After locking in Bazza’s Best Bets for the Arnold Palmer Invitational, our expert panel will now take a look at who is worth picking in the DP World Tour’s Joburg Open.

Patrick Reed, who has two wins from just five starts in 2026, while Jayden Schaper and Casey Jarvis – who have also claimed two victories this season – will be fighting hard to become the first man with a hat-trick of titles.

With plenty of value throughout the odds board, our betting experts at Golf Monthly HQ have been crunching the numbers and following the trends in a bid to find a winner for you this week…

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Angel Ayora laughs while walking down the fairway

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Pick One: Angel Ayora To Win @ BetMGM

One of these days, Angel Ayora is going to win on the DP World Tour. He’s too good not to. And his form of late suggests a first victory could be right around the corner. The young Spaniard’s past three starts have all been top-10s and he has the game to make it happen at Houghton GC.

This course requires a real mix of power and accuracy – it’s a true examination. I believe Ayora has all the ingredients to do well, even if he’s never played the event before. I like his long-game stats, so all we need is for him to stay out of trouble and putt well like he often does. Fingers crossed.

Pick Two: Francesco Laporta To Win @ BetMGM

Quite unlike my usual plan of attack, I’m offering up a second suggestion with a completely different profile, which proves my point about the kind of player that is capable of winning around Houghton GC.

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Laporta has also been playing really well of late, with a fourth in Kenya and a T2nd last week in South Africa. He has managed a best of T13th since the Joburg Open switched to this course (with a T19th and a T47th otherwise), but he’s always been let down by at least one bad round, and those errors have been far less frequent in 2026.

The accurate Italian can go about his game plan very differently to Ayora, but that doesn’t mean both of them can’t be involved down the stretch on Sunday…

Daniel Van Tonder To Win @ BetMGM

My first pick is Van Tonder, who comes into the week off the back of a T6th finish at the South African Open Championship, as well as great results at the end of 2025, where he had three consecutive top-15s.

Last year, the 34-year-old finished solo fifth thanks to four rounds in the 60s. What’s more, at the same time last year, he had already wrapped up two victories for the season, both of which came in South Africa.

Van Tonder knows how to win, especially in his home country, so provides very good odds for this week.

Pick Two: Sam Bairstow To Win @ BetMGM

The Englishman produced a top-10 finish at the BMW Australian PGA Championship in December and, although he hasn’t lit up the leaderboard with results since, I feel he is due a big performance after making the weekend in his last four starts.

A T34th result was the best of those four events, but returning to a course where he finished T9th last year will be a big help for Bairstow, whose game obviously suits Houghton Golf Club. He ranks well in the long game so, if he can get the putter working, I think he’ll contend.

Tips by…A headshot of Elliott Heath wearing a sky blue hoodieTips by…

Elliott Heath

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Romain Langasque hits a drive during the 2026 Magical Kenya Open

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Pick One: Romain Langasque To Win @ BetMGM

The Frenchman has found good form in Africa, having finished T9th in Kenya at 19-under-par thanks to a closing 63 before a T24th at the SA Open last week.

The 2020 Welsh Open champion was T19th here in Joburg last year and has a good record in this event with three top-20s since 2017.

Pick Two: Jacob Skov Olesen To Win @ BetMGM

Olesen is another who enjoyed a strong Kenyan Open performance with a T5th finish, which followed a T3rd in Qatar.

The Dane didn’t fare as well last week after opening with a 75 but he played all four rounds, so I’m banking on him re-finding his form from last month at a course where he finished T7th last year.