Best bets
Now and again, on unforgettable occasions, sport is much more than having something to bet on. The almost unbearably riveting, roller-coaster final day of the 89th Masters when Rory McIlroy conquered Augusta demons that date back to 2011 was unquestionably one to tell your grandchildren about.
When you lose all your money and still cry tears of joy for a winner who had a dream and never stopped believing in himself even when he imploded and the going got tough, that’s what great sport does, make you see the bigger picture and forget the hole in your pocket.
To put that bigger picture into context: after 11 years of trying to complete the full set of Majors, McIlroy has finally gone where no European golfer has ever gone before and landed the career Grand Slam previously the exclusive preserve of Gene Sarazen, Ben Hogan, Gary Player, Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods.
Just think of all the great Europeans who came up short: Jacklin, Faldo, Ballesteros and Lyle got only halfway there, Langer just a quarter, Montgomerie not even that. And the great Americans: Palmer, Watson, Snead, Mickelson. That is the measure of Rory’s greatness. Think Andy Murray in tennis and double it. He had to do it the hard way. Inevitably. That’s the only way he knows at Augusta.
From two ahead at the start of Sunday, to one behind after just two holes, to four ahead with six to play to one behind two holes later, from magnificent birdie on 17 to inglorious bogey from a perfect drive on 18, he gave us the full Monty and we still love him for the agony he puts us through.
The 6/1 winner, naturally the least popular result with the bookmaking fraternity, now disputes 5/1 favouritism with Scottie Scheffler (still world No. 1 despite Rory’s three victories this year) for the US PGA Championship at Quail Hollow, where he won for the first time on the PGA Tour and three times since. And our Open is at, guess where, Royal Portrush in his native Northern Ireland which he knows like the back of his hand. An already fabulous year for the 35-year-old from Holywood, County Down, could become even more fabulous.
A word here for the great 66 from Justin Rose that took the stylish Englishman into a nail-biting playoff in a glorious 1-2 for our Ryder Cup heroes and the great sportsmanship gentleman Justin showed in defeat. Now runner-up in the last two Majors, he’s looking a shoo-in to retain his Ryder Cup place at age 44. Props too to Ludvig Aberg whose wonderful golf would have made it a 1-2-3 for Europe but for losing the plot on the final two holes.
Talking of greatness, thank goodness for cricketing superstar and now ace golf tipster Stuart Broad! While yours truly’s Masters tips were biting the dust, the Fitzdares ambassador uprooted the stumps with his free £250 each-way bet. By keeping faith with his pro-am partner McIlroy, the fast bowler picked up a tidy £1800 for a charity very close to his heart as winnings go to The Broad Appeal set up by his England opening-bat father Chris shortly after losing his second wife Miche to motor neurone disease.
No Rory this week for the $20m no-cut Signature event, the RBC Heritage, but Scheffler is back to defend his title on the lovely Harbour Town Golf Links on Hilton Head Island in South Carolina, with Aberg, Rose, Shane Lowry, who looked shattered after shooting 81 on Sunday, Tommy Fleetwood, Bob MacIntyre and Aaron Rai spearheading the European challenge.
Without having his best game, Scheffler somehow made it into fourth place at Augusta. Although that followed a decent second in Houston, his figures this campaign hardly match last year’s 1-1-2-1 run coming into Heritage (how could they?) but are solid enough to justify picking him to open his 2025 account at the eighth attempt.
He won readily enough by three last time on this tricky Pete Dye part-links, a strategic 7213-yard par 71 with tiny greens that favours drivers who know exactly what part of the well-protected fairways they need to put the ball in. High-class plodders like Jim Furyk, Matt Kuchar, Matt Fitzpatrick and Webb Simpson have thrived there over the years while straight driver Stewart Cink, the only 225/1 winner I ever tipped when he took the 2021 title, is a triple Heritage champion.
Fitzpatrick, the 2023 winner after a playoff with Jordan Spieth, played a bit better last week but has been woefully out of form. He and ace caddie Billy Foster have parted company, never a good sign, but expect big showings from him and Aberg while, despite having a quiet year, Patrick Cantlay has to come into the conversation.
