Kyle Phillips designed Kingsbarns course © Kevin Murray
Martin Kaymer 16/1 © Tour Pro Golf Clubs
The home of golf will see some of the best players in the world turn up to compete in this weeks Alfred Dunhill Links Championship. The players will be competing on the hollowed turf that is St Andrews, but also Carnoustie and Kingsbarns, three of the best courses in Fife. All three are in Golf Monthly’s Top 100 courses of Great Britain and Ireland, only Kingbarns is just outside the Top 10 at number eleven.
After the weekends heroics at Gleneagles, its back to the regular tour events and with Rory McIlroy 9/2 with paddypowercoming into this week on a high and at such a low price, I think I will look elsewhere for some decent value.
Victor Dubuisson 25/1 © Kevin Murray
My tips to win:
I am sure Joost Luiten 25/1 with William Hill will have had pangs of regret watching the celebrations at last weeks Ryder Cup, knowing that he just failed to make the team. He will want to put that right for the 2016 matches at Hazeltine NationalGolf Club, and in his current form of not being outside the Top 5 in his last 3 matches, and coming into this week rested after his win in Wales two weeks ago, I think Joost will be right in the thick of it come Sunday.
If Victor Dubuisson 25/1 with Ladbroks has managed to sober up after the celebrations at Gleneagles I think he will be another player in one of the final pairings come Sunday, and he will still be on a major high from last weekend’s events. Victor has not won a tournament this year but has had a couple of runners-up finishes and it was this point in the season last year that he started to challenge in events and I think we will see that again from the Frenchmen this year.
Another player who will be on a high is fellow Ryder Cup player Martin Kaymer 16/1 with PaddyPower who had an emphatic victory again Bubba Watson in the final days singles and played some stunning golf. Martin is also a previous winner of this event and knows what it takes playing the different courses this event is held over. He will also be looking to make it a hat-trick of wins this year.
Tommy Fleetwood 33/1 © James Kennedy
My each-way tips:
Tommy Fleetwood 33/1 with Ladbroks will be another player who will be looking to make the Ryder Cup team in 2016 and already knows how it feels to be playing in a team event after being part of the 2009 Walker Cup team, which unfortunately GB&I lost. Tommy is another player who comes into this week in great form with three Top 5 finishes in his last five tournaments. Tommy has also had two Top 5 finishes in this event in the last three years so knows what it takes playing across three links courses.
Yet another player who comes into this week in great form is Shane Lowry 28/1 with StanJames who has five Top 15 finishes in his last seven events played and a runners-up finish in the Wales Open two weeks ago. Shane is another player who will want to be part of the next Ryder Cup team and he will need to win more than the two tournaments he has to his name already. Lowry has the game to do that and a Top 3 finish here last year shows he knows his way around these three courses.
I must admit I thought a couple of years ago that the next big European Tour player would be Simon Dyson 50/1 with betvictor, he not only has slipped back in the last couple of years but also had that unfortunate ban. The Yorkshireman has all the talent to be able to scale to the top it’s just a matter of will he. Simon won this event in 2009 his second win that year and he also won twice in 2011. It’s been a while since he has won an event but with two Top 10s in his last two events one of those a runners-up at the KLM Open, I think he may win one before the season is out.
For updated betting odds during the tournament go to planetgolfreview.com
18th at St Andrews © Kevin Murray
