ALFRED DUNHILL LINKS CHAMPIONSHIP
Best bets
2pts each-way Tyrrell Hatton @ 10/1
1.5pts each-way Robert MacIntyre @ 22/1
1.5pts each-way Louis Oosthuizen @ 28/1
0.5pt each-way Alex Noren @ 22/1
0.5pt each-way Peter Uihlein @ 50/1
0.5pt each-way Rasmus Neergaard-Petersen @ 100/1
2pts each-way Noren @ 8/1 Top Continental
1pt win Noren @ 13/10 Top Swedish
2pts MacIntyre @ 11/10 to beat Shane Lowry
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An absorbing Spanish Open with a 225/1 shot dumping the 3/1 favourite in a playoff benefited greatly from the participation of a handful of LIV’s big guns – they didn’t win but provided four of last week’s top ten – and the Saudi-backed breakaways are even more heavily involved this week at the Dunhill Links Pro-Am over three great Scottish links.
And how good it will be for the fans to be able to see for free the likes of Jon Rahm, Brooks Koepka, Tyrrell Hatton and ten other LIV aces doing battle with Rory McIlroy and their own home favourite Bob MacIntyre on some of the most iconic golfing terrain in the world. Free, that is, for the first three days as it is only on Sunday that the public are being charged for admission.
And with blue-chip Hollywood icons like Michael Douglas, Bill Murray and Andy Garcia, plus sporting legends Tony McCoy, Steve Redgrave, Kevin Pietersen, Gareth Bale and Jimmy Anderson, teeing it up, it’s a feast for autograph hunters and a new audience for the game.
‘Koepka rates St Andrews his favourite course and could be overpriced if he’s taking it seriously…’
Mind you, some of us would need to be paid to watch 168 amateurs and celebrities hacking it around in five-and-half-hour rounds alongside the same number of professionals in far-from-shirtsleeve October weather on Scotland’s chilly East Coast even with the opportunity to do so in magical places like St Andrews, Carnoustie and that picturesque modern links Kingsbarns.
If 13 degrees and the strong possibility of weekend rain float your boat, not to mention the travelling involved in keeping abreast of what’s going on – the action takes place in two counties, Carnoustie is in Angus, St Andrews and Kingsbarns are in Fife – then the Dunhill Links is where you want to be. They play a round apiece on the three courses with the top 60 pros and 20 teams left sorting it out at St Andrews on Sunday.
This is the second autumn appearance by former world No. 1 Rahm who needs to play three times by the end of the year to secure his DP World Tour membership and with it a Ryder Cup place. The Andalusia Masters at Sotogrande will complete that obligation in two weeks’ time but it shouldn’t be that way and the sooner this schism between the tours is mended, the better it will be for everyone.
Beaten by unconsidered but highly entertaining compatriot Angel Hidalgo in an emotional Spanish one-two on Sunday, Rahm took plenty of positives after a crazy preparation. He became a third-time father last Tuesday, then a “severe flu-like” illness (the official reason) forced him to withdraw at the last minute from the lucrative LIV Team Championship in Dallas.
He flew into Madrid only a day before the Spanish Open and had to miss the pro-am too. Little wonder it wasn’t vintage Rahm but he was never going to let his beloved Spain down. For once, it wasn’t about money for LIV’s highest-paid capture.
If a vintage Rahm turns up in Scotland he could be the man to beat – he hasn’t won an Open although second, third and seventh in three of the last four – but this is a very strong cast. McIlroy is playing with his dad, a good golfer himself, defending champion Matt Fitzpatrick won the team event with his very capable mother last year and goes for a repeat, Billy Horschel arrives fresh from Wentworth glory, LIV have other irons in the fire in major champions Koepka, who rates St Andrews his favourite course and could be overpriced if he’s taking it seriously, Patrick Reed and Louis Oosthuizen, the St Andrews winner of the 2010 Open (and runner-up five years later) while Shane Lowry and Tommy Fleetwood are there too … the list goes on and on.
