After one of the DP World Tours flagship events last week’s it’s time for the Asian Tour Flagship event. The Saudi international at the Royal Greens golf & country club takes center stage this week with a huge $5 Million up for grabs. The 1st 3 editions were all classed as European Tour events so very few of the Asia Tour players have actually played here before. The tour scrapped the event after the 2021 season, but the Asia tour picked it up as part of the new investment & took out a 10-year deal for the Saudi international to be the new flagship event of the tour. The field is full of invites from various tours, there are players from the PGA, DP World, Japan, Australian, Sunshine & the best from the Asian Tour. The PGA Tour players had to get special exceptions to come over for this event where they had to commit to play the AT&T Pebble beach event within a few years. All the invites playing this week make the event the strongest field official golf world ranking points wise that has ever been assembled on the Asia Tour. The event marks the start of the 2022 Asia tour schedule which will finish in late January 2023 but currently there are just 5 events up to March 31st in the schedule.
Course
The royal greens golf & country club has held all 3 editions of this championship. Dave Sampson designed the course as part of European Golf Design. The course opened very recently in 2017. A par 72 for members but this week a par 70 which is made up of four par 3s, twelve par 4s & just two par 5s. The course measures 7010 yards with some two very long par 4s measuring over 490 yards. The course is undulated throughout & features various waste areas & water in play on 5 holes. Luckily the players look set to play in calm & hot conditions, so they won’t need to worry about the wind that caused havoc at the Singapore international with players shooting some very high numbers. With the talent on show this week id imagine the scoring will reach around 15 under for the winning score.
Previous Winners, Key Stats & Winning Odds
2021 Dustin Johnson – Score -19 Odds 6-1
SG Off the tee 3rd
SG Approach 5th
SG Tee to green 1st
SG Putting 90th
SG Around the green 20th
Driving accuracy 48.21% 107th
Greens in regulation 83.33% 3rd
2020 Graeme McDowell Score 80-1 Odds -12
SG Off the tee 36th
SG Approach 32nd
SG Tee to green 14th
SG Putting 5th
SG Around the green 19th
Driving accuracy 69.64% 17th
Greens in regulation 76.38% 14th
2019 Dustin Johnson – Score -19 Odds 8-1
SG Off the tee N/A
SG Approach N/A
SG Tee to green N/A
SG Putting N/A
SG Around the green N/A
Driving accuracy N/A
Greens in regulation N/A
No data available for DJs win in 2019.
Golftipster5 Selections:
Thomas Pieters 20-1 6 Places
The Belgium no1 player already has a win to his name this year just two weeks ago at the Abu Dhabi championship. This week he returns to a venue where he has gone well in the past with finishes of 22-3-10. His average score here in the 12 rounds is 67.8 with a lowest round of 63. Thomas ranked one of the best for strokes gained approach & tee to green in 13th & 10th he was also 23rd for scrambling last year. Last week at the Dubai Desert Classic he was in the top 30 for all key Stroke gained stats & he also was in the top 30 the previous week when he won so his game is in a solid place right now. Everything seems to be going well for him right now both on & off the course & long may it continue. Id of liked to see him at higher odds considering the calibre of field here but I have to take him on current form & course form as nearly half the field have never teed it up here before.
Joohyung Kim 50-1 6 Places
Joohyung comes into this event as the Asia Tour No1 player after picking up the order of merit title last time out in Singapore. The 19-year-old is making a huge name for himself in the golfing world having already racked up 6 professional victories which has him 79th in the world rankings. In his last 5 starts he hasn’t finished worse than 7th with a 2-1-7-2-2 an incredible run. The Korean had the 9th best greens in reg last year with 74.63% & also the 5th best driving accuracy with 71% of fairways hit. Previous winners of this event have done well in the scrambling stats & Joohyung ranked 5th on the Asia tour last year.
Lucas Herbert 55-1 6 Places
Lucas has had the two starts so far this year. One on the PGA & one on the DP world tour where he finished 37th & 18th respectively. After winning the Bermuda championship just 5 starts ago he will still be full of confidence in his game going into this week. Last week at the Dubai Desert Classic he was 22nd Strokes gained tee to green & 2nd strokes gained around the green. Both key attributes that appear high in the previous winner stats here. He was also high in all the putting stats & was 35th strokes gained putting for the week. The Aussie has had mixed fortune in this event in his two showings here with a T27 on debut then missing the cut on the number last year with rounds of 70 & 71.
Ryosuke Kinoshita 350-1 6 Places
Ryosuke has come on leaps & bounds over the past year rising to no76 in the world. He had great success on the Japan tour last year finishing 3rd on the money list with two wins. His stroke average was 70.4 for the year which was the 4th best on tour. For the world ranked 76 player to be such high in the betting, his stats on the Japanese tour show he could be surprise package this week, greens in regulation of 71.9% & 23rd in driving accuracy show he has the game to be competitive this week. There is also a stat called ball striking on the Japan tour where he ranks 2nd but very little information on what this means but you’d assume it’s similar to stroke gained total perhaps, but I might be wrong. 350-1 I simply can’t say no this week.
Other Notable
Sadom Kaewkanjana 125-1
The best player out of Thailand right now who picked up another win in his last start at the Singapore Open but making course debut this week, but I will still have a side bet on him.
All odds correct as of 18:00 Monday 31st all on Unibet
Good luck with all bets
@Golftipster5 – Ryan Hamilton