website<\/a>.<\/p>\n2025 Nedbank Golf Challenge betting tips<\/p>\n
The Banker: Christiaan Bezuidenhout <\/p>\n
22\/1 e\/w (Paddy Power, Sky Bet 5 Places 1\/4 Odds)<\/p>\n
We backed Christiaan Bezuidenhout at 33\/1 in his last start in Utah and he finished 42nd \u2013 but I\u2019m keen to roll the dice again, even at shorter odds.<\/p>\n
The first reason why is the location. We know the South African plays his best golf at home, with two of his three DP World Tour wins coming there, one of them at this course at the 2020 South African Open. Overall his course form here reads 1st, 6th, 5th, 6th, so he clearly loves Gary Player Country Club. 5th and 6th at the Nedbank Golf Challenge when held at this course suggests even when the fields are stronger he is clearly a top contender at this venue, and I love his chances of a career-best finish in this event.<\/p>\n
I liked Bezuidenhout\u2019s chances in Utah based on the fact he had just finished 6th at the Sanderson Farms Championship and 10th at the Baycurrent Classic, so while he certainly didn\u2019t reach those heights again next time out, there was still plenty to like.<\/p>\n
Chief among that was his ball-striking, as he ranked 7th in SG Approach and 23rd in SG Tee to Green, which shows that it was his putting that let him down on his last start. That\u2019s rare for Bezuidenhout, who typically pairs strong iron play with a hot putter.<\/p>\n
He\u2019s putted well in his two Nedbank Golf Challenge performances here at Gary Player Country Club, and I think he is being overlooked here based on the fact his run of top 10s came to a grinding halt in Utah, a course we can\u2019t necessarily be sure suited him, even if I thought it would.<\/p>\n
We know he loves this course, and we know he\u2019s a better price than he was here 12 months ago, so I will take a shot on Bezuidenhout leading the charge for South Africa this week.<\/p>\n
The Next Best: Angel Ayora <\/p>\n
22\/1 e\/w (Paddy Power, Sky Bet 5 Places 1\/4 Odds)<\/p>\n
Angel Ayora has now finished inside the top 10 in seven of his last ten starts, so while Bezuidenhout leads the charge for us this week, based on his love for playing at home, Ayora is certainly considered the next-best for me.<\/p>\n
To be playing at this level of consistency in his first year on the DP World Tour is quite remarkable, especially when he\u2019s just turned 21. Rasmus Neergaard-Petersen will certainly gain all the plaudits after earning a PGA Tour card in his first season, but he\u2019s some five years older than Ayora who has plenty of time to figure it out.<\/p>\n
Figure it out he will as well, and he will certainly be expected to get a top-level win before Neergard-Petersen now, with the latter off to the PGA Tour, and Ayora potentially benefitting from being the big fish in a small pond for a year.<\/p>\n
Ayora already has previous in South Africa as well, having finished T5 in the Alfred Dunhill Championship almost a year ago, when just stepping up to the DP World Tour. He was just two shots shy of forcing a playoff there that week, and now I think he\u2019s ready to win, even with the likes of Viktor Hovland in this field.<\/p>\n
His iron play has been strong over the past six weeks or so and his overall tee-to-green game has been fantastic to match. A couple of poor shots around the green let him down at the DP World Tour Championship, where he was certainly in the hunt, but I think he has all the tools in general to win at this level.<\/p>\n
I normally have a Bonus Bet in this article, but it felt disingenuous to call him that, especially when he\u2019s the same odds as our leading pick in Bezuidenhout. Instead, I will refer to him as the \u201cNext Best\u201d this week.<\/p>\n
The Outsider: Jacob Skov Olesen <\/p>\n
66\/1 e\/w (BetMGM 5 Places 1\/4 Odds)<\/p>\n
Jacob Skov Olesen was the last man in at last year\u2019s Q School Final Stage, finishing 21st to earn his DP World Tour card. Playing out of that category has proven tough in recent years though, and this season, Olesen was the only one from Q School to make the DP World Tour Championship, and just one of two players to finish the season in the top 70 and make the playoffs.<\/p>\n
That goes to show what sort of results Olesen had to put together to make it as far as he did, finishing inside the top 10 six times. The highlights were his 3rd place finish at the NEXO and 5th at the Alfred Dunhill Links, which along with making the cut in the Open shows a links pedigree, but he also impressed in South Africa early.<\/p>\n
Olesen finished 7th at the Joburg Open earlier in the year, and his form in Africa as a whole when you include a 9th at the Mauritius Open and a 13th in Kenya, was very good.<\/p>\n
He also thrived in the playoffs, ending the year strong with a 23rd place finish at the Abu Dhabi Championship and an 11th at the DP World Tour Championship.<\/p>\n
A lot of his success has been putter driven, but he\u2019s now on a run of six made cuts in his last seven starts and he just about gained in all Strokes-Gained metrics at the Earth Course last time out.<\/p>\n
He hasn\u2019t played here yet, but I am not too concerned, I will instead focus on the upside, and leave the course form angle to our pick of the week in Bezuidenhout.<\/p>\n
The Long Shot: Francesco Molinari <\/p>\n
110\/1 e\/w (BetVictor 5 Places 1\/4 Odds)<\/p>\n
I am cautiously optimistic about Francesco Molinari right now, as it looks as though he might be turning a corner having made three cuts in a row on the PGA Tour for the first time since 2022.<\/p>\n
Now there\u2019s a chance he\u2019s just taking advantage of weaker fields, and ultimately he\u2019s results are still fairly average, but there\u2019s been a couple of rounds in isolation where it feels like the Italian could be working his way back, and I am willing to take a shot on him as he returns to the DP World Tour this week.<\/p>\n
The run started for Molinari in Utah where he opened with a promising round of 67 to sit in 12th place after round 1. He slowly fell away, but he did post two more rounds in the 60s over the weekend. He didn\u2019t shoot low enough to challenge there that weekend, but that seemingly gave him some confidence, as he went on to finish 27th in Mexico two weeks later, where he again started well, sitting inside the top 10 for the first two rounds. Last time out he could only finish 34th in Bermuda but it was tough there that week, but middle rounds of 68 and 69 should certainly build confidence again.<\/p>\n
It does feel like we are taking a bit of a shot here on Molinari, who hasn\u2019t posted a top 10 anywhere since finishing 5th in Dubai in January 2024, but his 16th in Denmark a while ago, coupled with his recent run in the US suggests to me he might be returning to somewhat competitive status.<\/p>\n
At his best he is a major winner, and while his floor has been so unimaginably low since that cruel week at Augusta back in 2019, he does still have spike weeks, and he doesn\u2019t look too far away from being up to contending in this.<\/p>\n
Also this week\u2026\t\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Our resident tipster Tom Jacobs has picked out four names for his Nedbank Golf Challenge \u2013 including a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":320733,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[566],"tags":[64,63,755,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-320732","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-golf","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-golf","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/320732","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=320732"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/320732\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/320733"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=320732"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=320732"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=320732"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}