The Tips returns this week with more expert insight to help you choose your Fantasy team as the DP World Tour heads to Madrid for the acciona Open de España presented by Madrid.
How it works: Every week a panel of industry-leading golf tipsters and special guests provide their expert tips for the week ahead.
Whether it’s making picks to update your Fantasy Team or keep your eye on the betting markets, our experts provide their insights ahead of action taking place on both the DP World Tour and on the PGA TOUR.
Joining regular host Ollie Silverton this week are golf writers Matt Cooper and Martin Matthews, who outline their picks and reasons for both tournaments on this weeks podcast, which you can find here: https://linktr.ee/dpworldtour.
If you have not done so already, you can sign up to play the official 2023 DP World Tour Fantasy game and submit your six-man team before round one gets under way on Thursday: https://fantasy.dpworldtour.com/
The 2023 season-long winner will win a trip to the DP World Tour Championship in Dubai next year, enjoy a lesson with a DP World Tour professional and a round of golf on the Earth Course at Jumeirah Golf Estates. For more information on this amazing prize and others, read here.
acciona Open de España presented by Madrid
From Scotland to Spain, the DP World Tour returns to Club de Campo Villa de Madrid this week for the acciona Open de España.
The historic national open was the first event played when the European Tour (now DP World Tour) came into existence on April 12, 1972.
It has an illustrious list of past champions including Seve Ballesteros, Arnold Palmer, Bernhard Langer and Sir Nick Faldo.
Last year, Jon Rahm emulated his hero Ballesteros by securing his third title at his home event, producing the lowest score in the history of the tournament, charging to a remarkable nine-under 62 in the final round to win by six shots on 25 under-par.
Having first won the event on debut in 2018 and then retained his title a year later, the World Number Three will hope to successfully defend his title for a second time.
Ahead of Rahm making his fifth appearance at his home open, Cooper believes a combination of the course suiting the two-time Major champion’s eye and the chance to impress in his homeland is integral to why the Spaniard has proven such a dominant force in recent years.
“I'm not too sure that it's actually the course so much as he likes playing at home,” said Cooper.
“It's not a course that inconveniences him. I think he's had a bit of trouble at Valderrama where he kind of likes the course, but it actually hems him in a little bit.
“I think here he's up against a field where so long as the course really doesn't trip him up, he's able to pretty much play with a lot of pride and go and stamp his authority on the field.
“Somewhat of a surprise is that Madrid is actually at a little bit of altitude. It's on a plain high up in the mountains in the middle of Spain.
“Jon Rahm has a good record in Madrid. He doesn’t really point to having a great record at altitude bar getting into contention in Mexico before he won it.
“Rafa Cabrera Bello who won here in 2021, won in Vienna too, which again isn't a place that strikes you as being at altitude, but it's not down at sea level. The air is a little bit thin there.
“So, I think people who can compete in thin air have a bit of an advantage.
“The other thing is it is a traditional golf course and it tends to be quite fast running with some quite quirky angles.
“So, people need to be smart off the tee and into the greens because what they're doing is that they're having to make sure that the ball doesn't bounce through dog legs or bounce into bunkers that are on dog legs and kind of use the lie of the land to swing the ball around.”
Rahm returns to defend his title in Spain as the reigning Masters Tournament champion and comes into the week on the back of going undefeated at the Ryder Cup, earning three out of four possible points for Luke Donald’s victorious side.
Matthews said: “He’ll be buoyed by what happened in the Ryder Cup. He's the big cheese this week, El Honcho number one man, and he revels in that.
"So, I see the Ryder Cup being a boost for him, not a hangover.”
Fantasy Insight: As it stands, Jon Rahm is the favourite for players of our Fantasy Game this week, featuring in 72.38% of teams. Other popular players include Justin Rose (65.03%) and Adrian Otaegui (47.63%). Of those Rahm is the only to feature among our expert picks.
Comparatively, some of our other expert choices feature much further down the ranks in terms of players chosen, with Thriston Lawrence in 11.55% of teams and Jeff Winther in 5.65%.
But who will perform well this week?
Outlined below are the leading two headline picks from both Cooper and Matthews.
Listen to the podcast in full to hear who else they think will perform well this week in Spain and on the PGA TOUR as the action stateside heads to Las Vegas for the Shriners Children's Open at TPC Summerlin.
Thriston Lawrence
Cooper: He won in Joburg to kickstart his career on the DP World Tour. Very fortunate start. I was chatting to Ben Coley about this, I think possibly on this podcast, and he said it was a tournament that was reduced to 36 holes and entirely possible that Lawrence's lead there might have fizzled away, but it didn't. He got the win and boy has he taken advantage of that. He went on to win in Crans and then in Johannesburg again. He won in Munich at the BMW International Open too. He's contended in Kenya, in Prague, twice again in South Africa. I think it kind of appeals to South Africans because it's kind of familiar to a lot of the courses that they encounter in Johannesburg, hence, hence those three guys that have done very well there. Against that, he had two 72s and missed the cut when he made his debut on the course last year, but I'm not going to fret about that. Plenty of people have struggled once and then done well.
Jon Rahm
Matthews: I appreciate listeners don't need to tune in to hear me tell them that Jon Rahm is the most likely winner of this golf tournament by a country mile. Let's look at the simple maths. First of all, he's won two of his three visits to this track and what we've got to ask ourselves is unless he was carrying an injury or whatever, which let's assume he's not, would Jon Rahm be winning on one out of three occasions against this field on this course based on the level of player he is in the world game as it stands, and the answer to me is undoubtedly yes on two out of three occasions.
Adri Arnaus
Cooper: He finished second in 2021 and also finished fourth at the course in 2019, before he missed the cut last year. But those two examples show that the course suits him. The fact that he's had two top tens in Crans and also in Kenya show that he likes altitude and also likes this type of fast running golf course, traditional golf course. The big question with him is his form, he got off to a decent start at the start of the year. Finished second in South Africa, but has kind of gone off the boil a little bit. But in recent weeks things have improved. He got a 65 to open at Crans, which actually first made me think of him for this week. Made the cut at Wentworth which was fairly decent and then he was 14th at the Dunhill Links last week after a 64 in round one. We also saw him make a good eagle at the Old Course on Monday.
Jeff Winther
Matthews: Obviously it's been a really good time for Scandinavian golf. Jeff's returned to form over recent weeks which has seen him finish top 10 in Scotland last week and then fifth I believe in France in his previous start could have been inspired by some of that. This does seem to be his time of year. His one win on Tour came in Majorca in October, so at a similar time of year and is in keeping with him liking Spanish conditions, albeit obviously on the islands. He was fourth here at Club de Campo in 2019, so he's got form on the course and he's one of those guys who when he gets hot, and as I say he does seem to get hot this time of year, keeps that momentum going and it's his putter that is his big strength.
