Singapore Classic Tips 2023

At the very top of the market, it’s difficult to argue that Ryan Fox, Robert MacIntyre and Jordan Smith shouldn’t lead the way given how they’ve been playing of late.

Fox is the highest-ranked player of the trio – and in the field – yet couldn’t push on last week on what was on paper a more suitable test, whereas MacIntyre and Smith haven’t found their ‘A’ games since winning the Italian Open and Portugal Masters respectively in the autumn. Another relatively recent winner who does appeal though is Adrian Otaegui and I’ll start this week’s team with the Spaniard.

October’s 6-stroke victory at Valderrama was the 30 year-old’s 4^th victory at DP World Tour level and he now sits within reach of the OWGR top 50 with the lure of a Masters invite still on the table if he can sneak inside that level by April 2^nd. Given his form following his 3-event foray over to LIV last year, I wouldn’t be surprised to see him make the grade.

In terms of raw credentials for this, Otaegui has everything I’m looking for in a potential winner. 5^th for both SG Around the Green as well as Scrambling for the early 2023 season stats, Adrian sat in 11^th place for the former and topped the latter for 2022 in its entirety. Given the potential for short game excellence being a key success factor this week, those numbers cannot be ignored in my view.

26^th last year for Par-3 Scoring is also eye-catching given how tough the short holes played here the last time this course was used for any significant event back in 2015, and a more stringent test like this should play to his strengths.

Since his win in October, Otaegui hasn’t missed a cut on Tour and came close to adding a fifth title to his name at Leopard Creek in December, finishing runner-up to Ockie Strydom on that toughened-up track which now features Bermuda greens.

28^th in Abu Dhabi, 28^th again in Dubai and 36^th last week has kept a lid on his price in relative terms, however this is undoubtedly a lower grade than the first couple of weeks and, given the way this course sets up, presents a far better opportunity to a player like him in my opinion. RESULT: T30

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Another player who ticks all the boxes at a similar price to Otaegui is Alexander Bjork.

Now the reason I list him second rather than first in my pecking order, despite generally being a touch shorter in the betting, is that the main doubt I have in my mind is how he’ll react to the fact that a final hole bogey on Sunday ultimately cost the Swede a shot at the play-off with Daniel Gavins as he seeks his second win at DP World Tour level.

Of course Bjork wasn’t to know that Gavins was going to make hard work (if I’m being polite) of the final hole behind him, so I can excuse him for having a go at the 30-footer on the last for birdie which he blasted 6 feet past and subsequently missed. Fact is though, par would have been enough for extra holes – fine margins as ever.

Nevertheless, there was lots to like in the 32 year-old’s game last week – 9^th for GIR, 6^th for Putting Average, 8^th for SG Around the Green and 4^th for SG Putting for starters – and that followed on from progressive efforts of 28^th in Abu Dhabi and 16^th in Dubai to start 2023.

9^th for Par-3 Scoring last season ticks that particular box, and although he’s not quite as strong around the greens as Otaegui, Alexander makes up for that by generally hitting more greens than his peer. Still, 45^th on Tour last season for Scrambling puts him in the top 25% or so of players statistically and that’s good enough for me.

4^th at Valderrama in 2021’s tough renewal ticks the challenging course box, whereas 2^nd at the DP World Tour Championship a few weeks later shows a level of ability above and beyond many in this week’s field. If he can shake off last week’s near miss then he could quickly make amends – indeed, his 2018 China Open win came off of a 3^rd place finish the week before in Morocco to suggest that it’s quite possible he’ll do just that. RESULT: T42

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With the promise of a fairly stringent test here in Singapore, one player who might enjoy the challenge more than most is England’s Marcus Armitage.

The Bullet made an emotional breakthrough on the DP World Tour in the summer of 2021, winning the Porsche European Open with a 3-round 8-under total courtesy of an outstanding final round 65 which saw him jump from 11^th place with a round to go to the very summit of the leaderboard.

