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SDC Championship Each-Way Tips: New test up Ramsay's street

Matt Cooper
13 March 2023
4:00 min read

Richie Ramsay won on the links last season and can do so again this week.

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The DP World Tour begins a fortnight in South Africa at a new venue this week. Antoine Rozner heads the betting for the SDC Championship but Matt Cooper looks elsewhere in his three selections with the Betfair Sportsbook paying seven places...

Seaside specialist Matthew Southgate is in form
This new links layout should suit Richie Ramsay
Dutchman Daan Huizing is another links lover

Regular readers of this column will be well aware that there are few subjects as close to my heart as the giddy copy adorning golf course websites.

Naturally, the scribblers or utterers of these words are bound to be proud of the layout they're describing and want to do it justice.

But sometimes they can't help themselves going a bit overboard and so it is with this week's DP World Tour venue, St Francis Links on the Eastern Cape in South Africa, host of the SDC Championship.

It's a track that has been open since 2007 and the designer Jack Nicklaus - a man, let us remember, who has played a lot of the world's most lauded layouts - is quoted on the website saying it is "the best golf course I have ever seen".

An exceptionally bold statement and one that puts a bit of pressure on a course that, when viewed on the website's rather good play-by-play course tour, really does look rather nice.

(Steve Rawlings' preview even has video of the Great Bear gushing about what is clearly a lovely spot.)

What is also very welcome is that a track defined as "links" has greens resembling such designs as opposed to the elevated putting surfaces more commonly associated with Nicklaus courses.

The business of creating new links layouts is a treacherous one, of course.

Designers often shape land in a links fashion but have a grainy or grippy grass to work with which prevents the use of chip and runs or approach shots using the lie of the land.

But St Francis Links appears genuinely promising and what also appeals is that it looks less like the big championship links of England, Scotland and Ireland, and more like the courses on the coastline that are one grade down.

That's no criticism. I'm thinking, instead, that it visually resembles Pyle & Kenfig more than Royal Porthcawl, or is a bit more Hillside than Royal Birkdale.

Which is to say that golfers with experience of all sorts of UK seaside golf might find it something of a nostalgic treat.

I hope so - it's the thread that holds the three picks together this week.

Main Bet: Richie Ramsay 1pt each-way @ 66/1

First we need to address Scotsman Richie Ramsay's withdrawal after last week's first round of the Kenya Open - he was feeling sick and had the shakes but has travelled on for this fortnight in South Africa and I have a feeling this first test might suit him nicely.

He is, after all, a winner at Hillside and he also finished fifth there in his only previous start.

He's also finished fourth and fifth at Murcar Links, his Irish Open log book includes second at Portstewart, 10th at Royal Country Down and 16th at Royal Portrush, while in the Scottish Open he's been sixth at Castle Stuart and 15th at The Renaissance Club.

In the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship he has four top 20s including a second and fourth.

There's a possibility this could play as a tight-ish long game test and he's got form with top fives at Valderrama, The Belfry, Crans, Hilversum and Hong Kong.

A winner in South Africa (the SA Open at Pearl Valley in 2009) he was also third there at the Nedbank Challenge in his last visit in November.

He spent his rehab tweeting about other sportsmen and women, their methods and processes, impressed by their examples.

If a little of it permeates he's in a good place to pounce.

Back Richie Ramsay 1pt each-way @

66/1

matthew southgate vallda.jpg

Next Best: Matthew Southgate 1pt each-way @ 50/1

This is not the first, and it won't be the last, time that an element of links nous is required for a test and I promote the chances of Englishman Matthew Southgate.

He proved himself in the amateur game by winning the St Andrews Links Trophy, added a minor tour title at Royal St George's and, while he's yet to win on the top two tiers, plenty of his best efforts have come by the seaside when playing with the wind and using imagination has been part of the equation.

He's been 12th at Royal Troon and eighth at Royal Birkdale in the Open, second at Portstewart in the Irish Open, second in the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship, ninth at The Renaissance Club in the Scottish Open and was the 54-hole leader at the links-like Al Mouj in the Oman Open.

In his last two outings, he has been 12th in Singapore and 11th in Thailand, and this week is likely to be much more up his street in terms of test.

The win has proved stubborn but if it's to come this is the kind of course that might prompt it.

Back Matthew Southgate 1pt each-way @

50/1

Final Bet: Daan Huizing 1pt each-way @ 100/1

Quite a few players nearly became the final bet, among them David Law, Julien Guerrier, Julien Brun and Daniel Gavins.

But Dutchman Daan Huizing is the last man in.

The 32-year-old landed wins in the Lytham Trophy and St Andrews Links Trophy in 2012, and ever since has played most of his best golf when faced with a similar challenge (or a tight tee-to-green examination).

Among his links and linksy good effort have been a win at the Portmarnock Resort, third at Hillside, ninth at Al Mouj and I'd even count second at Pleneuf Val Andre in France.

When faced with tight lines his win at Galgorm Castle and third at Silkeborg Ry stand out.

He's made the cut in each of his last four starts and improved his finishing position every time. He'll need to do so again but he could easily like the look of this week's course.

Back Daan Huizing 1pt each-way @

100/1

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