The PGA Tour of Australasia heads to the Castle Hill Golf Club in Sydney this week for the NSW Open. Castle Hill Golf Club is one of the best private courses in Sydney. It boasts a Par 72 Championship course that has plenty of bushland featuring pines and cut sandstone.
The Course opened in 1952 and over the years has hosted many top Australian events such as the NSW Open and the NSW PGA Championship. The NSW Open was not played in 2012. In 2011 it was played at the Newcastle Golf Club and Adam Crawford won by one stroke from Paul Donahoo, Jake Higginbottom and Anthony Summers.
The bookies Top 5 in betting are- 12/1 Nathan Holman, 12/1 Nick O’Hern, 12/1 Steven Bowditch, 16/1 Jason Scrivener and 18/1 James Nitties.
The field is nothing to write home about however there are several well credentialed names such as Aron Price, Adam Crawford, Peter O’Malley, Ryan Fox, Scott Laycock and Aaron Townsend teeing it up.
Players to follow-
Matthew Millar 25/1 www.sportsbet.com.au
Millar turned pro in 1999 and spent many years on the European Tour. The last few years has been spent on the Australian PGA Tour. The 37 year old Canberra resident has had some good results this year including T6th Victorian PGA Championship, T7th Blackburn Heritage Classic, T14th WA Open Championship and last week at the Talisker Masters he finished T13th.
The field this week is no where near the calibre of the Talisker Masters so we can expect Matthew to be right up there this weekend after such a good showing at the Aussie Masters last week. With his confidence high he represents good each way value in a field with no stand out stars.
Daniel Bringolf 150/1 www.sportsbet.com.au
I tipped Daniel in the WA Goldfields PGA Championship at the start of October. He missed the cut that week however he has played three events since then. T33rd at the WA Open Championship and two events on the Asian Development Tour, T10th ADT Chang Hwa Open and T34th KLGCC Masters.
Prior to the missed cut at the WA Goldfields PGA Championships, Daniel has produced some encouraging results. 2nd Ballantines Taiwan Championship, T23rd Aboitiz Invitational and T9th Maybank Johor Masters.
Daniel had a fantastic amateur career before turning professional and this week could be the week where he puts it all together in such a weak field. Keep a close eye on him.
Good luck and good punting.