THE Tshwane Open rolls up to the Pretoria Country Club for the third year in a row but unfortunately it hasn’t got a great field.
The course is quite tight and water comes into play at quite a few holes and the greens are quite small and undulating.
Highly-regarded South African Dean Burmester looks a good fit for this one. Last week at the Joburg Open he was one off the lead and finished 11th after the tournament was cut to 54 holes. He has finished third and fourth in the Tshwane in the last two years with sub-70 rounds and has won six times on the Sunshine Tour. Burmester is being touted as the next player from South African to break through on the European Tour.
Reigning Challenge Tour No.1 Jordan Smith might be worth a small wager. He is 20th in the Road to Dubai r ankingsand plays alongside 15 other graduates from the Challenge Tour.
In his first outings on Tour this year he finished T3 at the South African Open and the English also finished T6 at the Qatar Masters. Although his form has been a wee bit erratic he will do well this year and is one to look out for.
Recommended Bets
1.5pts ew Dean Burmester (Ladbrokes, 14-1) WINS
1pt ew Jordan Smith (Coral, 33-1)
Ace Venturer
Won with R.Fowler last week at 16/1 and hit the crossbar with G.Coetzee and A.Lahiri.
Bets this week
Tshwane Open
G.Coetzee 2 pts e/way 10/1
A.Otaegui 1 pt e/way 100/1
G.Mulroy 1 pt e/way 125/1
WGC Mexico
B.Snedeker 2 pts e/way 50/1
Z.Johnson 2 pts e/way 70/1
Ace,
would the altitude not help the shorter hitters as much, if not more, than longer hitters ?
If altitude adds 10 per cent to drives it will make the longer hitters even longer than the rest.
For example someone hitting 310 will now hit 341 and someone hitting 270 will hit 297.
yes hopefully we might get the full 4 rounds here at the Tshwane open, after the stupid 3 round finish at the
joburg open couple of players were siting nicely if for not scrapping it, was looking good for a tidy sum.
ah well
George Coetzee @ 10/1 Tshwane Open
Hideki Matsuyama @ 12/1 World Golf Championships – Mexico Championship
Ariya Jutanugarn @ 8/1 HSBC Women’s Champions
Trixie ew
After two rounds a the Tshwane I’m quite happy with how my selections are doing. Burmester is sitting at -6 and Smith at -5. Scotsman Scott Jamieson is co-leading with with Swede Alexander Bjork.
Connors, you’ll also be quite happy with Mulroy on -7. Good luck over the weekend.
MR Fixit,
Just wondered if shorter hitters would do as well at dog-leg holes etc. because I would think you can only hit it longer at straighter holes, you might have guessed I am not a golfer, thus evening things up a bit.
Ace, thanks, back to reality with G.Coetzee, what happened!!,looks like Mulroy is all I have left, bets in USA almost out of it.
I have a wee bet with my free fiver from Skybet on A.Jutanugarn or S.Feng to win at 7/2 in HSBC.
No that’s not logical either. I’m assuming you’re saying players could run out of fairway but they know the distances and it means a longer hitter will take a shorter club and more likely be more accurate.
My selection Dean Burmester is lying one off the lead after the third round and that’s just where he would want to be. A 65 followed his first two rounds of 68 and I’m hopeful for tomorrow. Unfortunately Jordan Smith looks to be out of a place but he played very well and I’ll keep an eye on him in the future.
Conners, I agree with Mr Fixit regarding long hitters v short hitters at altitude.
Good luck with Burmester tomorrow. We’ll need to try this altitude lark one day – Phil Mickelson was saying he could hit his 9-iron 190 yards the other day. For me that would be a decent drive.
come on the burmester its time for him to get a good finish on the final round,
along with jon rahm the big hitter to get an ew double.
gl
aye mr f that’s you playing off from the ladies tee,
I’ll take any advantage I can get.
Townie, you’ve obviously seen Mr Fixit play……
Burmester looking good.
I thought Dustin Johnson blew away the opposition in the final round of the Genesis Open last month but Dean Burmester was even better. Eight under after 14 holes he was unstoppable. Unfortunately he ruined it a bit with bogeys at 16 and 17 but won easily in the end. A good 14-1 winner to give me my second winner in three weeks. I’m away to swot up on next week’s winner……
Great stuff. Well done again.
Well done ace.