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This week the DP World Tour kicks off the 2022 season with a trip to Yas Island for the Abu Dhabi HSBC World Championship. This is the first year the tournament will be staged at Yas Links, and the field is stacked with many of the world’s top-50 players. Highlighting the field is Collin Morikawa. Morikawa has the opportunity to become the top-ranked player in the world with a win this week. Oddsmakers at PointsBet Sportsbook have Morikawa as the tournament favorite at +675.
Top players like Rory McIlroy, Viktor Hovland, Adam Scott, and defending champion Tyrrell Hatton, opted to play here instead of the PGA Tour’s American Express. Thus, giving us a packed field and plenty of wagering options.
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There will be a few names that everyone will be all over. Guys like Tommy Fleetwood and McIlroy are links course beasts and should fare well. I can’t get behind the price on McIlroy, so I likely will sit out on him, even if that means he takes the championship, and I am sitting by with tears in my eyes. I don’t have the strongest conviction about any one golfer to win outright. I’d rather look at a couple big prices and hope to cash them.
Alexander Bjork to finish top-10 (+625)
This might be my favorite play of the entire tournament. A price of +625 for a putting beast is almost criminal. With the course conditions and possible high wind gusts throughout the week, I am targeting approach and short game superstars. Bjork is a great putter, he’s third on the DP World Tour gaining 0.91 strokes putting per round. He’s also gaining strokes on approach per round. Bjork has two top-5 finishes in his last five DP Tour starts; most notably his second-place finish at the DP World Tour Championship back in November. I expect a big week from him.
Robert MacIntyre to finish top-10 (+325)
When I saw the price on MacIntyre I was a little gun shy to pull the trigger. I wanted a price closer to +400, but there’s no ignoring the success MacIntrye has had on the DP World Tour. Selecting MacIntrye goes a bit against my qualifications for golfers who are dynamite with the flat stick, but if he gets hot, he can putt with the best of them. If you remember his strong T8 performance the Open and his T4 finish at the DP World Championship. He has the results to back up taking him on links style golf courses. Even at +325 there is a lot of value on a golfer who you could say has every opportunity to win outright.
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