The South African Open takes place at the Serengeti Golf and Wildlife Estate from 24-27 November while in a strange twist South Africa’s topped ranked golfers are involved in the World Cup in China at the same time.

There is some quality golf around the globe this weekend but I will probably swerve the Australian Masters (where Scott and Day lead a quality field) and will instead focus on the SA Open with a small interest in the Omega Mission World Cup.

SA OPEN

Ernie Els and Retief Goosen are generally disputing favouritism with the up and coming George Coetzee and while it is great to have this pair of multiple major winners in the field it as a pity that the two form men Schwartzel and Oosthuizen won’t be teeing it up.

The question then is whether Els and Goosen still have what it takes to hold off a field of young guns? While neither has had a great season they both played some decent golf in patches in the Presidents Cup and I felt Goosen in particular looked good in his Sunday singles win.

The Jack Nicklaus designed course has generous landing areas for tee shots and with plenty of rain during the week long hitters are likely to be favoured. Positioning the ball on tiered greens will be critical as will putting with greens expected to run fast although once again the heavy rains could have an effect on this.

Here are my 4 picks for the week

Ernie Els 12/1 at Voltbet, Sportsbet and Ladbrokes

The defending champion is showing very real signs of winding down what has been a brilliant career but I feel he may still have a few good showings in him. Prior to the Presidents Cup he showed signs of live in Asia and this brilliant bunker player should be happier than most out of the many sand traps on this course. He has won this event 5 times and meets a relatively weak field and while the price is short by golf standards I am prepared to have a go with a win only play.

Retief Goosen 14/1 at Voltbet, Sportsbet and Ladbrokes

He finished strongly last year in Durban to push Ernie all the way and based on what I saw in Australia he must have a chance this week. He has won the tournament twice and while his putting is not what it was he still hits it long off the tee and is a solid iron player. As with Ernie his price is short and while I know this strategy is not for everyone I am going to include him win only at 14/1.

Darren Fichardt 40/1 win Voltbet, 8.75/1 top 5 Hollywood and Betxchange

Ok its time to look a little further down the list after being rather unimaginative with my opening picks. Fichardt has long been a solid performer on the Sunshine Tour and he has finished in the Top 6 in this event 5 times. He was a tad disappointing last week in the Dunhill although he still came home 13^th and there has been some early money for him with initial quotes of 45/1 being snapped up. I will have a small win bet but weight my interest to places.

Robert Dinwiddie 133/1 win at Voltbet, 22.5/1 Top 5 at Betxchange, World Sports Betting, Sportsbet and Hollywood

He has some decent form at this time of year in South Africa and last year he finished T10 in this event. It was a solid 15^th at the Dunhill though that caught my eye and I will be having an interest that he can improve this week. Once again a small win bet with more interest on the top 5.

SA Open Bets

3 units Goosen win at 14/1 Voltbet, Sportsbet and Ladbrokes

2 units Els win at 12/1 Voltbet, Sportsbet and Ladbrokes

0.5 unit win Fichardt at 40/1 Voltbet, 2 units top 5 at 8.75/1 with Hollywood or Betxchange

0.5 unit win Dinwiddie at 133/1 Voltbet, 1.5 units top 5 at 22.5/1 with Hollywood, Sportsbet, World Sports Betting or Betxchange

OMEGA MISSION WORLD CUP

This event takes place in Hainan Island China and 28 teams of 2 are set to take part. It tends to be dominated by the favourites and scanning down the team lists it is not hard to see why as many of the players are a level or so below top division.

The format is fourball on days 1 and 3 and foursomes (alternate shots) on days 2 and 4.

Looking through the field I have narrowed my selections down to the top 2 in the betting namely Ireland and South Africa. Both of these sides have big name players (and for the matter recent major winners) in good form with McIlroy and McDowell teaming up for the Irish and Schwartzel and Oosthuizen for SA.

The betting is of course tight and with bookies virtually 100% aligned in pricing there is little value in shopping around this week. Ireland are 4/1 with SA 11/2 and I am going to give the nod to the SA pair this week. Schwartzel looked good and finished joint top scorer for the Internationals last week while Oosthuizen has found good form of late having started the year badly. You could build a very similar case for the Irish replacing Rory with Charl and Graeme with Louis but I am going to be patriotic and go for the pair who will want to make sure that a week missing their local Open is well spent.

BET: 3 units SA win at 11/2 generally available

See what others fancy in our forum where tips for all 3 golf events will be posted.

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