Expert Punter
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The DP World Tour is off to Northern Ireland this week for the 2024 Irish Open. The tournament is hosted by the Royal County Down Golf Club and will be played on a links-style course. This is in complete contrast to last week’s European Masters, and players will need to adapt quickly to these different conditions, so it’s sure to be an entertaining event for viewers.
Last year's winner was Vincent Norman, but he has been struggling a bit in recent months. The crowd favourite this week will undoubtedly be Rory Mcilroy, and he will be tough to beat if he turns up in form, but that is not a given around such a tough golf course.
My number one selection last week, Joost Luiten, finished in the places for us, despite having a dreadful start to the week. Nonetheless, we took some profit from the European Masters, and I am hoping we can build on that this week.
With fantastic prices and place terms for this week’s Irish Open, Coral is my number one bookie pick. They also have a great new customer deal up for grabs. If you bet £5, you’ll get £20 in free bets. It's definitely worth a look if you don't already have an account there.
The Royal County Down Golf Club hosts the Irish Open for the first time since 2015. This is a superb venue for the event, but it’s a tough course to play. It’s a Par 71 over 7186 yards, with just three Par 5s, which requires a wide variety of skills and plenty of patience. The smallest of margins can make a huge difference due to the way this course undulates, so if you want a focus area for statistical purposes, greens in regulation would be one
Players who can find the greens here have the best chance of being heavily involved at the deep end of the tournament, provided they putt well too. Although it’s important to be straight off the tee, with this course, a straight tee shot can leave you with a tricky second shot to play. So, hitting greens in regulation is the most important thing here. If you want to go a bit deeper into the stats, players that hit half shots with their irons, and players who control their trajectory well are also worthy of consideration here.
Bernd Wiesberger is a really solid player from tee to green. He doesn’t have a huge amount of experience on links courses, but when he does play on them, he is usually very consistent. He is already an eight-time winner on the DP World Tour and he is playing really good golf this year. He has achieved twelve top 24 finishes, including several top 10s and came runner-up in the European Open.
He currently sits in second place on the overall DP World Tour leaderboard, and he ticks all the boxes for me this week.
Provided Bernd Wiesberger hits plenty of greens and keeps his putting tight, he looks all set for a big week, making him my number one pick to win the Irish Open.
Erik Van Rooyen looks primed for a big week here. I watched him play in the Scottish Open, at a course not too dissimilar to this one, and he was superb for the first three rounds before failing to make an impact in the last. Despite that, it was still a very impressive performance. He controlled his irons really well and his short game was reliable too.
He is another consistent player and I like the way he hits his irons, which I have highlighted as a strong attribute for this week . He hits plenty of half shots, and most importantly, he keeps the ball controlled. If he turns up anywhere near his best then he is sure to give this a good go and I think he is a solid bet for this week.
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