THE 2017 Race to Dubai starts on two continents this weekend with the Australian PGA Championship and the Alfred Dunhill in South Africa.
The PGA takes place at the RACV Royal Pines Resort on the Gold Coast in Queensland. With tight fairways and undulating greens the Graham Marsh re-designed Championship Course could cause a few problems.
It has been won 17 times in a row by an Australian and the last “foreigner” was Greg Turner in 1999 so the odds are on an Aussie winner.
One of my favourite Australian golfers, Scott Hend, has gone off the boil in the last few months since his second in the European Masters and T4 KLM but I’m hoping now he’s back on home soil he can regain that form.
The leader in the Asian Order of Merit has had a busy season on the European Tour as well as in Asia with wins in the True Thailand Classic and the Queen’s Cup and seven top-10 finishes worldwide. His driving accuracy has been that great at 51.06% but makes up for it with GIR of 68.56% and putts per GIR of 1.77.
Second on the Asian Order of Merit is another Australian, Marcus Fraser, who won the Maybank Championship in February and was fifth at the Olympics. In 2014 he suffered a bad hand injury and missed most of the season but has slowly got back to full fitness, culminating in that Maybank win earlier this year. He has driving accuracy of 61.60%, GIR of 61.61% and putts per GIR of 1.79 and well worth a small bet.
Recommended Bets
1.5pts ew Scott Hend (Bet365, 28-1)
1.5pts ew Marcus Fraser (Betfred, 66-1)
Ace Venturer
In December 2020 we sadly 
