The opening day of the Hero Cup sees five fourball matches taking to the course at the Abu Dhabi Golf Club as the two teams look to seize the early initiative in the inaugural running of the new match play competition.
Both captains have named their pairings with them putting themselves out at completely different parts of their order. We have a marquee match at the top of the card and four other competitive ones to enjoy.
Tommy Fleetwood & Shane Lowry vs Alex Noren & Thomas Pieters
Match tees off at 07.05 GMT
The opening match of the Hero Cup is the marquee clash of the day as four players who could well be lining up for Luke Donald in Rome face off when Tommy Fleetwood and Shane Lowry take on Alex Noren and Thomas Pieters.
I don’t think there is too much in the way of doubt that this is the best pairing for both teams on the opening day so they will be keen to pick up the point for their team. Fleetwood and Lowry might just have the edge here in that Fleetwood has won twice around this golf course and will have plenty of good memories of it. Pieters is going to be the defending Abu Dhabi champion next week but he won on a different course. Nevertheless, all four men have great desert records and this one is going to be settled by fine margins and I think rather than get involved here we should wait for better bets to come along.
Tyrrell Hatton & Jordan Smith vs Thomas Detry & Antoine Rozner
Match tees off at 07.20 GMT
The second match onto the golf course sees the English pairing of Tyrrell Hatton and Jordan Smith going up against the Belgian-French partnership of Thomas Detry and Antoine Rozner in a match the Great Britain and Ireland pair are warm order for.
I would imagine part of that is because most judges would have expected Detry to pair up with Pieters like they did successfully in the World Cup in the past and maybe Rozner to be alongside his countryman in Victor Perez. Regardless of that, I like Hatton and Smith here. Hatton was the last winner around this track on the DP World Tour while Smith won at a not too dissimilar Portugal Masters so there should be plenty of confidence in that pairing. Detry always feels overrated to me and while Rozner is a solid competitor I wouldn’t want him playing the other two himself. I like Hatton and Smith but this doesn’t feel like the day to be backing odds on shots.
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Callum Shinkwin & Matt Wallace vs Victor Perez & Guido Migliozzi
Match tees off at 07.35 GMT
The middle match of the opening day has an interesting feel about it as the English pairing of Callum Shinkwin and Matt Wallace look to get the better of the potentially exciting duo of Victor Perez and Guido Migliozzi.
Shinkwin won at Celtic Manor last season but has done nothing of note either on this golf course or in the desert as a whole really and Wallace looks to be a shadow of the player who you felt could win whenever he teed it up in Europe prior to the pandemic. His desert record is better than Shinkwin’s but his overall form is pretty ordinary over the last six months with the exception of the European Masters. That isn’t the case with Perez and Migliozzi. Perez won the Dutch Open last year and was a runner up here in 2020 when he whacked it round in 63 blows in the final round. Migliozzi took down the Open de France with that incredible Sunday 62 last season and while his desert record is nothing to write home about, the French-Italian pairing looks dangerous. I’m on Perez to be the top Europe point scorer though and that will do me for an interest in this one.
Ewen Ferguson & Richard Mansell vs Francesco Molinari & Nicolai Hojgaard
Match tees off at 07.50 GMT
The penultimate match of the opening day sees the Continental Europe captain Francesco Molinari coming out to play when he and Nicolai Hojgaard take on the British pair of Ewen Ferguson and Richard Mansell.
Ferguson won twice on the DP World Tour last season but this is the first time he’ll have seen this golf course in a competitive round and the same can be said of Mansell, who didn’t get his name on any silverware last term. In truth, the desert records of the Great Britain and Ireland pair leaves plenty to be desired too and I think they are vulnerable here. Molinari has three top 10s around here and will know how to play this golf course and he’ll be the steady one to allow Hojgaard to bring all of his natural talent out. The Dane hasn’t played here either but he won not too far away at the Ras al Khaimah event a year ago and has a top five finish in Dubai too so the desert has served him well in his career. The Europeans should be favourite in this one for me so I’m more than happy to get on board at 6/5.
Robert MacIntyre & Seamus Power vs Adrian Meronk & Sepp Straka
Match tees off at 08.05 GMT
The final match of a good looking opening day at the Hero Cup sees Robert MacIntyre and Seamus Power teaming up to take on Adrian Meronk and Sepp Straka in what could be the sleeper for the match of the play on Friday.
MacIntyre is a class act, one of the best on the DP World Tour and Seamus Power won twice on the PGA Tour in relatively quick time recently. Power was in Hawaii getting the competitive juices flowing last week, as was Straka, and while neither of them really featured at the business end of the event, at least they are up and running for their year. Meronk finished 2022 with a win in Australia and should go very well with his own ball around here. The same can be said of MacIntyre though so this feels like a tough one to call. If there is to be a halved match on the opening day this could well be it but I’m not in the business of backing ties in golf.
Tips
Back F.Molinari & N.Hojgaard to beat E.Ferguson & R.Mansell for a 3/10 stake at 2.20 with BetVictor
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