of being the best players in the field. We also have the defending champion Todd Clements here too albeit he’ll be defending on a different course to the one he won on.
We are heading towards the final quarter of the Race to Dubai campaign and we have three other players who are in the top 20 of that ranking list teeing it up this week looking to make their move. They are Jesper Svensson, who is the only player in the top 10 in those standings, Tom McKibbin and Nacho Elvira. Bernd Wiesberger, Antoine Rozner, Adrian Otaegui, Yannik Paul and Connor Syme are some of the other players in the field.
Market Leaders
Tom McKibbin is the favourite to win the tournament this week. He can be taken at 14/1 to come out on top in a field which isn’t the strongest. The Northern Irishman was sixth in the KLM Open and second in the Italian Open a couple of months ago but it is hard to know what sort of form he is in with the sport largely stopping on this side of the pond for the last month. He hits the ball a long way though so it wouldn’t be a surprise to see him in the mix here.
Matthew Jordan is a surprise second favourite to come out on top this week. There is talk that this could be a links like track in which case he would be expected to have a decent week as he has excellent form on links courses as we saw at The Open. If, as I suspect, length is a big thing here then he might be found out in that regard. You can get 20/1 on the best prices on Jordan but that isn’t a price that interests me for someone who has never won at this level before.
Ryo Hisatsune has won on the DP World Tour and he is 22/1 to win this tournament as well. He won the Open de France on the Olympic course at Le Golf National last year and he is the highest ranked player in the field in terms of the world rankings so there is a lot going for the Japanese player here although one thing that isn’t in his favour is the fact that he isn’t the longest hitter in the world. I’m not writing him off quickly but others are preferred.
Richard Mansell and Bernd Wiesberger are 25/1 on the best prices to win the tournament this week. There is no doubt that the latter is more than good enough to win any tournament at this level but we are still waiting to see his very best while Mansell has yet to prove that he can get over the line at this level, although he has knocked on the door a few times. I have to say that I’m not rushing to back either at these prices.
Main Bets
I’m all about length this week and all of my players are in the top six in driving distance on the DP World Tour and we begin with Niklas Norgaard who sits fourth in that category. He is yet to win on the DP World Tour but he was second in Belgium earlier in the year and fourth in the European Open so he has some good form in decent events on the circuit. He is a monstrous hitter of the golf ball and if he keeps it in play off the tee this week then I think the Dane could be tough to beat on a track which is fresh for everyone.
I am staying in Scandinavia for my second bet because that comes in the form of Jesper Svensson, the leading player in the Race to Dubai rankings in the field this week. That immediately shows us that he is having a decent season where the highlight was him winning in Singapore. He finished with a 63 in the final round of that event so that immediately tells us that he can perform strongly on a Sunday and that will never be a negative. He also won on the Challenge Tour last season so we know he knows how to win. He is sixth for driving distance this season so he is another who if he is on it off the tee could well overpower this course.
Outsiders
I’ll take a couple of big priced outsiders this week in the form of Marco Penge who is the longest hitter on the DP World Tour statistically. He won twice on the Challenge Tour last season and picked up a top five at this level earlier in the campaign and while things haven’t gone the way he would have wanted over the course of the campaign as a whole, this is clearly a track that he should be able to let the driver go with a bit of freedom and look to score off the back of it. I’ll pay to see how close he goes here.
Oliver Bekker is number three on the driving distance statistic and he looks an excellent price if he can work off the back of that length. He is another who hasn’t had the best season in the world but he is also another who probably only thrives when he can hit it a long way without too many consequences. He has that option here so the South African could quite easily be a big price. The fact that nobody has the advantage of course knowledge could also help as well and I’ll pay to see how he goes.
Tips
Back N.Norgaard to win Czech Masters (e/w) for a 1/10 stake at 31.00 with Spreadex (1/5 1-6)
Back J.Svensson to win Czech Masters (e/w) for a 1/10 stake at 46.00 with Sky Bet (1/5 1-6)
Back M.Penge to win Czech Masters (e/w) for a 0.5/10 stake at 151.00 with Spreadex (1/5 1-6)
Back O.Bekker to win Czech Masters (e/w) for a 0.5/10 stake at 251.00 with Spreadex (1/5 1-6)
