Ras al Khaimah Championship First-Round Leader Tips: Rasmus to rise early

Dave Tindall
01 February 2023
3:00 min read

Edoardo Molinari is one of three picks for Dave

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The DP World Tour stays in the UAE and Dave Tindall has three picks to be First-Round Leader at Al Hamra...

28/1 Rasmus Hojgaard is one of the DP World Tour's regular fast starters
50/1 Edoardo Molinari can get the early birdies going
100/1 Niklas Lemke has been FRL at Al Hamra before

Weather forecast for Thursday: It's a sunny morning with temperatures already in the mid-60s for the very early starters. They peak in the early 80s around 1pm. Some cloud appears later while winds pick up from 5-6mph in the morning to around 10mph at 4pm. There's no massive bias but I slightly favour the early starters so will pick two of my three from the morning wave.

Home in on Hojgaard

Rasmus Hojgaard had to play second fiddle to twin brother Nicolai at Al Hamra last year but the course still looks a good fit and it could be his turn this time.

The Dane finished 42nd and 30th in the two Ras al Khaimah events 12 months ago while he's flashed more notable form in the UAE with seventh in November's DP World Tour Championship and 20th in last week's Dubai Desert Classic.

Hojgaard was ranked 1st for Driving Distance in Dubai where he got stronger as the week went on: 71-71-70-67.

As for fast starts, he's something of a specialist. Rasmus was the R1 leader at September's Open de France while in October/November he was in the top five after 18 holes in three straight starts: the Mallorca Golf Open, the Nedbank Golf Challenge and the DP World Tour Championship.

An early tee-time of 08.10am gives him a chance to hit the ground running again and I'll take the 28/1.

Make it Molinari

Edoardo Molinari made the cut in both Ras al Khaimah events last year, carding a 66, a 67 and a 68 in the process.

A second-round 69 couldn't get him into the weekend last time in Dubai but a week earlier Molinari had fuelled a tied 17th in Abu Dhabi with a first-round 67 that put him fifth at Thursday's close.

Rewind just a little further to the Nedbank Golf Challenge and the South African Open and two strong starts put him in the top eight after round one of both events.

With two top 10s and a futher pair of top 20 in his last eight starts, Molinari is playing some good golf and hopefully that manifests in a low opener here.

He's an early starter at 07.50am.

Look to Lemke

Niklas Lemke looks a decent option at 100/1 from the afternoon wave.

The Swede has course form via a sixth place in the 2018 Challenge Tour Grand Final at Al Hamra.

He began that week with a 66 to earn a piece of the first-round lead so that's burning away brightly in the memory banks.

More recently, he's started quickly in his last two events. An opening 65 put him fifth after the opening lap of October's Portugal Masters while he was seventh after round one of the Mauritius Open thanks to a 67.

Lemke tees off at 13.20pm.

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