The DP World Tour shifts across Asia this week for the inaugural staging of the Korea Championship, the final event before we begin a European summer of golf which has a huge profile with the countdown now on to the Ryder Cup.
Before we get to Europe though we stop off in Incheon in South Korea as we crown another inaugural champion a week after the DP World Tour did the same thing in Japan. A similar field will tee it up here.
The Course
For the second week in succession in Asia we are on a Jack Nicklaus designed golf course. This time it is the Jack Nicklaus Golf Club Korea which stages the tournament. Unlike last week, this is a track which has been used at the top level as it staged the 2015 Presidents Cup. It has also been a feature on the Korean Tour, although that probably won’t count for much this week. The track is a par 72 which stretches 7,470 yards so it is a bit more of a monster than the one in Japan.
As with all Nicklaus tracks, the test here isn’t so much off the tee but from the second shot and in. The good thing for the bigger hitters is they can get the driver behind the ball and give it a good smack which wasn’t always the case last week. There is a lot of water in play here though so the second shot and in will need to contain a good deal of accuracy. There is an exposed nature to the course so things could get lively when the wind blows.
The Field
With the tour getting ready to head back to Europe next week and the next major beginning to loom on the horizon next month it is understandable that the field is slightly weaker than the one which entertained us last week. We have just four men in the top 100 in the world rankings teeing it up this week. Adrian Meronk heads the way in those with Kazuki Higa, Robert MacIntyre and Jordan Smith the other men in that elite band here.
The majority of the top 20 in the Race to Dubai rankings are in the field this week looking to take advantage of the absence of the truly big names. Jorge Campillo is the highest in those rankings with a tee time here. He sits ninth and Sebastian Soderberg is tenth. Yannik Paul, Marcel Siem, Antoine Rozner, Daniel Gavins, Zander Lombard, Joost Luiten and Alexander Bjork are the others in the top 20 while Rasmus Hojgaard will be looking to impress.
Market Leaders
We have joint favourites this week in Rasmus Hojgaard and Jordan Smith. The Dane was in the mix at the halfway mark in Japan last week but levelled out over the weekend. That was the first time he had teed it up in a while so might have needed the run to shake off some rust. Smith was in the top 10 last week with a consistent four rounds but you never got the impression he was about to win. You can get 16/1 on either but that looks a bit skinny to me.
Adrian Meronk and Robert MacIntyre come next in the betting at 18/1, which shows how competitive this tournament might be rather than anything else. Meronk is the leader in the field in terms of the world ranking but he wasn’t in Japan last week and it remains to be seen whether that will be a help or a hindrance. MacIntyre flew home for sixth last week which was as close as he got but if that 64 gives him confidence he could kick on here.
Yannik Paul is next in the market at 22/1. He very much followed the MacIntyre way of doing things last week in that he flew home with a 65 to finish in the top 10. He is another who has played well in the main this season and if he has taken confidence from that final round a week ago then the German could very well go close to emulating his countrymen Marcel Siem and Nick Bachem in winning a DP World Tour title this term.
There is only one other player who is shorter than 30/1 in the betting and that is the man who won in Mauritius earlier in the season in the form of the French player Antoine Rozner. He is a 25/1 shot to lift a second title of the campaign this week. He is generally regarded as an aggressive iron player which is very much a positive here. He only finished in the middle of the field last week but it might be that having no competitive juices flowing help him this week.
Main Bets
Yannik Paul looks a pretty obvious main bet this week not least because he has done everything but win on the DP World Tour this season. Sometimes when you see a player finish second twice you think he’s bottled it but he shot 68 in Thailand in the final round and 70 on Sunday in India so he just got beat by better players on the day. This field feels much weaker than those and indeed the one he came sixth in last week so I’m more encouraged here. Paul got better the longer the week went on in Japan last week and you would probably expect that given that he hadn’t teed it up for a couple of weeks. The German was second in strokes gained on approach last week and he is third for the season overall. That is always a big statistic on Nicklaus designs so he looks ideally placed for a major tilt at this.
Jorge Campillo is another who has been in excellent form on the DP World Tour in recent times and the Kenya Open champion looks a very good bet here too. Either side of his win in Kenya, Campillo registered top 10 finishes in India and in Japan last week and he would have been even closer a week ago but for stumbling a touch in the trickier conditions in the second round. Campillo has won three times outside of Europe now and one of the reasons for that is the aggressive and high quality iron play that he can show. Like most Spaniards he can get it done on and around the greens too so he should be ideally suited to the test this week. At a shade under 30/1 I’ll pay to see if he can maintain his good form.
Outsiders
I’m never far from a Kiradech Aphibarnrat play on the DP World Tour and I’m especially prone to one whenever we are in this part of the world, particularly on a golf course where aggressive iron play is rewarded. Aphibarnrat ranked inside the top 10 in that department last week and sits at a perfectly respectable 22 on the tour for the season. He holed absolutely nothing last week but as an Asian Tour regular for so long I am hoping that was just rust rather than a malaise of any kind. The Thai has won twice in Asia on the DP World Tour and if he can get the putter warmed up this course should really bring out his strengths.
The same can be said of Jacques Kruyswijk without the winning part. He is a player who is coming into a bit of form with a top 10 in the Jonsson Workwear Open prior to the month off that the tour had and then a T16 in Japan last week. The secret to his success is very much the iron play and I’m convinced that is the key thing here too. The South African was fifth in strokes gained on approach last week and sits at 34 for the season as a whole in that department. He would probably be ranked a little higher too had he not played all the South African events where the altitude can affect things. He tends to play well in March and April and at a three-figure price I’ll definitely pay to see what he has got here.
Tips
Back Y.Paul to win Korea Championship (e/w) for a 1/10 stake at 23.00 with Betway (1/5 1-7)
Back J.Campillo to win Korea Championship (e/w) for a 1/10 stake at 34.00 with Betway (1/5 1-7)
Back K.Aphibarnrat to win Korea Championship (e/w) for a 0.5/10 stake at 76.00 with Boylesports (1/5 1-8)
Back him here:
Back J.Kruyswijk to win Korea Championship (e/w) for a 0.5/10 stake at 151.00 with Betfair (1/5 1-7)
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