Cantlay’s 12th at Sawgrass following a brace of fifth places at Kapalua and Torrey Pines reads well enough and his course record and a liking for Dye layouts make him a must. He was unlucky with a bad lie in a greenside trap when losing out to Spieth in the 2022 playoff, third in the two subsequent renewals and would have had a good Masters but for going seven over for the week on the treacherous 15th.
Collin Morikawa has superior current credentials (2-17-17-2-10-14) but less compelling course cred, though with top-tens in 2021 and last year he is almost there. Last year’s double Major champion Xander Schauffele is also starting to look dangerous. Xander, fourth here in 2023, is having to play catch-up after losing weeks with a stomach muscle injury and the Masters T8 suggests he’s almost ready to roll. I’d have him over Canadian Corey Conners who looked knackered after his valiant Masters top-ten but maybe he needs one week more.
Sahith Theegala, runner-up last year and fifth the year before, is hard to ignore on course form but hasn’t had a top-ten this year and preference is for Daniel Berger, a big player before having to take 18 months out with a back injury and now recovering his old fizz.
The Phoenix runner-up continues to rack up steady performances and coped well with Harbour Town when T3 to Simpson in 2020. This is his type of course.
Two days of sunshine are expected followed by a cloudy, humid weekend.
Best bets
It is nine years since a home player won the China Open but the rejuvenated Haotong Li must have every chance of repeating his 2016 triumph when the tournament moves to a new venue in Shanghai this week.
Enhance Anting, a 2005 Robert Trent Jones Jr layout, is the national Open’s 11th home in 20 years as the tourist industry wants the world to know what a fine collection of golf courses China has. It is a flat, parkland, risk-reward layout of 7168 yards, a well-bunkered par 71 around a lake with three par fives, the 18th at 618 yards a daunting finishing hole if a birdie is needed to win.
Li’s victory came at Topwin GC when he was a bright young lad tipped to become China’s first world-class golfer. Sure enough, two years later he edged out none other than Rory McIlroy at the Dubai Desert Classic but then things started to go so dramatically wrong, missing fairways by miles, that he seriously considered giving up.
It was four more years until the next W and another long wait before he resurfaced by winning the Qatar Masters in February. Although to put it mildly not the straightest driver on tour, much of the crazy stuff has been eliminated and a degree of consistency has set in. Ninth place in Singapore followed 16th at the SA Open and it’s good to have this chatty, colourful character back.
The course is hopefully wide enough to cope with any of Li’s wonky drives but he won’t have to do too many wides, otherwise Rasmus Neergaard-Petersen will get his revenge for that one-shot defeat in Qatar. Since then the ambitious Dane has filled the same position on the PGA Tour in Puerto Rico and is a young man in a hurry. A main-tour breakthrough is not far off.
We know my other three fancies have their games in good nick as they finished first, second and sixth on their last outing at the Indian Open. Classy Keita Nakajima, runner-up to Eugenio Chacarra in Delhi, may come out on top this time but both have a bit of class about them at this level. That was the Japanese star’s second consecutive second following a similar near miss in Singapore.
The Indian sixth, Brandon Stone, has masses of ability but does not always as use it. If the nonchalant South African gives it 100 per cent and doesn’t throw it away as he did with a Sunday 77 in Delhi, he could pull off a shock as his previous form at home wasn’t half bad. It’s going to hot and humid, sunny on Friday, rainy on Saturday. If Stone pulls off his first DP World Tour victory since the 2018 Scottish Open, he’ll be singing in the rain.
Best bets
1pt each-way Alejandro Tosti @ 40/1
1pt each-way Alex Smalley @ 18/1
1pt each-way Harry Hall @ 20/1
The non-televised Corales in the Dominican Republic provides gainful employment for those not worthy of a place at Heritage and gives an opportunity for volatile Argentinian Alejandro Tosti to supplement recent good showings in the Lone Star State (12th Houston, 5th San Antonio).
Alex Smalley, runner up in the 2022 Corales and T6 last year, looks the danger along with Englishman Harry Hall, 13th in 2023 and a main-tour winner last year, in a tournament that fell to Britain via Matt Wallace (who is back again) two years ago.
It’s long course but judging by past results with tidy operators like Wallace and Billy Horschel prevailing, there’s no advantage in being a bomber.
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