The DP World Tour remains in the desert this week for the Ras Al Khaimah Championship, the second staging of the tournament which was devised to give playing opportunities while the world recovered from the pandemic.
Nicolai Hojgaard took full advantage of the chance he was presented with a year ago when he won the title, a title he will be looking to make a successful defence of this week. Some good quality players will be out to deny him that chance though.
Recent Winners
2022 – Nicolai Hojgaard
The Course
We are at the Al Hamra Golf Club in Ras Al Khaimah this week. This track hosted both this tournament and the Ras Al Khaimah Classic a year ago and on both occasions the bigger hitters had the better of things. The course is a par 72 which stretches to 7,400 yards, although as we always suggest in this part of the world the track doesn’t play to anything quite that length with the ball travelling further through the dry air. The par 5s are all 576 yards or longer and there are one or two drivable par 4s so length will be key again this week.
It might not be everything though because the rough is said to be a lot thicker this week, which makes sense after the band of rain which went through this part of the world during the Dubai Desert Classic. That might bring the straight drivers of the ball into play, especially as the fairways here are on the tighter side but I would still want some length. Some desert form is never a bad thing in these events either.
The Field
This isn’t a Rolex Series event so the elite stars who have graced the DP World Tour are not around this week. They are off back to the States to prepare for the big run of tournaments coming up in that part of the world. The tournament is boosted by the appearance of the defending champion Nicolai Hojgaard, while his high profile brother Rasmus Hojgaard is also in the field this week which will certainly give the tournament a storyline with the Ryder Cup qualification possibilities that could come from it.
Ryan Fox won the second tournament on this course a year ago and while he won’t be competing for Ryder Cup points, he is here looking to bolster his Race to Dubai position. Adrian Meronk and Victor Perez were both involved in the Hero Cup and will be looking to enhance their Ryder Cup hopes with Callum Shinkwin in the same boat. Adri Arnaus, Thorbjorn Olesen and Richard Mansell are others who will be eyeing up Ryder Cup points this week while former captain Padraig Harrington is also in the field.
Market Leaders
We have joint favourites at the head of the market this week in Rasmus Hojgaard and Ryan Fox and the fact they are 16/1 to win the event highlights how competitive this could be. Fox has a win around this place to his name so he is sure to be popular, particularly with the length he has off the tee but he can spray that driver around which might not be ideal this week. The Dane played here last year and could only register two middle of the field efforts so he has more to prove.
We have two more players at 18/1 this week. The Australian Open champion Adrian Meronk is one of those men and the defending champion Nicolai Hojgaard. I’m no backer of defending champions as I regularly point out at this part of previews so I’ll give Hojgaard a miss. Meronk was sixth here in the second of those tournaments last year and has won twice since then so he merits being a big danger here albeit he has been fairly quiet in the desert so far.
Victor Perez had a brilliant Hero Cup and then followed that up by winning the Abu Dhabi Championship and at 20/1 on the best prices he is going to be popular. The negative to Perez is that he has never played this course at DP World Tour level but the positive is very much the form he is in and the way he is driving the ball. Unless the exertions of January have caught up with him you would be surprised if the Frenchman is far away come Sunday.
The only other player in the field who is shorter than 30/1 is Adri Arnaus. He is 28/1 on the best prices to walk off with another DP World Tour title this week. Arnaus has won around here on the Challenge Tour and he was in the top 10 in the event he played here last year so the Spaniard seemingly has a liking for the track. Arnaus was just outside the top 10 last week and is another who should be on the shortlist.
Main Bets
Two men tick most of the boxes this week. Adrian Meronk has already won this season and he is driving the ball lovely at the minute mixing decent enough length with hitting a lot of fairways and carrying the confidence of a tournament winner with him. Meronk ranked second in the strokes gained off the tee statistic last season and he has picked up where he left off in this campaign. The Pole has turned himself into one of the better players on the DP World Tour and in a lower level field to the last couple of weeks I fancy that class might shine here.
I also can’t ignore Victor Perez after his win in Abu Dhabi a couple of weeks ago. That has set him up to be one of the leading players on the DP World Tour this year and that works perfectly with him having Ryder Cup ambitions later in the campaign. Perez didn’t play either of the tournaments here last year but he was second to Adri Arnaus on the Challenge Tour so he does have course experience under his belt. The one question mark might be whether he has much left in the tank after four straight weeks on the course but he isn’t in the field next week so if he can summon up one last push I don’t think he’ll be far away here.
Outsiders
I’ll go with a couple of decent priced outsiders this week, both of whom drive the ball pretty well. In terms of enough length but accuracy with it Ross Fisher is one of the better drivers of the ball on the scene pound for pound and he can still perform at a certain level. He missed the cut in the two Rolex Series events but they are elite tournaments in big boy company. The three top 25 finishes in the Nedbank at the end of last season and the two South Africa events which opened up this season shows that he can still compete and he was in the top 20 of this tournament a year ago and then came second on the same course the following week. This is clearly a level or two below the Rolex events so Fisher should be much more competitive, especially if hitting fairways carries the premium it is expected to this week.
I’ll also take a stab in the dark with Angel Hidalgo as well. Although he missed the cut in the Abu Dhabi tournament, nobody hit more fairways as a percentage than what he did in the two rounds there and then last week he built on that ball striking effort to finish in the top 10 in Dubai. Assuming hitting the fairways is key here then I don’t think the Spaniard is without a chance as he finished in the top four at Valderrama last season and you don’t compete around there without driving the ball well. That was one of three top five finishes for him last year and he also had another four top 20 efforts too so when he is hitting it well and playing well he can definitely contend. Based on his efforts over the last two weeks I think he could be a big price at 200/1 with enough form behind him last season to offer up hope that at this level he can be competitive.
Tips
Back A.Meronk to win Ras Al Khaimah Championship (e/w) for a 1/10 stake at 17.00 with Coral (1/5 1-7)
Back V.Perez to win Ras Al Khaimah Championship (e/w) for a 1/10 stake at 19.00 with Coral (1/5 1-7)
Back R.Fisher to win Ras Al Khaimah Championship (e/w) for a 0.5/10 stake at 101.00 with Betway (1/5 1-7)
Back A.Hidalgo to win Ras Al Khaimah Championship (e/w) for a 0.5/10 stake at 201.00 with William Hill (1/5 1-6)
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