The DP World Tour continues down order this weekend with the Australian Open taking place in Victoria.
The tournament sees some of Australia's biggest names in the world of golf, such as Cameron Smith and Min Woo Lee, battle it out with other players from around the globe for Australia's national golf championship.
The tournament will be held at both Kingston Heath Golf Club and Victoria Golf Club for the second time in three years after they last hosted in 2022. Unlike two years ago, though, three rounds will take place at the more challenging Kingston Heath and just one at Victoria.
Neither the winner in 2022, Adrian Meronk, nor the runner-up, Adam Scott, will be returning this week but defending champions, Joaquin Niemann, is. The Chilenis is one of four LIV Golf players taking part and goes in as the favourites with all of the best golf betting sites.
The course at Kingston Heath is a par-71 while the one at Victoria Golf Club is a par-72. Kingston Heath proved to be more challenging for players in 2022 so it feels unlikely that we will see a winning score of -14 again.
Ahead of the tournament starting late on Wednesday night (UK time), he are our Australian Open betting tips.
Australian Open betting tips
Min Woo Lee (Eight places) – 8/1
Kingston Heath is around 350 yards longer than Victoria Golf Club and given that three of the four rounds will be played here, having the muscle to drive the ball far is going to be important, particularly on the tempting par fives.
The fairways are vast, fast and forgiving so accuracy off the tee isn't hugely important, meaning we should see plenty of drivers in action throughout the week. Min Woo Lee is one of the game's biggest hitters and ranked inside the top 20 on the DP World Tour and inside the top 10 on the PGA Tour last season for driving distance.
Min Woo Lee also has the added motivation of this being his home national championship. There hasn't been an Australian winner of this event since 2019 but Lee is in a great position to end that drought.
Jordan Smith (Eight places) –14/1
Another key characteristic of both of these courses in Victoria is how firm and fast the greens are. While the greens at Victoria Golf Club are generally quite large, the greens at Kingston Heath are, on average, on the small side which means there will naturally be plenty of misses on approach shots, particularly with how firm and fast they are.
As a result, another key statistic to keep an eye on this week is scrambling. Last season on the DP World Tour, Jordan Smith accumulated a 60% scrambling rate – something only three men in the field this week managed to better but all of whom competed in significantly fewer rounds than the Englishman.
Smith comes into this one in good form, too, after finishing 21st or higher in each of his last five starts. His best finish in that run was a t4 at the Andalucia Masters in the middle of October.
David Micheluzzi (Eight places) –22/1
The fast greens at both courses not only brings scrambling into play, but it also means that elite putters should have a great chance of winning this tournament. Three-putt avoidance and putting average are two metrics to watch out for this weekend and x excels in both areas.
Only Min Woo Lee, our earlier tip at 8/1, has gained more strokes with the putter per round than Micheluzzi on the DP World Tour in 2024. Lee has played 35 fewer rounds than his compatriot, too, which skews the data somewhat.
In terms of three-putt avoidance, Micheluzzi ranks inside the top 20 on the DP World Tour for 2024 but only one person who ranked higher than him is participating this week. All in all, that makes the 28-year arguably the best putter in the field this week which could prove vital by Sunday.
RSM Classic tips
- Min Woo Lee E/W (Eight places) – 8/1 @ Betfred
- Jordan Smith E/W (Eight places) – 14/1 @ Betfred
- Mackenzie Hughes E/W (Eight places)– 30/1 @ Betfred
Andy is tipster who has been calling Golf tournaments for several years across many different platforms. He has covered all tournaments from the Asian Tour to the Masters.
