Tommy Fleetwood leads the Race to Dubai and can move further ahead in the standings by winning the Turkish Airlines Open on a course suited to his game. The event is part of the lucrative Rolex Series and has attracted a great field including the gold and silver medallists at the Olympics last year. Justin Rose and Henrik Stenson will have their backers but Fleetwood is the standout golf bet of the week.
The Southport born player is the main tip from the Golf Rater service on WIN. The tipster advised three players for the HSBC-Champions last week and they finished first, second and third. The tips included Justin Rose who delivered at 20/1. Subscribers have enjoyed a run of winners including Jordan Spieth at 16/1 in the Open Championship. You can get all the best golf bets until the end of the season at a one-off price of £14.99: CLICK HERE!
The Turkish Airlines Open is being played n the Championship Course at the Regnum resort in Turkey for the second successive year. It is a heathland course designed by a company founded by Peter Thompson who won the British Open five times so there will be a links influence. It has a par of 71 and measures 7,186 yards which is relatively short by modern standards. Thorbjorn Olesen won the tournament on the course last year with a score of 20 under which equates to level 66s.
The course is located amongst undulating sand dunes which are a feature of Royal Birkdale where Thompson won two of his Opens. It’s important to find the correct areas of the fairway to set up approach shots to large, undulating and fast greens. Driving accuracy is more important than driving distance and after that hitting greens is key to good scoring and a player must putt well to contend. Olesen averaged five under par over four rounds holes last year.
Fleetwood fits in to that skills profile and statistically is the best player in Europe this season to date. He leads Sergio Garcia by over €800,000 in the Race to Dubai but the Masters champion is absent this week. He won the Andalucía Masters in Spain on his last start which means he has won three times in the European Tour. Garcia can put his feet up safe in the knowledge that he has won that elusive first major. Fleetwood aspires to that level and he can beat major champions this week.
Rose won the US Open in 2013 and Stenson was the Open champion in 2016. The former won the Olympic title for Great Britain in Rio last year and Stenson finished second after a great battle in the final round that could have gone either way. Matt Kuchar won the bronze medal but as a career highlight that would have been second to winning the Open but Jordan Spieth beat him at Birkdale in July. Tyrell Hatton won twice on the bounce in Europe earlier in October but is unproven at this level.
Matthew Fitzpatrick has already played in the Ryder Cup and won four times in Europe and he is still only 24. He has a good all-round with few weaknesses and should be fine on the course. He has finished in the top 20 on his last five starts, including tied 9th in the HSBC-Champions last week. Fitzpatrick can contend this week but Fleetwood is preferred.
The main tip leads the European Tour for greens in regulation so he excels when there is a premium on accuracy over distance. If he wins this week he could have an unassailable lead in the Race to Dubai but Garcia could overhaul him if he wins both remaining playoff events. That is unlikely which means Fleetwood could be home and hosed on Saturday night after winning in Turkey. Rose and Stenson are too good not to be in the mix but Fleetwood has the skills to win this tournament.
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