Hainan Classic: Count on Crocker at 64/1

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Hainan Classic Tournament History

After a week off, the DP World Tour resumes for the second edition of the Hainan Classic on the island of Hainan, China's southernmost province.

Having been staged at the end of April last year, when the final event on the DP World Tour's Asian Swing, it's the first event of the Asian Swing this year and there's been a change to the format after last year's inaugural edition.

Last year's event was staged entirely at the Blackstone Course at Mission Hills Resort, but this year's edition will be played at both the Blackstone Course and the Vintage Course.

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Venue

Mission Hills Resort, Haikou, Hainan Island, China.

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Course Details

Blackstone Course

Par 72, 7,637 yards
Stroke Average in 2025 - 72.14

With undulating wide fairways, framed by dense jungle and lava rock, the Blackstone Course is one of ten courses at the Mission Hills Resort.

In addition to this event last year, won by the big-hitting Marco Penge, Blackstone hosted the now defunct World Cup of Golf back in 2011 when Gary Woodland and Matt Kuchar won the title with a winning total of 24-under-par.

The very long course is extensively bunkered with steep elevation changes and water is in play on four holes.

The paspalum fairways weave in-between lava rock and greens are also paspalum.

Here's what the Irish pair, Rory McIlroy and Graeme McDowell, said about the venue at the World Cup here in 2011.

"Wide fairways, big bunkers, undulating greens. We'll all be hitting fairways, and it gets more difficult from there. The thing about golf courses in China is that they are all modern designs and very similar." Rory said, before adding "I think the wind will play a big factor this week."

His partner McDowell concurred, saying: "It's wide open off the tee, but you have to control your iron play going into the greens, especially in the wind."

Vintage Course

Par 72, 7,331 yards

The Vintage is a more strategic layout with some blind approach shots.

Water is in play on five holes and like the Blackstone, the course has paspalum fairways and bentgrass greens.

Like Merion, where Justin Rose won the US Open in 2013, the Vintage has wicker baskets instead of flags on the pins.

Both courses were designed by Brian Curley, but they should play quite differently with accuracy and precision being of more importance around the Vintage.

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Weather Forecast

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TV Coverage

The tournament is not listed as being on Sky Sports this week, but it may be behind the Red Button.

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Inaugural Winner with Pre-event Exchange Price

2025 - Marco Penge -17 44.043/1

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How did Blackstone play last year

Blackstone is extremely long and very generous off the tee and although the stats didn't really highlight it strongly, the big hitters faired very well last year.

Here's the top five with traditional and Strokes Gained stats.

Marco Penge -17 DD 20 DA 33 GIR 1 SCR 50 PA 20
Sean Crocker -14 DD 54 DA 9 GIR 6 SCR 6 PA 34
Kristoffer Reitan -14 DD 10 DA 52 GIR 19 SCR 17 PA 2
Rasmus N'd-Peters -13 DD 22 DA 16 GIR 13 SCR 12 PA 8
Martin Couvra -12 DD 29 DA 21 GIR 19 SCR 1 PA 31

DD - Driving Distance
DA - Driving Accuracy
GIR - Greens In Regulation
SCR - Scrambling
PA - Putting Average

Marco Penge -17 SG-T 3 SG-AP 8 SG-ATG 59 SG-T2G 14 SG-P 3
Sean Crocker -14 SG-T 24 SG-AP 3 SG-ATG 5 SG-T2G 2 SG-P 40
Kristoffer Reitan -14 SG-T 26 SG-AP 16 SG-ATG 29 SG-T2G 20 SG-P 5
Rasmus N'd-Peters -13 SG-T 4 SG-AP 42 SG-ATG 33 SG-T2G 25 SG-P 7
Martin Couvra -12 SG-T 17 SG-AP 4 SG-ATG 19 SG-T2G 3 SG-P 42

SG-T - Strokes Gained: Off the Tee
SG-AP - Strokes Gained: On Approach
SG-ATG - Strokes Gained: Around the Green
SG-T2G - Tee to Green
SG-P - Strokes Gained: Putting

Although the first two ranked highly for GIR, the front four are all big hitters and length off the tee was clearly beneficial.

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Winner's Position and Exchange Price Pre-Round Four

2025 - Marco Penge - tied for the lead 3.7511/4

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In-Play Tactics

With only last year's inaugural edition to look at, we can't give the in-running data too much credence but for what it's worth, the winner, Penge, was 11^th and two off the lead after round one, 11^th and four back at halfway, and he was tied for the lead with a round to go.

Penge went on to win by three, but he was matched in-running at 8.27/1 after he'd played his first six holes in one-over-par and he may well have traded a bit bigger had the event been on TV and not in the early hours in the UK.

The was a draw bias in favour of the early starters on Thursday of 1.09 strokes but it will be all change this year with two courses in use.

Given the lack of coverage and the timing of the event in the UK, it's probably best to trade your positions in-between rounds.

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Count on Crocker

Last year's runner-up, Sean Crocker, will begin this year's renewal early on Thursday at the new course - the Vintage Course - but he'll be back on familiar territory after that.

Crocker led the event by a stroke at halfway last year, when the entire tournament was staged at the Blackstone Course, before a sorry 73 on Saturday saw him slip to ninth place.

That left him with too much to do but he bounced back nicely, shooting his lowest round of the week on Sunday (66) to finish tied second.

The 29-year-old American has only ordinary form figures reading 30-33-MC-57-36, but he sat second at the halfway stage of the Joburg Open last time out, so he's certainly hinted at a return to form.

A lot will depend on how the big hitting American's putter behaves but in a weak looking event, he looks very fairly priced given how nicely the venue suits him.

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