We end the African swing with the Joburg Open which is held at Houghton Golf Club for the fourth season in a row. The first two times were held at the beginning of the wrap-around season in November 2022 and 2023, before last year’s move to March (with no event in 2024 as part of the date change). Houghton is a 7,241 yard par 70 that plays shorter due to being at an altitude of 5,500 feet which has an impact of around 6-7%. It is a tree-lined parkland style golf course with n

Former Winners   2025: Russell Henley (-11) over Collin Morikawa (-10) Winner Odds: Henley (45/1) Scoring Average: +0.43 2024: Scottie Scheffler (-15) over Wyndham Clark (-10) Winner Odds: Scheffler (+650) Scoring Average: +0.37 2023: Kurt Kitayama (-9) over Rory McIlroy, Harris English (-8) Winner Odds: Kitayama (250/1) Scoring Average: +0.61 2022: Scottie Scheffler (-5) over Billy Horschel (-4) Winner Odds: Scheffler (18/1) Scoring Average: +2.04 2021: Bryson DeChambeau (-1

Former Winners   2025: Joe Highsmith (-19) over Jacob Bridgeman, J.J. Spaun (-17) Scoring Average: -1.62 Winner Odds: Highsmith (110/1) 2024: Austin Eckroat (-17) over Min Woo Lee, Erik Van Rooyen (-14) Scoring Average: -1.09 Winner Odds: Eckroat (130/1) 2023: Chris Kirk (-14) over Eric Cole (-14) Scoring Average: +0.21 Winner Odds: Kirk (30/1) 2022: Sepp Straka (-10) over Shane Lowry (-9) Scoring Average: +1.3 Winner Odds: Straka (130/1) 2021: Matt Jones (-12) over Brandon H

Course Introduction The South African Open tends to move around to different courses and this year’s edition is being held at Stellenbosch Golf Club on the Western Cape. Stellenbosch is a 7,213 yard par 70 parkland course with Kikuyu fairways and small flat Bentgrass greens. Most of the fairways are treelined and there are some out-of-bounds fences in play, but overall it is not a penal golf course. The last time Stellenbosch hosted the SA Open was in 1999 as a par 71 when Da

Former Winners 2024: Hideki Matsuyama (-17) over Luke List, Will Zalatoris (-14) Scoring Average: -0.92 Winner Odds: Matsuyama (75/1) 2023: Jon Rahm (-17) over Max Homa (-15)   Scoring Average: -0.09 Winner Odds: Rahm (+750) 2022: Joaquin Niemann (-19) over Collin Morikawa, Cameron Young (-17) Scoring Average: -0.6 Winner Odds: Niemann (60/1) 2021: Max Homa (-12) over Tony Finau (-12) Scoring Average: +0.35 Winner Odds: Homa (65/1) 2020: Adam Scott (-11) over Matt Kuchar, Sun

Former Winners   2025: Rory McIlroy (-21) over Shane Lowry (-19) Winner Odds: McIlroy (12/1) Pebble Beach: -2.15 Spyglass Hill: -2.01 2024: Wyndham Clark (-17) over Ludvig Aberg (-16) (3 Rounds) Winner Odds: Clark (75/1) Pebble Beach: -2.18 Spyglass Hill: -1.42 2023: Justin Rose (-18) over Brendon Todd, Brandon Wu (-15) Winner Odds: Rose (33/1) Pebble Beach: -0.38 Spyglass Hill: +0.8 2022: Tom Hoge (-19) over Jordan Spieth (-17) Winner Odds: Hoge (60/1) Pebble Beach: -1.3 Spy

Former Winners   2025: Thomas Detry (-24) (DG: 61) over Daniel Berger, Michael Kim (-17)   Winner Odds: Detry (95/1) Scoring Average: -1.09 2024: Nick Taylor (-21) (DG: 93) over Charley Hoffman (-21) Winner Odds: Taylor (150/1) Scoring Average: -1.19 2023: Scottie Scheffler (-19) (DG: 3) over Nick Taylor   Winner Odds: Scheffler (13/1) Scoring Average: -0.28 2022: Scottie Scheffler (-16) (DG: 10) over Patrick Cantlay (-16) Winner Odds: Scheffler (25/1) Scoring Average: -0.77

This week we have the Qatar Masters at long-time host Doha Golf Club. There was a brief move away from Doha GC after 2019, but it returned in 2022 with the old Bermuda greens replaced by new paspalum greens. Doha is a long 7,508-yard stock par 72 that plays as an exposed desert course, often in windy conditions, with large greens. It played to a scoring average of +0.19 in 2025, +0.09 in 2024 and +0.85 in 2022 with winning scores of -16, -14 and -7 and only 9 players reaching

First, a word on last week's Dubai Desert Classic where Patrick Reed won easily. This wasn’t a massive surprise given he was one of the players who had gone against the driving and distance trend when 2nd in 2023. What is a large surprise was that he wasn’t alone, with five of the top six below average in distance and the likes of Andy Sullivan, Francesco Molinari and Jayden Schaper all fitting a shorter but more accurate architype. Other than Nicolai Hojgaard (who fit the di

