The 2021 Europeantour has treated us to two top quality events so far in the United Arab Emirates, with Tyrell Hatton prevailing in Abu Dhabi with a Rolex Series title and Paul Casey cruising to victory at last week's Dubai Desert Classic in Dubai. The Middle East swing switches controversially to Saudi Arabia this week where the power of money is at hand with the appearance of World Number 1, Dustin Johnson being joined by a number of his compatriots from the PGA Tour as they descend on King Abdullah Economic City just 1.5 hours north of Jeddah where the course will overlook the Red Sea. Last weeks winner at Torrey Pines, Patrick Reed returns and the American contingent is completed with Phil Mickelson, Bryson Dechambeau, Tony Finau, Kevin Na, Jason Kokrak and Jhonatton Vegas, not to mention regular Europeantour players such as John Catlin, Lipsky, Katayama and co. The PGA charter flight also includes Abraham Ancer. DJ makes it 3/3 for the event this week hoping to add to his title in 2019, and runner up finish to Graeme McDowell twelve months ago.
DJ opened his 2021 account with a 11th place finish at The Tournament of Champions in Hawaii following his win at Augusta in November and should he bring his A-game may be a runaway winner and the question for punters is; is there any value in his price @ 5/1 ? Behind him in the betting is US Open champion, Bryson Dechambeau @ 8/1who finished 6th here at the inaugural event in 2019, Tyrell Hatton @ 14s alongside Reed, the Finau & Hovland both @ 16s. On paper we are deciding if the go-to bet is amongst those 6 players or indeed if there is bigger value in hitting a place elsewhere. With just two years of course form to hand, and with that a GMac win putting the cat amongst the pigeons on the bombers theory, Royal Greens does look like a course that will suit a big hitter AND a player with good scrambling skills. With that in mind, I'm siding with just two players pre-event this week, both can get it down there and have shown signs of a decent result is not too far away; Abu Dhabi tip, Thomas Pieters and Laurie Canter.
Pieters is a player that is hard to trust when things don't go his way and perhaps he showed that again two weeks ago when throwing in a 75 in round 4 once out of contention for a decent result following a double at the 9th and then proceeded to play the final 9 in +3, slipping down to a finishing place of 41st. I'll go in again here though where he finished 3rd last year and 22nd the previous year. As alluded to in the Abu Dhabi preview, Pieters has the ability to make the Ryder Cup team following some personal changes in his life and to achieve that he needs to produce the results early and as soon as possible. Royal Greens where he has form gives him an opportunity to target a strong result. At 50/1 - 8 places he is abet for me this week.
Canter has showed huge progress over the past twelve months and his length off the tee and recent confidence could see him go well also and he's taken on those as well as his price @ 70/1 - 8 places
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