The South African Open takes place at the Blair Atholl Golf Course this week and we select 4 players to take on the bookmakers.

The South African Open is co-sanctioned between the Sunshine Tour and the DP World Tour and South Africa golfers have won the last 5 renewals.

THE COURSE

Blair Atholl plays to a par 72 and it is the longest course in European Tour history although this is negated somewhat by the fact that the course is situated at high altitude.

Blair Atholl hosts the South African Open for the second year running and while driving distance is certainly important a hot putter will likely be the key to success here.

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BETTING

Last week’s winner of the Joburg Open, Dean Burmester tops the betting boards at 8/1 ahead of Thriston Lawrence, the defending Champion, who unfortunately plummeted down the leader board in the final round at the Houghton Country Club. This isn’t the strongest field in terms of depth and although I will be looking for some outsiders, I will certainly be giving strong consideration to those at the top of the betting boards.

Betting – Click here to bet

Dean Burmester 8/1

Thriston Lawrence 16/1

Christiaan Bezuidenhout 20/1

Dan Bradbury 22/1

Matti Schmid 22/1

Zander Lombard 22/1

25/1 and better the balance, prices correct at the time of posting but subject to change

SELECTIONS:

Thriston Lawrence each way at 16/1

Lawrence was disappointing last week in fading from what looked like a winning position given we were on him in our preview it was certainly sad to watch.

The fact is though that he has been in good form of late and that was his second consecutive Top 10 and third consecutive Top 25 and being the defending Champion he obviously likes the course. Perhaps the biggest question mark for Lawrence will be a mental one given his capitulation last week, but I think he is a more than strong enough player to bounce back with a win.

Matti Schmid each way at 22/1

Schmid didn’t play last week and he has been a bit hit and miss of late, but he does have two top 3’s in his last 4 starts. He took a liking to the course last year with a 4^th place finish and if he is on a good week he should be a big runner.

Dan Bradbury each way at 22/1

Bradbury put in another strong showing last week finishing 3^rd in defence of his Title and he hasn’t finished worse than 17^th in his last 5 starts. He has only played the course once and did finish down field in 56^th last year, but the way he is currently striking the ball I make him a big runner this week.

Neil Schietekat each way at 125/1

Okay, so here is my outsider, Schietekat is in good form and finished 12^th last week and 24^th the week before and a couple of weeks before that he had a victory to his name. He didn’t play the South African Open last year, but he did play on this course in 2021 when he made his Sunshine Tour debut and he finished runner-up that week so the triple figure price, he looks a worthy outsider.

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