After Jon Rahm’s impressive third Open de Espana win, the DP World Tour’s finest – minus the former World No 1 – will stay in Spain this week for the 2022 Andalucia Masters. As always, I’ve picked out three names I expect to contend in the Sotogrande sun…
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2022 Andalucia Masters details
Venue: Real Club Valderrama, Sotogrande, Spain
Date: October 13-16, 2022
Course stats: Par 71; 7,001 yards
Course summary: This short, tree-lined course is an iconic venue on the European Tour. Host venue for the 1997 Ryder Cup, Valderrama boasts tight sloping fairways lined with beautiful cork trees. Smaller than average greens add to the challenge here, where accuracy off the tee will certainly be important. The winner here last year was over par for the tournament, so expect to see another tough fight against one of the truly great courses on Spanish soil.
Purse: €3 million
Defending champion: Matt Fitzpatrick (-6)
2022 Andalucia Masters TV times
Thursday: Sky Sports Golf from 12pm and Main Event from 1pm
Friday: Sky Sports Golf and Main Event from 12pm
Saturday: Sky Sports Golf from 12pm
Sunday: Sky Sports Golf from 11am
2022 Andalucia Masters golf betting tips
The Banker: Yannik Paul @ 45/1 with Bet365
Yannik Paul continues to impress in what is his debut season on the DP World Tour.
His two 8th-place finishes over the past three weeks add to his 8th at the Joburg Open, 10th at the ISPS Handa, and 2nd at the Soudal Open this season, and he will look to finish out strong as he aims for a spot in the DP World Tour Championship.
Currently in 42nd in the Race To Dubai Rankings, he needs to steer clear of that 50th spot cut-off to lock in a place.
In addition to his generally good form, Paul has played in Span three times this season, finishing 8th, 10th and 52nd, which add to his 2nd place finish at the Challenge Tour Grand Final last season as well. He clearly loves playing in this region, and even if this doesn’t look like the type of course he would succeed on, we have seen others with his skillset succeed here.
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Paul improved every day with his irons last week, with two top-10 SG: Approach rounds over the weekend, to rank 12th in that department overall, and that’s the second time in three weeks he’s ranked inside the top 12 in that category.
The odds suggest he’s a player with a real shot of contending, and I a subscribe to that notion.
The Each-Way Play: Scott Jamieson @ 60/1 with Bet365
Scott Jamieson has a tough time winning, that cannot be denied, but he’s generally competitive throughout a season, and that may well be that case again, on a course he has learned to love.
Since missing the cut on his Valderrama debut, Jamieson has finished 6th, 15th and 20th at this course, and his halfway positions in those last three finishes were 2nd, 6th and 6th.
In 2017, Jamieson was 2nd going into the weekend and just one shot back in the lead, and in 2021 he was in 6th place but just two shots back, so it is fair to say Jamieson knows how to get to the top of the leaderboard here.
Before missing the cut at the Dunhill Links, Jamieson made eight-straight cuts, and in addition to his 4th place finish at the European Masters, Jamieson was 2nd at the halfway stage at the Hero Open, 4th after day one in Italy and in France he was 12th going into the final day.
To summarise then, Jamieson has been in contention here on multiple occasions, and has played some nice golf of late. At 90-1, he’s a big price in a field that lacks a huge amount of firepower outside of Matt Fitzpatrick.
The Long Shot: Alejandro Canizares @ 125/1 with Bet365
In his last four made cuts, Alejandro Canizares has ranked 16th, 4th, 1st and 7th in SG: Approach, and if he can improve off the tee and get hot with the putter, this might be the week he puts four rounds together.
Canizares has made eight starts at Valderrama, which happens to be the course he practises on when home, and on all eight occasions, he’s made the weekend. Three times in his career, Canizares has been 6th at the halfway stage here, and he was also inside the top-3 one time at that stage as well. With some incredible iron play under his belt at the moment, he looks like he could contend at home, should the short game co-operate.
He peaked with a 7th place finish here in 2011, but he can better that this week, especially as he made multiple opportunities to climb the leaderboard last week and better his 20th place finish.
Visit Bet365 for more prices.
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