South African Open betting tips and preview

At a slightly bigger price, Ross McGowan (150/1, 7 places) may be worth chancing as he enters the week fresh off a course record 63 in the final round of the Australian PGA Championship last week as he flew up the leaderboard to finish third behind only Cameron Smith and Marc Leishman.

The Englishman was 13^th last year on this course thanks to two rounds of 66 and, high on confidence, he has every chance of bettering that effort this time around.

Closing with two real speculative efforts here, with Oliver Farr (300/1, 7 places) fancied at a huge price.

The Welshman has found form over the past two months, sparked by a top-10 finish at Walton Heath for the British Masters before heading to Valderrama where he again finished solidly for 22^nd.

Farr was 40th last week in Australia, but his performance stats looked significantly better than the bare result suggested. Indeed, he ranked 4th in greens hit and 8th in driving accuracy, so he looks to be striking the ball beautifully.

Finally, Philip Eriksson (750/1, 5 places) topped the greens in regulation stat last week in Mauritius and looks interesting at a mammoth price.

I’m not afraid to admit that I knew absolutely nothing about him prior to last week. On closer inspection, he’s a 26-year-old Swede, plays the majority of his golf on the Sunshine Tour in South Africa so he’ll be comfortable in these parts, and he went close at the KPMG Trophy on the Challenge Tour earlier this year when he posted a final round 63.

He’s more than likely not up to winning at this level, certainly at this point in his career, so the best route for profit may be through a first round leader or top-20 market when they become available. If not, throw some loose change on the outright at 750/1 or 500/1 with two additional places paid.

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