Former Winners   2025 (Genesis): Ludvig Aberg (-12) (DG: 16) over Maverick McNealy (-11) Winner Odds: Aberg (22/1) Scoring Average: +0.08 (South Course only) 2025 (Farmers): Harris English (-8) (DG: 78) over Samuel Stevens (-7) Winner Odds: English (85/1) Scoring Average (REMEMBER, RD 2 LAST YEAR WAS CRAZY HARD: +3.56 South, +3.23 North) North: +0.72 South: +1.67 2024: Matthieu Pavon (-13) (DG: 87) over Nicolai Hojgaard (-12) Winner Odds: Pavon (140/1) Scoring Average North:

A slight change this week. When possible, I will try and get the course breakdown out on the Monday for the odds drop, with a summary of the players that I like coming later in the week. This week we have the first Rolex series event (the DPWT version of the signature events) of the year with the Dubai Desert Classic at long time host Emirates Golf Club. This will be the 5th time the Dubai Desert Classic has been apart of the Roles series. Despite being a Rolex series event,

Former Winners   2025: Sepp Straka (-25) (DG: 50) over Justin Thomas (-23) Scoring Average Stadium Course: -0.58 Nicklaus: -3.74 LQ: -3.41 Winner Odds: Straka (60/1) 2024: Nick Dunlap (-29) (DG: 221) over Christiaan Bezuidenhout (-28) Scoring Average Stadium Course: -2.86 Nicklaus: -3.92 LQ: -4.1 Winner Odds: Dunlap (380/1) 2023: Jon Rahm (-27) (DG: 2) over Davis Thompson (-26) Scoring Average Stadium Course: -2.74 Nicklaus: -3.28 LQ: -2.42 Winner Odds: Rahm (+650) 2022: Huds

Course Breakdown The DPWT begins 2026 with a four-week Middle Eastern swing starting with the Dubai Invitational. The Dubai Invitational has a limited field of only 60 players, with a Pro-Am component across the first three days. The past few years this has been rotating with the Team Cup that Europe uses as preparation in Ryder Cup years, so we only have one recent renewal from the start of 2024. That event had one of the best Sundays of the year, with McIlroy and Fleetwood

Former Winners   2025: Nick Taylor (-16) (DG rank: 176) over Nico Echavarria (-16) Scoring Average: -1.32 Odds: Taylor (110/1) 2024: Grayson Murray (-17) (DG rank: 258) over Keegan Bradley, Byeong Hun An (-17) Scoring Average: -1.31 Odds: Murray (400/1) 2023: Si Woo Kim (-18) (DG rank: 75) over Hayden Buckley (-17) Scoring Average: -1.34 Odds: Kim (50/1) 2022: Hideki Matsuyama (-23) (DG rank: 20) over Russell Henley (-23) Scoring Average: -2.08 Odds: Matsuyama (18/1) 2021: Ke

The last event of the year is a low-key affair at the La Reserve Golf Links at the Heritage Golf Club in Mauritius. This is the second time La Reserve has hosted, after co-course designer Louis Oosthuizen won at his own course at the end of 2023. The course is a 7,357 yard par 72, with five par threes and five par fives, and we have Paspalum on all the playing surfaces. There are expected to be showers throughout the week, so the course will likely be softer and slower than i

The Alfred Dunhill Championship is taking a one year hiatus from its regular home of Leopard Creek and is instead at Royal Johannesburg this year. Royal Johannesburg is a 36-hole facility and last appeared on the DPWT as host of the Joberg Open from 2007 to 2017. But while that tournament used both courses with one round played on the shorter West course, this year’s event will only be played on the longer championship East course. The East course is a par 72 that measures 7,

The ‘other’ event this week, the Nedbank is still a great tournament in its own right and is colloquially known as ‘Africa’s major.’ Starting out as an extremely small field invitational, the Nedbank joined the DPWT in 2013 and increased in size to a 30 man field, and then again to the current field size of around 66 in 2016. It has at times been a part of the DPWT finals series and elevated Rolex series but has only been a regular DPWT event since last year, albeit still wit

BOOOOOTS. It’s Australian Open week at Royal Melbourne and that means there will be boots on the ground as I plan to attend on what is a sold out Sunday to see star attraction Rory McIlroy. But the other star attraction is the golf course itself. Royal Melbourne is a 36-hole facility, with the West course ranking up at number 7 in the latest Golf.com rankings, and the East course at 82. These courses span across four parcels of land, but the Australian Open will be played on

For the final full field event of the Fall swing, the PGA Tour heads to Sea Island for the RSM Classic in St. Simons Island, Georgia. The event debuted in October of 2010, and since 2015, it has been played at both the Seaside and Plantation courses, featuring a full field. The RSM Classic generally attracts a solid field (relatively speaking), and this event will surely put together the most talented group of players we have seen this Fall swing. Much of the reason for this

The DP World Tour concludes their season this week with the Tour Championship held at long-time host, The Earth Course at Jumeirah Estates. The top 50 in the race to Dubai have qualified, but unlike the FedEx Cup there are no end of season gimmicks such as a points reset or starting strokes. This means that with a lead of 767 points, Rory McIlroy will most likely be the DPWT winner for the fourth time in a row. Marco Penge is the main threat and could cap a brilliant breakthr