After a few weeks of golf in the Far East, the European Tour heads to South Africa for the Alfred Dunhill Championship (not to be confused with the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship!)

I am making a rare venture into European Tour golf previewing this week as host course Leopard Creek is one of my favourite courses on the globe and I believe the type of field that is assembled represents a good punting opportunity.

Some of the leading lights in South African golf are sadly missing this event with the Presidents Cup happening concurrently. Recent Masters champion Charl Schwartzel is a previous winner of this tournament and ever-present in this event. Similarly, two-time winner Ernie Els seldom misses a trip to Leopard Creek and will be sad to be missing out this year due to a clash in his schedule.

Although these glaring omissions from the field may not be good news for the tournament directors, it does present something of an opportunity to some of the lesser lights on both the European Tour and Sunshine Tour to make a name for themselves.

The top three in the betting all have their merits; George Coetzee has enjoyed a very good 2011 campaign, and both Thomas Aiken and Robert Rock notched their first European Tour wins earlier this year and have good Leopard Creek course form to boot. With that said, the prices on offer don’t really entice me in a wide-open field like this.

One player we know loves Leopard Creek is Pablo Martin. The Spaniard has won this event for the last two years, but even with this unrivalled course form under his belt it’s hard to see the hat-trick happening with his current form reading C-C-C-C-WD-75.

Here are my 7 selections for this week:

Hennie Otto – South African Hennie Otto initially grabbed my attention this week at 50/1 which was clearly overpriced, but even at current prices, Otto represents a very solid each-way bet. At Leopard Creek, Otto has three top-15 finishes in his last five starts, and there’s clearly something about this track which gets the best out of him as he broke a run of three missed cuts last year to finish in a tie for 15th here. This year, Otto enters the event with strong current form having posted top-20 finishes in his last two starts. The first of those came at the Portugal Masters where Otto shot a blistering 63 in the third-round, so his game looks in very solid shape.

4pts each way 25/1 widely available

Jbe’ Kruger – 25 year-old Jbe’ Kruger looks to have a promising career ahead of him. From a handful of starts on the main European Tour this year, Kruger found himself in contention on a couple of occasions and notched three top-10 finishes. More recently, Kruger finished 13th at last week’s Singapore Open where he opened up with an excellent 65 on the tough Serapong course. There’s little doubt that a fourth round would have helped Kruger’s cause, but we can only guess what might have happened if the tournament had run its course. At Leopard Creek, Kruger put three previous missed cuts behind him last year when he finished in a tie for 10th, and there’s good reason to expect even better this year.

3pts each way 30/1 BetXchange, Hollywood, World Sports Betting (Voltbet win only)

Darren Fichardt – Third up is another South African in the form of Darren Fichardt. Fichardt has played a fair bit of golf on the European Tour during his career, but currently plies his trade almost solely on the Sunshine Tour where he is a two-time Order of Merit winner. Although his recent form at Leopard Creek isn’t anything to write home about (42-25-37 in the last three years), Fichardt finished tied for 4th here back in 2006 so he is capable of going well here. What really grabs my attention though is Fichardt’s current form on the Sunshine Tour where his recent finishes read 2-1-6-4. His recent win at the Suncoast Classic marked his 12th career win on the Sunshine Tour.

2pts each way 40/1 Sportsbet, Ladbrokes, Sportingbet

Julien Guerrier – Frenchman Julien Guerrier has played his golf on the Challenge Tour in 2011 where he finished the year off in solid fashion with a 6th place finish at the San Domenico Grand Final two weeks ago. Interestingly, Guerrier has teed it up at Leopard Creek once before (in 2009) where he shot a superb final round 67 to finish in a tie for 17th. The 26 year-old has matured as a player since then, and looks a useful outsider this week.

1.5pts each way 80/1 Sportsbet, Sportingbet

Keith Horne – As with Hennie Otto, Keith Horne has three top-15 finishes in his last five starts at Leopard Creek so he’ll have positive memories of this place. It’s been an up and down season on the European Tour for Horne, but he’s turned in some decent results including a 12th place finish at the European Masters in September. More recently, Horne found himself in contention at the Portugal Masters where he sadly shot a final round 75 to ruin an otherwise impressive showing.

1pt each way 80/1 Sportsbet, (Voltbet win only)

Thomas Norret – With another Dane, Thomas Bjorn showing vintage form in 2011, the lesser-known Thomas Norret has been going about his business rather well. In his penultimate start, Norret went very close to capturing his maiden European Tour victory at the Austrian Open so his game looks to be in solid shape this week. It will be Norret’s first look at Leopard Creek this week, but with Pablo Martin winning on his debut here in 2009, we shouldn’t let that put us off.

1pt each way 100/1 BetXchange, Hollywood, World Sports Betting, Ladbrokes

Tyrone Mordt – My rank outsider for this week is Tyrone Mordt. The 28 year-old raised eyebrows at the beginning of the year when he shot a stunning 62 to take the early lead at another co-sanctioned event, the Joburg Open. That particular weekend was sadly one to forget for Mordt, and although his form has been patchy since then, he came very close to winning the Nashua Masters two weeks ago where he missed out by just one shot to Shaun Norris. At Leopard Creek, Mordt also has a top-10 finish to his name which came back in 2008 where he finished in a tie for 8th.

0.5pts each way 125/1 BetXchange, Sportsbet

You are most welcome to add your own picks on our discussion forum

Sam Harrop allows us to publish his Golf Betting Previews on Goodforthegame. Sam has been a golfing enthusiast most of his life and has developed an in depth knowledge of the players, tournaments and stats on the PGA Tour.

He has recently launched a website www.golfpuntersguide.com and he has kindly made his preview available to Goodforthegame

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