It’s hard to know who is in it to win it and who are there mainly for the craic. McIlroy has never won but for a guy not regarded as a great wind player because he’s a high-ball hitter he showed a lovely range of knock-down shots at the Irish Open and arrives on a mission following two frustrating near-misses. Wouldn’t it be ironic if he were a bridesmaid three times in a row?
For the many Rory faithful, it’s worth pointing out he was T2 in the 2018 Open at Carnoustie, a links which can be brutal when the wind blows. It’s pretty brutal at the best of times and the cohort which gets “Carnasty” on its worst day faces an uphill struggle to stay in contention.
Hatton, who has his dad as partner, is the one with the best course credentials as a dual Dunhill winner (2016-17) and only a shot shy of completing the hat-trick when outsider Lucas Bjerregaard beat him in 2018. He was runner-up again in 2021 and on the LIV circuit he’s been the most impressive player, Rahm included, over the past three months. A poor start in Madrid put him way behind the eight-ball but he stuck to his guns to share tenth place with fellow LIV raider Reed. Given a better first day, he must go close to a Dunhill treble.
MacIntyre partners his dad who caddied for Bob when he won in Canada. Playing in Scotland inspires him. He raised his game in two Scottish Opens, foiled by McIlroy two years ago but deservedly reversing the positions this July. The crowd will lift him again and as a winner on both main tours this year his confidence is at an all-time high. This tournament has yet to show the man from Oban at his best but there’s much more to come. I like him too at odds-against in a match bet with Lowry.
Fleetwood somehow bagged a share of third place in Madrid at the weekend despite missing putt after putt. He is a past Dunhill runner-up but is hellishly hard to win with.
The same comment applies to Lowry who plays some sweet golf without being able to find it for four days. And Fitzpatrick is going through a rough patch.
More to my liking is American raider Horschel, tenth and 14th the last two years and sore about being overlooked for what turned out to be a winning US Presidents Cup team. He would love to show Ryder Cup captain Bradley what the USA were missing by following up his second BMW PGA triumph with another W on British soil.
Perennial bridesmaid Alex Noren won a Scottish Open on a links, was Dunhill runner-up to Ryan Fox two years ago and a leaderboard regular in this event. A definite top-ten contender who has been in decent PGA Tour form, he’s worthy of support at 8/1 in the Top Continental market and at 13/10 for Top Swede.
Given his links pedigree and a Dunhill T10 two years ago, Oosthuizen also rates an each-way shout even though he hasn’t won at LIV this year. With two second places and eight top-tens there’s still plenty of life in the smooth South African who must be looking forward to crossing swords with St Andrews again. It could be a big week for LIV as they provide three of my picks.
Those seeking a long-priced winner will take comfort from a roll of honour that features such unlikely champions as Simon Dyson, Michael Hoey and Oliver Wilson, so if you fancy LIV bombers Peter Uihlein, runner-up on his Dunhill debut and tenth in the 2022 edition, or Dean Burmester or their stars of the future David Puig, T3 in Madrid, and Caleb Surratt or even triple Challenge Tour winner Rasmus Neergaard-Petersen, noted in 13th place on Sunday, don’t be put off. All have chances, Uihlein particularly as he dotted up in an Asian Tour event in England in the summer and he adores St Andrews, but so deep is this field surely an established name will prevail.
Best bets
2pts each-way Nick Dunlap @ 28/1
1.5pts each-way Patrick Fishburn @ 28/1
1pt each-way Henrik Norlander @ 60/1
1pt each-way Eric Cole @ 33/1
0.5pt each-way Ben Griffin @ 25/1
After a predictably one-sided but often exciting Presidents Cup in Montreal with the stacked Americans winning for the tenth consecutive time, it’s back to bread-and-butter golf on the PGA Tour – and the butter is spread thin at the Sanderson Farms Championship in Mississippi as this is surely the weakest line-up of the year.
