Best bets
2.5pts each-way Tyrrell Hatton @ 6/1
1pt each-way Adam Scott @ 22/1
1pt each-way Tommy Fleetwood @ 15/2
1pt each-way Min Woo Lee @ 22/1
0.5pts each-way Shubhankar Sharma @ 100/1
view odds
Place FIVE pre-tournament bets and get an in-play matched FREE BET! T&Cs apply.
Rory McIlroy is the big box-office attraction as he bids to wrap up his sixth Race to Dubai title and third in a row in a cracking climax featuring the $9m Abu Dhabi Championship and the $10m DP World Tour Championship, both in the UAE, this week and next.
It’s a fortnight of top-class golf in the desert, and although Rory is so far ahead in the money race that only a miracle will stop him, it doesn’t mean he will take his foot off the pedal. He would dearly love to win both these Rolex tournaments but needs to be at his best to keep the rampant Tyrrell Hatton at bay.
Hatton is one of three LIV Golf League stars – Joaquin Niemann and Adrian Meronk are the others – whose presence has made the tournament more attractive and competitive. He has all the right credentials, and having landed a 10/1 winner for Fitzdares punters at the Dunhill Links pro-am, the Englishman arrives at the top of his game on a course, Yas Island, where he’s performed well in both editions – T7 last year when Victor Perez won and T6 behind Thomas Pieters in 2022.
Less relevant but a definite plus mentally, Hatton is a winner in Abu Dhabi in 2021 at the tournament’s former venue, the Abu Dhabi Golf Club. However, the move to Yas Links, a waterfront layout next to the Yas Marina motor racing circuit, does not seem to have cramped his style. He’s had a wonderful second half to his LIV year, notching his first victory on the breakaway circuit in Nashville to kick off enviable end-of-term stats of 1-3-2-25-3-5.
With neither previous course winner in the line-up, we’re assured of a new Yas Island champion. It could well be McIlroy, but odds of 17/4 limit the Northern Irishman as an each-way option – he was no better than T12 on his only visit – and there are quite a few fancying their chances.
Tommy Fleetwood is a dual champion on the old course, Min Woo Lee was runner-up to Perez on this week’s 7,425-yard par-72 last year, and Shane Lowry, Justin Rose, LIV raider Niemann, Bob MacIntyre, the Højgaard twins, and Adam Scott all have big reputations to defend. Scott, in particular, is playing some of the best golf of his storied career at age 44.
As a dual Qatar Masters winner, Scott is at home with desert golf and has shone on both tours this year without getting that elusive win. He is achieving some spectacular results with the long putter, particularly from distance, and tied for tenth at Yas Island two years ago.
Fleetwood, a winner in Dubai at the start of the year, is hard to ignore as an each-way banker. His recent form – third at the Dunhill and in Madrid, 12th at Wentworth, and a silver medallist in the Olympic golf – stands up to the closest scrutiny. It’s only his putting that has stopped the man from Southport from clicking on the big occasion.
It would be stretching the truth to suggest Indian No. 1 Shubhankar Sharma is having a great year, but he was fifth in Italy and posted top-20s at The Open, British Masters, and in Denmark. What is impressive is his course form – T7 last year and T2 on debut were two of his best finishes of their respective years – so look out for him to outperform his odds for a third straight year.
As you might expect, it’s going to be sunny and hot (32°C). Here’s hoping the golf matches the weather!
WORLD WIDE TECHNOLOGY CHAMPIONSHIP
Best bets
1.5pts each-way Lucas Glover @ 22/1
1.5pts each-way Matt Kuchar @ 28/1
1.5pts each-way Cameron Young @ 18/1
1pt each-way Erik Van Rooyen @ 33/1
1pt each-way Matti Schmid @ 22/1
0.5pts each-way Alejandro Tosti @ 66/1
view odds
After a week’s break, the PGA Tour resumes its Fall Series with a trip down to Mexico for the World Wide Tech Championship at the Tiger Woods-designed El Cardonal at Diamante, where South African Erik van Rooyen defends the title he won with a spectacular 27-under-par 261 last year.
That was the first time we’d seen this 7,363-yard par 72, which opened in 2014, after 16 years of the tournament being played at Riviera Maya. Winners at the old venue playing this week include Matt Kuchar (2018), Patton Kizzire (2017), Charley Hoffman (2014), and Harris English (2013). Wide, flat fairways with risk-reward holes, plenty of birdie chances, and gorgeous views of the Pacific Ocean are in store for the first-timers.
It’s not obviously a Kuchar type of golf course, so the fact that the 46-year-old was runner-up to van Rooyen last year and has positive mental associations with Mexico makes the one-time Ryder Cup star of interest, as does van Rooyen himself, who also posted a top-ten finish south of the border in March at the Mexico Open at Vidanta.
The problem with this field is that there are so many gifted players who seem frightened of winning. Patrick Rodgers is on his 279th attempt, Beau Hossler his 204th, Maverick McNealy his 140th, and although Cameron Young has not been around for anywhere near so long, he too is breaking punters’ hearts.
The big-hitting New Yorker looked every bit a special talent when he placed second and third in two Majors in his first full year, but here we are, two more seasons down the line, and heading into his 74th tournament with Cam still to register that breakthrough.
At his best, he would dot up in this lower grade, but will he get into a position to win only to timidly fold on Sundays, betrayed by his putter, as has been his pattern in the past? This is his first start for nine weeks, and in recommending him I’m counting on a refreshed mind, a new putting stroke, and a more positive outlook to be on display.
Matti Schmid is another under-achiever. Once a star amateur, the German has quality written all over him, but does he have the temperament to match? He made hay in October by shooting 54-under in finishing 16th, third, and fifth in Mississippi, Utah, and Las Vegas, and this is a course where you have to shoot low or go home.
Less likely to let you down is craggy veteran Lucas Glover, who was only 59th on his El Cardonal debut last year, but that was after taking two months off, having feasted on back-to-back victories in August. This time the 2009 US Open champion has his game sharp after third places last month at Sanderson Farms and Black Desert. A good putting week with his newly-minted long putter will see the 44-year-old right up there.
Hossler and Kizzire showed a liking for the course last year in sharing 15th place and are undeniably in form, Hossler as runner-up in Mississippi and Kizzire as winner of the Procore. Hossler has to win one day, but will punters’ patience last that long?
Harris English, Keith Mitchell, and Patrick Berger are all class acts, but it’s been a good while since any of them won, and preference is for Doug Ghim, a very tidy operator, and Rick Hoey, who were second and third at the Shriners, while Nico Echevarria and Max Greyserman were the 1-2 in Japan.
If you’re looking for a more speculative bet at big odds, try the wild Argentinian Alejandro Tosti. When he goes on a birdie run, the others had better watch out. Top 20 at the Olympics and top ten last time out, he is exciting and excitable. And he speaks the lingo!
For all your bets on the DP World Tour, visit our dedicated golf betting page.