The venue that week, Green Eagle GC, is another long, tough track that had players likening it to a US Open-style setup, however the 35 year-old got the measure of the course, scrambling at 70% (6^th in the field) and making the putts when required which gave him a 2-shot cushion in the end. 4 further wins at lower levels over the years with winning scores ranging from -8 to -11 suggests to me that this kind of test will always be far more suitable to Marcus than a birdie-fest.

2022 wasn’t his best season, with 5^th at the Qatar Masters the early-year highlight before he finished 6^th in Mallorca in October, however after a slow start in Abu Dhabi where he finished 67^th, his last start in Dubai was much improved where rounds of 68 & 69 to open put him in a semi-contending position heading into the weekend, eventually ending up 28^th. Just 6 bogeys on the week was right up there with the leading players though courtesy of a field-leading scrambling performance and a much improved GIR ranking. More of the same this week and we could well see The Bullet firing his way up the leaderboard. RESULT: MC

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A return closer to home might spark some life into Gavin Green’s season after a slow start to his 2023 campaign, opening with missed cuts in both Abu Dhabi and Dubai before taking last week off.

The latter part of 2022 was much more encouraging for the 29 year-old though as he seeks out his first victory at DP World Tour level. A runner-up finish on the Asian Tour in Singapore in August was the catalyst for a step-change in form, following a slow first half of the year, and he finished 2^nd a week later at this level to Max Kieffer in the Czech Republic as the German’s final round of 66 saw him deny Green by a single shot.

Another runner-up finish followed at Vilamoura in late October, with Jordan Smith the man to supply the heroics this time as Green did very, very little wrong as the Englishman uncharacteristically holed absolutely everything all week. 7^th at the Nedbank and 20^th at the Earth Course followed as his season fizzled out, however there’s no underlying reason why he can’t get back into contending form now that he’s worked off the close-season rust.

Long enough off the tee to tackle this challenging course and equally adept in tougher scoring conditions as well as birdie-fests, Gavin’s short game ultimately gets him the nod here given the potential importance of that judging by the Asian Tour event held here in 2015. 12^th for Sand Saves and 4^th for Scrambling for the full 2022 DP World Tour season is impressive relative to this field and should set him in good stead here.

The Kuala Lumpur man’s 4 professional wins have all come closer to home, with Malaysia (2014 & 2016), the Philippines (2016) and Taiwan (2018) the venues where he’s succeeded so far, so this week’s test in Singapore should appeal. RESULT: MC

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Finally, at a longer price, I’m take another chance on Jamie Donaldson whose sporadic flashes of form tend to come on tougher assignments nowadays, having backed him for much the same reason at Valderrama last autumn when he finished 28^th and had put himself in position to finish in the each-way places with a round to go.

Without a win now since 2015 when he secured the Thailand Golf Championship on the Asian Tour, you have to go even further back to find his last win in Europe at the 2014 Czech Masters, yet breaking long winless streaks seems to be all the rage nowadays so perhaps we shouldn’t see that as to much of a negative.

Since lockdown the Welshman has recorded a number of decent efforts, most notably his runner-up finish at Wentworth in 2021 at Rolex Series level. 2nd at the 2020 South African Open, 3rd at the Cyprus Open and 3rd at the Cazoo Classic are also efforts which suggest that the 47 year-old isn’t quite done with his career just yet, and 8th at The Belfry, 6th at Renaissance, and 6th at Le Golf National in more recent times encourage that he can still be competitive on the right course and in the right conditions.

Identical 38^th place finishes at the two Rolex Series events to kick off the 2023 events is neither massively positive nor negative; nothing worse than 72 and nothing better than 68 is steady golf and perhaps exactly what’s required if ‘The Beast’ here at Laguna National lives up to its name this week.

Off the tee is where the Welshman has largely struggled of late, particularly in Dubai on his last start, however with Driving Accuracy stats so high here on the Classic Course last time it was used, that could be less of an issue this week. Scrambling at 78.3% at The Emirates, which ranked 3^rd in the field, is potentially far more relevant to this week’s task and I’m happy to take a chance given the price on offer. RESULT: T42