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It is the final week of the ‘GB&I’ leg of the DP World Tour and, for the innovation around this event, the field looks rather tired. The positives. Two months on from the Scandinavian Mixed, in which men and women competed in the same event, we have another dual-gender event. This is more akin to the Victorian Open in that men and women compete at the same venue but have separate competitions that have, importantly, the same amount of prize money. In the inaugural events three years ago, the men’s event was sanctioned by the Challenge Tour, but the Ladies European Tour didn’t sanction the women’s event. Since last year, the men’s event has been sanctioned by the DP World Tour and the women’s event has been sanctioned by both the Ladies European Tour and the LPGA Tour. The negatives. It is the week after the AIG Women’s (British) Open which was the second Major Championship in three weeks, so it is not surprising that, even though the event is co-sanctioned by the LPGA Tour, so many players have skipped this week. And in terms of the men’s event, it is the lowest prize fund of the year and the fact that Jordan Smith heads the field at 10/1 says a lot about the field. The field contains more players who have been competing on the Challenge Tour over the last month than on the DP World Tour. Of course, there is one very interesting entry in this week’s field. Despite playing all three LIV Golf events, Richard Bland is still competing in this week DP World Tour event. The two competitions will play the first two rounds over the Galgorm Castle and Massereene golf courses, before focusing only on the Galgorm Castle course over the weekend. There will be a traditional 36-hole cut involving the top-60 and ties, but there will also be a second cut after 54 holes for the top-40 and ties. It is the same format as in the inaugural event three years ago. The main course, Galgorm Castle Golf Club, is a short par-70 with an official yardage of 7,151 yards. There are only two par-5s, both on the back nine, and there are two very short par-4s (less than 350 yards), both on the front nine. Massereene Golf Club is over 300 yards shorter, and while both are tree-lined parkland courses, the premium for finding the fairways is much higher at Massareene. It played almost a full shot harder than Galgorm Castle last year, which is unusual for a dual-venue tournament. In addition to last year’s the 2020 Irish Open, Galgorm Castle has hosted the Northern Ireland Open on the Challenge Tour every year since 2013 with the exception of 2019. That was the first ISPS Handa World Invitational. Even with the Northern Ireland Open, this course has been host to an innovative tournament format: after three rounds of strokeplay in 2017, the top-24 players competed in six-hole strokeplay knockout matches. In the context of recent controversies around golf innovations and world ranking points, it is worth remembering that this event with that format received world ranking points without issue. In short, there is plenty of course history for the main course used this week, but as all but two tournaments were on the Challenge Tour, there is a paucity of stats for previous tournaments bar the 2020 Irish Open and last year’s event. With that caveat in mind, the following two angles are offered to identify players who should contend this week. Angles to consider: 1. Driving accuracy is a key stat around both courses Such stats are not available for Challenge Tour events, so this relies on just two tournaments, but it is consistent with the types of courses used this week. In the 2020 Irish Open the top-two on the leaderboard were John Catlin and Aaron Rai. At the start of the week, they ranked 3rd and 4th, respectively, in driving accuracy on the European Tour that season. Catlin would finish 7th in this event last year, still ranking inside the top-10 for driving accuracy on Tour at the start of the week. The event would be won by Daniel Gavins, who ranked inside the top-10 for driving accuracy that week, while the rest of the top-10, if they had any rankings on the DP World Tour, were all ranked inside the top-100 for driving accuracy and all bar one ranked outside the top-100 for driving distance on Tour at the start of the week. This is one of those unusual weeks were there is a strong advantage to accuracy over distance off the tee. 2. Scrambling is also a key stat this week This compliments the previous angle in that ball control will be very important this week. When Catlin won here in 2020, not only was he ranked 3rd in driving accuracy at the European Tour at the time, he was ranked 1st in scrambling on the Tour. That would also be replicated in the play that week as he ranked 2nd in scrambling and second-placed Rai ranked 5th in scrambling that week. There is also a symmetry to Gavin’s win here last year in that he also ranked 2nd in scrambling that week while in terms of strokes gained: around the green, which was only collated on the Galgorm Castle course, he ranked 1st in that category last year. Selections The above angles have been used to create a shortlist from which the following players has been selected. Matthew Baldwin
Baldwin hasn’t held a European Tour Card since 2018, but he has played on this Tour in each of the last three weeks, finishing inside the top-20 twice. Together with a top-10 in his last Challenge Tour event that puts him in good form and he has ranked higher for driving accuracy than driving distance each time. And he does have a very good record here: he lost out in a playoff here in 2019 and had been 5th after the opening round last year before shooting 75 around Massareene to miss the cut by a shot. Francesco Laporta
Laporta is another with a good history in this event, finishing in the top-5 in 2019, having been 2nd after 36 holes and 3rd after 54 holes. That must have been a good learning experience as he would win the Hainan Open and Challenge Tour Grand Final later that year to graduate to the European Tour where he has remained ever since. A player who regularly ranks inside the top-10 for driving accuracy, he is well-suited to these two venues. Oliver Farr
And another with a decent record in this event: Farr finished 11th here last year with all four rounds under 70. In terms of game profile, he is ideal given the two angles above: he ranks inside the top-20 for both driving accuracy and scrambling on the DP World Tour. A top-10 finish in the Hero Open two weeks ago suggests that he has the form as well as the game profile to be a strong competitor this week. Tips 1-2; +2.67pts 1pt e.w. Matthew Baldwin 60/1 (Ladbrokes 1/5 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8) 7th 1pt e.w. Francesco Laporta 50/1 (Paddy Power, Betfair Sportsbook 1/5 1-2-3-4-5-6-7) mc 1pt e.w. Oliver Farr 55/1 (Bet365, 10Bet, Sport Nation 1/4 1-2-3-4-5) 18th
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