The DP World Tour and the Ladies European Tour come together in Sweden this week for the Scandinavian Mixed, the groundbreaking tournament which is now in the fourth year of the combined format.
Dale Whitnell won his maiden DP World Tour title when he won this tournament a year ago and he is back to look to become the first player to successfully defend the crown. He’ll do so against a fairly good field on a different course.
Recent Winners
2023 – Dale Whitnell
2022 – Linn Grant
2021 – Jonathan Caldwell
The Course
We have moved along to the Vasatorps Golfklubb in Helsingborgs for the tournament this week. This will be the first time that this track has been used at this level so everyone in the field will be tasting it for the first time in competitive play. For the men in the field the course is a par 72 which can stretch out to 7,295 yards so it isn’t overly long by the standards of today. It will play shorter for the women who will go off the women’s tees.
There isn’t a huge amount of information to be found about this place other than the greens are undulating and there are one or two comments about the rough around them being quite thick so I think we are looking for strong iron players this week. Up in Scandinavia the breeze is always a factor so that needs to be thought of when selecting bets. Undulating greens are probably going to call for decent putters as well.
The Field
When you consider there is a fairly prestigious tournament in America this week and a major in that part of the world next week, the tournament organisers have done well to get the calibre of field that they have with a couple of players in the top 100 in the world rankings as well as some leading home lights. There are also some standout women in the field too including the 2022 champion Linn Grant. The defending champion Dale Whitnell is also here too.
The two top 100 world ranked players in the field teeing it up are Rasmus Hojgaard and Sebastian Soderberg while the home player Jesper Svensson sits third on the Race to Dubai standings and looks set to bolster his position in that. Nacho Elvira, Adrian Otaegui, Darius van Driel and Dylan Frittelli are the other players in the field who are in the top 20 of the Race to Dubai rankings who have a chance to enhance their spot over the four days.
Market Leaders
Rasmus Hojgaard will tee it up as a 14/1 favourite to win the event. If there is a links feel to the course like there is said to be then the Dane would enter calculations strongly but his form has dropped off a cliff in recent weeks which would be a concern, especially with this likely to be a low scoring event. This is his first go at this tournament so the fact he is here is either a tip in itself or he is here for a confidence boost. Either way, he feels a little short to me.
Sebastian Soderberg has been one of the leading lights on the DP World Tour this season and he is playing on home soil this week so he certainly has to enter calculations. Prior to the USPGA Championship, where he made the cut and shot a couple of under par rounds and posted -2 for the week, he had gone T2-2-T3 at this level. Soderberg has a couple of top five finishes in this tournament before it became the Scandinavian Mixed so he can play on home soil and could be a leading light here.
Alexander Bjork is another player who is on home soil this week. He is the third highest ranked player teeing it up from the male half of the field. He has a couple of top 10s in the tournament in its current guise so he clearly likes the format. This will be his first tilt at DP World Tour level this season with him now having a PGA Tour card. It is fair to say his opening to the PGA Tour hasn’t gone as well as he would have wanted but he is down a level here and even at 20/1 he needs to be respected.
Niklas Norgaard Moller was tied for the lead in Germany last week with six to play but couldn’t get the job done and he is 22/1 to fare better this time around. That is now two successive events in Europe where the Dane has shown up with some good form so he certainly can’t be ruled out but he is a player I have down as better on the longer tracks. He has gone T10 and T21 in this tournament in the last two years so while I respect his chances he isn’t quite for me.
Main Bets
I’ll take a couple of main bets this week with the first one being Matthew Jordan who if this course does have a links feel to it and big, undulating greens and a breeze across the place would be things that would suggest it will, should continue his good recent form. He arrives here off the back of a T5 at the Soudal Open and T13 in the European Open last week and he was T9 in this tournament last year so he ticks all the form boxes. Jordan sits at 12 on the DP World Tour for strokes gained from tee to green and he has good form at links events so I think he’ll putt well this week. At 25/1 he looks like a leading contender to me.
At a bigger price I can’t ignore Henrik Norlander on home soil. I’ve backed him in a couple of the lesser PGA Tour events this season so it wouldn’t make any sense at all for me to ignore when he is further down in grade this week. He has four top 20 finishes in eight starts on the PGA Tour this season and that should translate into being in the upper echelons of proceedings here. He won’t be short of motivation on home soil and if he can bring his long game to the party this week he shouldn’t be too far away.
Outsiders
I still believe that Andy Sullivan has the potential to be one of the best players on the DP World Tour and this is a chance for him to show that. The course isn’t too long, it isn’t going to be set up terribly demanding and the breeze shouldn’t hamper him at all. He needs to get his career back on track but if he is anything close to his best he is too good for the majority of this field. He has two top five finishes this season and another top 10 to his name so when he is good he is still more than competitive at this level. I’ll pay to see if he can show that again here.
It isn’t very often that you are going to get a DP World Tour winner on the season who is 150/1 in this sort of field but in Dylan Frittelli we do have that. To be fair, either side of that win he hasn’t done a huge amount hence why he is this price but we saw in Bahrain that when the stars align he can still deliver a strong week. He is decent enough through the bag and winning in Mauritius in the past tells us that he can handle himself should the breeze kick up. I don’t think this is going to take a great deal of winning so I’ll pay to see how close the South African goes to doing it.
Tips
Back M.Jordan to win Scandinavian Mixed (e/w) for a 1/10 stake at 26.00 with William Hill (1/5 1-6)
Back him here:
Back H.Norlander to win Scandinavian Mixed (e/w) for a 1/10 stake at 46.00 with Betfair (1/5 1-6)
Back A.Sullivan to win Scandinavian Mixed (e/w) for a 0.5/10 stake at 81.00 with Sky Bet (1/5 1-6)
Back D.Frittelli to win Scandinavian Mixed (e/w) for a 0.5/10 stake at 151.00 with Sky Bet (1/5 1-6)