It must have been hard for odds-compilers to find a favourite as a rogues’ gallery of twicers who flatter to deceive is lining up. Fitzdares go 22/1 the field with Canadian short-game wizard Mackenzie Hughes bracketed with American Kevin Mitchell on that mark at the Country Club of Jackson, an updated 7461-yard par 72 Donald Ross layout which has been home to the state’s lone tournament since 2014.
Hughes, the 2022 Sanderson winner, is the only Presidents Cup player taking part but was generally unimpressive in Montreal as the Internationals crashed to a 18.5 to 11.5 defeat. At 60th on the world rankings, Mac was the lowest-rated among the 24 participants last week and, although he putted well, his flaws tee to green showed.
Hughes did finish T4 in the Procore event (formerly the Fortinet) which preceded the Cup and, given his course victory on top, he is probably entitled to be where he is in the market but he is there to be shot at and may be fatigued by trying to please a raucous home crowd without having the tools to do so.
If Mitchell had a short game to match his long, straight driving we wouldn’t have to look back to 2019 for his only victory but at least he has done it. Others high up in the betting have a big fat zero in the career-total column: Patrick Rodgers has gone winless for 275 tournaments, Mark Hubbard 225, Beau Hossler 199, Henrik Norlander 192, Mark McNealy 136, Eric Cole 70 and Ben Griffin 69. I’ll forgive Cole and Griffin as they are relative newcomers to the big league but most of them are to be avoided.
‘They say every dog has his day so I’m prepared to chance Cole and Norlander each-way…’
They say every dog has his day so I’m prepared to chance Cole and Norlander each-way as they have some compelling recent form, Cole with a seventh at the Wyndham, Norlander an eighth at the European Masters. But what most steers me more towards the 37-year-old Swedish journeyman is that he repeatedly plays above himself at Jackson. Pipped by Luke List in a five-man playoff last year, he had previously been fourth in 2020 and 2021.
Cole looked odds-on to break through this year after ending 2023 with a quartet of top-four finishes. He has disappointed for most of this campaign but now he has got the bit between his teeth again, this son of prime golfing stock – father Bobby almost won the 1975 Open at Carnoustie, mother Laura was the LPGA’s pin-up girl that same decade – could have found the perfect opportunity to open his account.
For my main bets, though, I’m sticking to two who carry no baggage.
Nick Dunlap, only 20, won the American Express at the start of the year while still an amateur, exhibiting the coolest of heads in doing so, then opened his pro account at the Barracuda and impressed again when fifth in the first FedEx Cup Playoff at St Jude. There were other eyecatching efforts along the way, tenth in Detroit, 11th in Houston and 12th at Memorial, he has time on his side and may eventually turn out to be different gear to this week’s rivals. From neighbouring Alabama, he’ll have plenty of local support too.
My other serious bet will be Patrick Fishburn who has had just one full season on the main circuit and after a bumpy start – seven missed cuts out of eight – the 32-year-old from Utah has settled in to show he’s well worth his place. High up the Strokes Gained Tee To Green and Greens In Regulation stats, he has racked up a series of top-ten efforts, culminating in third place at the Procore last time out, to indicate he could shine in this grade.
It’s quite shocking to find a one-time superstar like Rickie Fowler almost dismissed at 60/1 but even that price doesn’t tempt me, nor at the same price Kiwi Ryan Fox who made no sort of defence of his BMW PGA title at Wentworth last month.
But Griffin, runner-up to Bob MacIntyre in the Canadian Open and in last year’s Sanderson Farms (where he led by three going into the last round), has a big shout. One year on from that Mississippi letdown, he should have learned enough to handle the pressure if he gets into that position again.
Triple Korn Ferry Tour winner Matt McCarty is an interesting recruit while Europeans Stephan Jaeger, Sami Valimaki and Matti Schmid also come into the conversation in what is going to be a hot, sticky and mostly sunny week with temperatures around 30C. They could ship some of that weather to St Andrews!
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