Golf Betting Tips – Dubai Desert Classic
A quality field headed by Henrik Stenson and Tiger Woods has assembled in Dubai this week for the Omega Dubai Desert Classic, where we go for this week’s golf betting tips. The 7,328yd Par 72 Emirates Golf Course is a well established venue which, excluding 1999 and 2000 when the event was played at the Dubai Creek course, has hosted this prestigious tournament since its inception in 1989.
The fairways are fairly generous here, leading to average sized flat greens which are reported to be very fast and firm this year. The front nine is definitely the tougher of the two and water comes into play on ten of the holes, including the finishing hole which is a classic risk and reward Par 5.
Cloudless skies are forecast but the breeze is really expected to pick up on Friday and Saturday, so expect tougher scoring conditions this year. The course with its many doglegs off the tee sets up perfectly for the power hitters who have a great record around this track. However, the course could play a little different this year with firm greens and very windy conditions placing a greater emphasis on hitting fairways to enable our free golf tips to attack pins on this exposed layout. Draw bias could also be a factor for this renewal. Possibly earlier starters on Thursday may have an advantage but we won’t know till the event starts.
Plenty of attention will be focused on the appearance of Tiger Woods who arrives here off the back of a missed cut at Torrey Pines last week. The 2006 and 2008 winner of this event looked a pale shadow of his former self last week, even allowing for the fact it was his first full field event since August 2015. He lost plenty of shots to the right last week and the jury is still well and truly out if he can ever return to anywhere near his best again. Lets hope he can at least make the cut to justify his high profile appearance in the Gulf this week.
The column had another good, if slightly frustrating week for our golf predictions in Qatar last week with Thomas Aiken narrowly missing the play-off by a shot, but at least rewarding each-way support at 40-1.
Dubai Desert Classic golf betting tips
Rafa Cabrera Bello 20/1 E/W bet365 (5 Places)
The main golf tip this week is the ultra consistent Spaniard Rafa Cabrera Bello, despite already letting slip two more good chances to win this season in Hong Kong and Abu Dhabi. He finished Tied 6th in breezy conditions in Qatar last week, indicating his elusive third win could be just around the corner, particularly on a track where he has won in 2012 and finished runner-up last year. These tough firm conditions should hold no fears for this classy ball striker who has such a great record in these Desert Swing events and surely its only a matter of time before RCB finally converts one of these chances.
Joost Luiten 40/1 E/W Coral (7 Places)
The second golf betting tip is the Dutchman Joost Luiten who has shown enough in his first two starts of the campaign to suggest he could well figure in Dubai this week. He finished Tied 29th in Abu Dhabi and finished strongly to finish Tied 21st in Qatar last week, so the winter rustiness should be well and truly out of his system for this high profile gig. He is another great ball striker who has course form having finished Tied 8th last year and this proven winner has also shown in the past that he can handle these windy conditions. With 7 places available at Coral, he looks the each-way value in this strong field.