With no tournament on the DP World Tour this week, the Rolex Challenge Tour Grand Final supported by The R&A is the focus of attention on the latest episode of The Tips.
In the absence of regular host Ollie Silverton, golf broadcaster Kit Alexander holds the fort as he is joined by industry-leading golf tipsters Matt Cooper and Niall Lyons for their expert insights.
To listen to this week's episode in full, CLICK HERE.
Returning to Club de Golf Alcanada for the third time, the season-ending event on the European Challenge Tour features the leading 45 available players on the Road to Mallorca Rankings.
There are 20 life-changing DP World Tour cards on offer for the leading players in the Rankings at the conclusion of what is set to be a dramatic week.
Andrea Pavan, Ricardo Gouveia and Francesco Laporta - all winners on the Challenge Tour this season - have the opportunity to write their name into the record books by becoming the season-long Number One for a second time.
History suggests that this week’s winner will be a player who has proven a consistent force, with 11 of the winners over the last 12 editions coming from 12th or better on the Rankings.
Reflecting on that trend, Cooper said: “I think the reason why those guys have won is because they don't have that added pressure of trying to get into what was the top 15 and is now the top 20.
“Interestingly before the last 12, seven of the eight prior winners were outside the top 12.
“So, there's been a real sort of shift and I think part of that is it's the growing strength of the Challenge Tour, which has always been a very keen producer of high-quality performers.
“But there are always the possibilities that someone can come from way back in the field, have a great week and get their playing rights on the DP World Tour next year."
With strong winds forecasted at times this week, it has been announced the first round will be played early on Thursday in a two tee start U draw.
"It's going to play a huge factor and that will play into the hands of guys with a bit more experience of those conditions throughout their career," said Lyons.
"I think a few more of the younger bucks will be slightly afraid of the conditions that they're going to face this week."
But who do they think will excel? In their first outright picks, Cooper selected Jesper Svensson, while Jacobs opted for Ricardo Gouveia.
Jesper Svensson
MC: I quite like the fact that he's high up in the Rankings. He has also got experience of winning the race to HimmerLand on the Nordic Golf League in 2020 so he knows what it's like to come to the end of season event and peak for that. He was winning in Holland early this year. He's been second three times and I quite like the fact that one of those second places was in Spain when he lost in a play-off. He's also been twice in his last four starts and one of those he lost in the play-off as well. So, he's been very, very close to winning a lot this year and very, very close to winning a lot in the last few weeks. It looks to me like he's got a great shot.
Ricardo Gouveia
NL: He has won twice on the Challenge Tour this season and one last time out as well at the Hainan Open. He has got good experience in the wind. Whenever we look to preview these events where the wind blows, you always look to form at Dom Pedro and for guys Gouveia, this is made for them. He has been seventh and eighth in his last two visits to Spain on the Challenge Tour this year and he has got experience of winning a season-long race. He won the 2015 edition of this event in Oman. He's not the most consistent performer all year, but at the end of the day he has a couple of victories and when the wind blows he can really play well.
| Expert | Player | Reason |
|---|---|---|
| Matt Cooper | Jesper Svensson | I quite like the fact that he's high up in the Rankings. He has also got experience of winning the race to HimmerLand on the Nordic Golf League in 2020 so he knows what it's like to come to the end of season event and peak for that. |
| Will Enefer | Will started this year expecting to play on the third tier Clutch Tour, but his management group have a big stable and got some invites on the Challenge Tour. Rather than just hand these invites out, they had a competition at the start of the year, and it was at Alcanada. Will won that tournament shooting 12 under for the week. Off the back of that he was so excited he went and won on the Clutch Tour the week after and the week after that he finished third on the Challenge Tour on his first invite and that got the ball rolling, and he stayed on the Challenge Tour all year. He's finished second a couple of times since then and he's back where basically his year started and so he's got really, really good vibes this week. | |
| Niall Lyons | Ricardo Gouveia | He has got good experience in the wind. Whenever we look to preview these events where the wind blows, you always look to form at Dom Pedro and for guys Gouveia, this is made for them. He has been seventh and eighth in his last two visits to Spain on the Challenge Tour this year and he has got experience of winning a season-long race. He won the 2015 edition of this event in Oman. |
| Tom Lewis | He is outside the top 12 on the Rankings that we were talking about earlier on, but I’m going away from that and choosing someone who is well proven in windy conditions. I mentioned Portugal earlier on, he was champion in 2011 and 2018 around Dom Pedro, so that's a real great feather in his cap heading into this week. He also has an 11th place in the Open Championship at Royal Portrush back in 2019. A couple of those days were quite tricky there as well. He also led The Open at Sandwich in 2011. He won the Korn Ferry Tour equivalent back in 2019, beating Scottie Scheffler by 11 shots that week. |
