The European Tour is the often overlooked cousin of the lucrative PGA Tour. However, the Tour still boasts some quality players and a lucrative race for honours of its own. The Race to Dubai is the FedEx Cup equivalent, and although currently being led by world number one, Rory McIlroy, has a number of quality players with a realistic chance of taking it out.
This week’s tournament has a million Race to Dubai points on offer (like every tournament), with a handy 1,666,600 for the winner (seriously who came up with this point system).
Check out our preview of the Open de España.
The Course
The Real Club Golf el Prat is affectionately known as “El Prat”. However, unlike the juvenile arragonace behind its nickname, the course is actually refreshing beautiful / honest. El Prat is a Greg Norman design – his first in continental Europe – and brilliantly combines landscape with playability. The course is open to the public throughout the year and is a favourite of travelling hackers. Just check TripAdvisor for some of the reviews from the tourists that have stopped by the Real Club Golf el Prat course. Of note, is the 470-yard par four 16th, which offers plenty of challenges to the players. The length is the obvious one, but the green is also guarded by water on the right. Expect most players to gladly accept four here and move on.
The course plays par 72. 7326 yards. The greens are likely to pose the biggest threat to low scores.
The Sound Bites
“The greens are certainly the toughest part of this golf course. They’re very tricky, which adds to the importance of putting your approaches on the right part of the greens.” – Hometown hero Pablo Larrazábal spoke to European Tour reporters about the difficulty of the greens.
“I played a lot of great golf – I didn’t putt particularly great until Sunday, but even like that I still had a great chance of winning which is very positive.” – Sergio commenting on his Players Championship performance and his chances here.
The Defending Champion
Cigar puffing fan favourite Miguel Angel Jiménez took the honours last year, delivering the home fans a Spanish winner for the first time since 2010. With the win Jiménez sealed his first national open win (at the 27th time of trying) and became the first player over 50 to win on the European Tour. The win came the hard way, defeating Richard Green and Thomas Pieters in a play-off at the PGA Catalunya Resort.
He’s paying $41.00 to defend his title this week.
The Contenders*
Sergio Garcia – The best player in the field is also in some handy form after tying for second last week at Sawgrass. Garcia was an excellent chance to win last week before Rickie Fowler forced a playoff and beat him and Kevin Kisner in four holes. Garcia has won five times in Spain making him a great bet this week – $6.00
Victor Dubisson – Most people loved Dubisson’s story of dropping out of school at 12 years of age to become a golfing superstar. However, the golfing stardom has eluded him in 2015. After a missed cut at the Masters and failing to make it past the qualifications round in the matchplay it’s a wonder he’s even on this list. But with a weakfish field we expect the Frenchman to Frenchman to be one of the contenders – $26.00.
Tommy Fleetwood – Currently sitting 11th in the Race to Dubai, and enters the tournament on the back of making the quarterfinals of the WGC Matchplay event in San Francisco recently. Playing with Nicolas Colsaerts and Jiménez is also sure to motivate him – $26.00.
Richie Ramsay – The Scotsman sits 26th in the Race to Dubai, but his recent form indicates he could move even higher. Ramsay was a winner only weeks ago at the Trophee Hassan II in Morocco and looks attractive money at these odds – $31.00
Thorbjørn Olesen – Led last week’s AfrAsia Bank Mauritius Open pretty much the whole tournament before losing in a playoff to George Coetzee. Seems to be hitting the ball a lot better after a troublesome wrist injury – $34.00
*Open de España odds available at Sportsbet.
The Winner
Smart money is on Sergio. For a little outsider flirt try Pablo Larrazábal ($29).
