Niall Lyons has four betting tips for this week's British Masters at the Belfry.
British Masters
This week's British Masters will be held at the Belfry, Sutton Coldfield, England. The Belfry held this event back in 2007 and 2008 before taking a long break and returning as host in 2021 and this is now the 5th year on the spin it has held this fine event.
It fails to attract the field it deserves to be honest and I'd only wish these types of events became more prominent in the schedule in terms of prize money. Some of the best in the world knocking it around the Belfry would be a fine tournament and although most are missing we do get one or two big names, most notably Matt Fitzpatrick.
It's not easy to hit greens around here and scrambling comes to the forefront as a big part of the jigsaw here. Hillier was 5th in that department when winning in 2023 whilst the two previous winners Olesen and Bland ranked 4th and 1st in that stat respectively. Norgaard and Lawrence were 25th and 40th in scrambling but three tucked in behind them were 5th, 8th and 14th.
British Championship Winners
- 2024 - N.Norgaard (-16)
- 2023 - D.Hillier (-10)
- 2022 - T.Olesen (-10)
- 2021 - R.Bland (-13)
British Championship Tips
- 4pts WIN M.Fitzpatrick 11/1 General
- 1pt each-way E.Chacarra 60/1 (1/5 8) bet365 8 place market
- 1pt each-way A.Sullivan 45/1 (1/5 6) Unibet, BetMGM
- 1pt each-way E.Pepperell 125/1 (1/5 6) Unibet, BetMGM
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Matt Fitzpatrick @ 11/1 (Win)
On his home course I was surprised at how short Rasmus Neergaard Petersen was last week given the strength towards the top of the market. This week I'm even more surprised that he's only drifted to a general price of 20/1 with the addition of Fitzpatrick, Rai and Noren.
Noren has played well lately with a 3rd place at the Wyndham being particularly eye catching. We are only a month removed from Fitzpatrick playing in the final group on Saturday with Scheffler, and the penultimate group with McIlroy on Sunday of the Open Championship. It didn't quite happen for him over the weekend but he fought at the top of the leaderboard for a long way in the final Major of the year and the gulf between him and the likes of Penge/Wallace/Smith hasn't quite been reflected in the market.
I'm surprised to see 12/1 first show about the 2022 US Open Champion and although Aaron Rai is a much improved golfer over the last couple of years I can't help but feel Fitzpatrick is in a different league on his best form. This definitely is not his best form, however, and the fact that he misses out on the Tour Championship with a top 10 in the PGA Championship as well as two top 5s in the Scottish and Open Championships spells just how poor the start of his season was.
There has been a great recovery from that start though since June and all parts of his game are back in working order. This course should be ideal for Fitzpatrick and with the irons and putter firing of late he could make a mockery of that 11/1.
Eugenio Chacarra @ 60/1 (Eight Places)
Eugenio Chacarra finished 16th last week in Denmark whilst driving the ball particularly well and that should be a big plus when it comes to navigating the Brabazon course this week. The Spaniard has had a good year on the DPWT winning the Indian Open back in March and numerous other solid finishes earlier in the year mean he will go all the way to the DP World Tour Championship in November.
A PGA Tour card could well be on the line there as he needs to leapfrog a handful of players to get into that coveted position.
His iron play will need to improve from the last few weeks to be a little more competitive than the top 20 last week but he should have plenty of chances if he drives the ball similar to the last couple of weeks. He is very handy around the greens as he showed in India and the Brabazon fit could be perfect for him on debut.
Andy Sullivan @ 45/1 (Six Places)
Andy Sullivan was one of our crew last week in Denmark and following a top 20 effort there I'm happy to go in once again on an even more suitable track.
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Sullivan doesn't hit the ball a long way so it's no surprise he has seen some success at this venue down the years with finishes of 15th, 6th and 9th in his last five visits. Back in 2023 he was the 54 hole leader before a final round of 75 saw him falter on Sunday.
Sullivan is playing really nice stuff lately, especially with the irons, and on courses where he normally loses strokes off the tee the Brabazon should grant him some grace in that department to gain further on the field. Can not be underestimated this week.
Eddie Pepperell @ 125/1 (Six Places)
Toying with Eddie Pepperell is always a bit of a rollercoaster but there are reasons to believe he could score well around the Belfry this week. 2nd in the Scottish Open, 2nd in the Irish Open, 6th at the Open Championship and a winner of this event back in 2018 tells us Pepperell strips fitter in general playing in the UK and Ireland.
10th at the Nexo Championship last time out in Scotland was a really nice effort, another in this part of the world. That effort had followed two solid events on the Challenge Tour finishing 18th and 8th in his two outings before heading to Aberdeen.
A course like the Brabazon you'd think is a good fit for Eddie as it's not a course that can be overly overpowered. Pepperell may just be coming back into some serious form so he's worth the gamble here.
