Who can stop Rahm in Spain?
Victor Perez became the latest to claim a maiden title on the European Tour as the Home of Golf hosted a stellar field for the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship. Our attention now turns to Spain’s capital for the Open de Espana where the in-form Jon Rahm is looking to defend a title for the first time. Here’s who we expect to threaten his throne in our Open de Espana betting tips…
The details
Venue: Club de Campo Villa de Madrid, Madrid, Spain
Date: October 3-6, 2019
Course stats: Par 71, 7112 yards
Purse: $1.5 million
Defending champion: Jon Rahm (-20)
TV coverage
Thursday: Sky Sports Golf & Main Event, 11am & 3pm
Friday: Sky Sports Golf & Main Event, 11am & 3pm
Saturday: Sky Sports Golf 12.30pm, Sky Sports Main Event, 3pm
Sunday: Sky Sports Golf, 12pm
Open de Espana betting tips: Joe’s players to follow
Andrea Pavan (16/1 with Bet365) won his second European Tour title earlier this year at the BMW International Open and currently sits 34th in the Race to Dubai.
Results-wise he’s been thoroughly consistent with his last missed cut coming at the Open. Since then he’s rarely been seen away from the top portion of leaderboards.
He finished tied 10th at the Dunhill Links and tied 12th two weeks earlier in the European Masters and immediately prior to that his form reads T3-T16.
The Italian played at this event last year, where a tied 21st finish gives me hope that he can go better again this time.
Callum Shinkwin (55/1) looks a little overpriced having returned to good form in his last two tournaments.
The Englishman recently withdrew from the Scandinavian Invitational and the European Open with food poisoning and a back injury but seems to have recovered well and this is reflected in his results.
He led the KLM Open with just nine holes to play but faltered on the back-nine allowing Sergio Garcia to swoop in for victory. Despite this, he achieved his best finish of the season in solo 5th on a more than pleasing return to action.
Having taken a few weeks off, we got our latest glimpse of Shinkwin at the Dunhill where he put in another refreshingly strong performance to finish in a tie for 10.
This saw him jump further up the Race to Dubai standings and all but secure his full playing rights for the 2020 season. I expect him to be in good spirits and to build on his tied 28th finish at this event in 2018.
An outsider that I like the look of is Alvaro Quiros (125/1).
He’s an interesting prospect as he has been consistently been making cuts recently but failing to make any progress over the weekends.
His last four results read T48-T46-T64-T58 so I can understand why some may choose to stay clear, but his performance in his previous home appearance in the Andalucia Masters has to stand for something.
The home support was there for the Spaniard and he seemed to respond well, playing his was to a tied 2nd finish at Valderrama.
Returning to Spain could well be the boost he needs to turn the cut-making form into a meaningful result and at this price he is worth a small each way stake. The course is playing more than 7,1oo yards and has three par 5s so his distance off the tee could prove a big asset this week.
Finally, while I won’t be punting on favourite Jon Rahm (3/1) there are plenty of reasons to do so.
He’s correctly priced as he’s the standout talent in the field and everything points to him going close, if not winning in Madrid.
He will be spurred on by the home crowds and will be determined to defend a title for the first time, particularly in Spain and he is coming off a missed cut in Scotland and a narrow defeat at the BMW PGA Championship so he will want to put things right.
Joe Hughes
Tour editor covering men's golf, women's golf and anything else that involves the word golf, really. The talk is far better than the game, but the work has begun to change that.
