Niall Lyons has picked out three selections in this week's Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship at Yas Links, Abu Dhabi, UAE.
Abu Dhabi Championship
The Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship is held at Yas Links, Abu Dhabi, UAE.
After three successful stagings of this fine event Yas Links continues as host for the Abu Dhabi Championship and for punters that is most welcome.
This venue is beginning to develop a profile of contenders and that is always beneficial to narrow the field of potential winners.
Pieters won the first renewal here having had a really good record in the region prior. The runner up Cabrera Bello is a winner of the Scottish Open on links and with the wind that blew that year it is of no surprise there were a couple of players with similar profile in contention.
Two years ago a former winner of the Dunhill Links Victor Perez won whilst another Scottish Open winner Min Woo Lee was runner up.
Alex Noren was another Scottish Open winner to make the top 5 whilst two former Open Champions Francesco Molinari and Padraig Harrington also posted top 5 finishes. Last year three times Dunhill Links winner Tyrrell Hatton was runner up whilst another winner of that event Thorbjorn Olesen was tucked in behind in 3rd.
The winner may not come with this kind of profile, but there will undoubtedly be a handful of them on the leaderboard come Sunday afternoon.
Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship Tips
- 4pts WIN R.MacIntyre 16/1 Spreadex, SportinIndex
- 3pts each-way R.Hojgaard 28/1 (1/5 6) Spreadex, SportingIndex
- 1pt each-way J.Parry 100/1 (1/5 6) General
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Robert MacIntyre at 16/1 (WIN)
McIlroy and Fleetwood head the market and I've been an advocate for a while now that Fleetwood should be going off the same mark as McIlroy and now that seems to be the case.
Fleetwood is the second best player in the world right now on form and he will take some stopping over these next few weeks.
I'd be tempted by him much more so than I would Rory this week but neither will be on my staking plan given the extremely low scoring we can often see around Yas Links.
The rise of Robert MacIntyre and his growing popularity among the fans has been one of the best stories to watch unfold in golf over the last couple of years.
A humble gent from Scotland who despite having big dreams probably feared a coupled of years ago that some of them were not going to be realised.
Realised them he has though and he has only one goal left. All be it winning the Race To Dubai will be a focus of his in the coming years I'd say.
Fading the Ryder Cup stars the week after the Ryder Cup at the Dunhill Links is slowly becoming a fool's errand and MacIntyre duly obliged there after what was a gruelling week in New York.
That win, together with the runner up in the BMW Championship during the Fedex Playoffs represent two of some of the best performances across the whole season.
The Scot is afraid of nobody now and with a Scottish Open and a Dunhill Links in the bag he is the perfect candidate to score well around Yas Links.
Rasmus Hojgaard at 28/1 (Six Places)
Shane Lowry goes off 5pts bigger here than was he was in India and following a top 3 finish there it is certainly tempting. It was a frustrating watch though in India, often with the putter and I can't help but now feel we're not getting enough juice out of him given he has only recorded one strokeplay victory since his Open win back in 2019.
The putter is so often the problem too and I don't think I can put myself through it once again. Someone who has been playing better golf than the Irishman fort he last couple of months is a couple of pts bigger in the market and I'm happy to include Rasmus at 25/1 or bigger.
The Dane managed 16th at Portrush before catching fire and finishing runner up in Denmark then again at Crans to secure his place in the Ryder Cup team.
He didn't take his foot off the gas with a 3rd placed finish at Jackson where he was the 3rd best putter in the field.
Three really good rounds to finish at the Baycurrent Classic in Japan saw him finish 14th there so providing there is no ill effects from three weeks off the Dane should be well equipped for this task.
He has the added bonus of an Irish Open victory at Royal County Down to his name and with the former profiles of winners and contenders here he just has to be one of the front runners top upset the top two in the market.
3pts each-way R.Hojgaard 28/1 (1/5 6) Spreadex, SportingIndex
John Parry at 100/1 (Six Places)
A few weeks ago McIlroy, Hovland, Fleetwood, Lowry and Griffin teed it up in India so there is a small clue there in terms of pricing and whilst Lowry went off a general 20/1 poke there a few weeks ago we see that make way for 25/1 with a few more strong names entering the equation.
John Parry was a general 25/1 shot that week, a little too short in my eyes despite the test looking to suit him. He missed the cut there having not hit many fairways which meant a lot of trouble at Delhi GC.
Whilst Lowry drifts 5pts for a fair effort we've seen Parry jump from 25/1 to a max of 100/1 this week and for that reason I find him difficult to leave out.
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Prior to India he had a top 25 finish in Spain with his short game not firing whilst at the Dunhill Links he recorded his second top 3 finish there.
One lacklustre event at a tricky Delhi course isn't enough for that much of a drift and the price dictates the bet here.
