Joburg Open Preview

Some of the best on the European Tour will make their way to Johannesburg, South Africa and the Royal Johannesburg and Kensington Golf Club for this week’s Joburg Open. The tournament is co-sanctioned by the European Tour and the Sunshine Tours and will include an unusually large field that will play at both the East and West courses over the first two days before playing strictly on the East course over the final two rounds. With so many moving pieces we took the time to break down this year’s field to get you set for the Joburg Open this week.

Event Details

Event: Joburg Open

Category: European

Date: February 23-26

Location: Royal Johannesburg and Kensington Golf Club, Johannesburg, South Africa

There should be plenty of motivation for those that make the trip to Johannesburg this week since a high finish will mean an exemption in to the Open Championship. Brandon Steele, Jaco Van Zyl and the 2014 winner George Coetzee will lead this year’s field as the most recognizable names and it should be no surprise that we are putting our money on one of those names this week.

Past Five Winners

2016: Haydn Porteous -18

2015: Andy Sullivan -17

2014: George Coetzee -19

2013: Richard Sterne -27

2012: Branden Grace -17

What To Know About The Course

The courses at the Royal Johannesburg and Kensington Golf Club are fairly long but the elevation in Johannesburg means that the ball will travel 10 percent further. While Driving Distance is definitely relevant, it won’t matter as much as Greens In Regulation, which looks like the best stat to keep an eye on. Previous winners ranked fourth, 13^th, first and second in that stat over the years with an emphasis on how they fared on the par three holes. With so many names to consider for this week’s event, it makes sense to also take in to account course history with those that have a history here.

The Field

Stone will be the sports betting favorite to win this event outright at +1100 odds following by Van Zyl at +1400 and both Coetzee and Richard Sterne at +1600 odds. Thomas Aiken and Jordan L. Smith are expected to be in the mix at +2000 odds to win outright, following by Hao-Tong Li, Dean Burmeester and Anthony Wall. With so many relative unknowns in this year’s field, it was an easy decision to stick with the names that we are familiar with when it comes to making our bets.

A Good Matchup To Bet: Brandon Stone over Jaco Van Zyl

Van Zyl is considered among the sports betting favorites this week but we would rather pass on him and bet against him with Stone in the head-to-head sports betting matchup. Sone has struggled at this event in the past but he’s already won two European Tour events in his homeland and it feels like he is overdue for this one. Look for Stone to finally put it all together in Johannesburg and deliver a strong performance at this week’s Joburg Open.

Top-Five Pick: George Coetzee

Coetzee won this event in 2014 and we fully expect him to be in the mix again this week based on his overall ability and his familiarity with this course. He has struggled with inconsistency at times, but his history at this event combined with the fact that he won here in 2014 is enough to think Coetzee is worth taking a chance on as a top-five pick for this week.

Joburg Open Tee Times

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