Ras al Khaimah Championship 2025 FRL Tips: Four Players to Back

We are staying in the Middle East for the next leg of the DP World Tour, as Ras Al Khaimah is the destination for the next event, starting early on Thursday morning.

As always, our golf tipster Jamie Worsley has studied the field and put together his thoughts for who might be on top of the leaderboard come close of play on Day 1. You can check out his Ral Al Khaimah Championship 2025 FRL Tips here...

*You can read Jamie's in-depth Ras Al Khaimah Championship 2025 Tips & Betting Preview elsewhere on Betfred Insights.

The DP World Tour continues its International Swing tomorrow, with the opening round of the Ras Al Khaimah Championship at Al Hamra Golf Club. As a course that can be easily impacted by wind, we'll see if the forecast can help us whittle down this week's first-round leader market. 

The first thing to note is that it is predicted to be a little chilly for those earliest 07:10 tee times on Thursday. However, it quickly warms up, with temperatures of 20C expected by mid-morning and reaching highs of 26C later in the day. 

Wind is practically non-existent for much of the morning, but it begins to speed up as the later starters tee off at 11:35, with a stiff 10mph breeze accompanied by gusts approaching 20mph. 

This means that my focus will be on the morning tee times this week, especially those who tee off after 08:00 to avoid those coldest early-morning temperatures. 

Sebastian Soderberg 

Start time: 08:20 

First up is Sweden's Sebastian Soderberg. He made a good start to his season in Dubai and having gone well in Ras Al Khaimah before, this prolific birdie-maker can take advantage of the benign early conditions. 

Soderberg was one of the form players in the early part of the 2024 DPWT season, recording five top-3 finishes by the end of June, but he never recovered from the devastation of letting an eight-shot overnight lead slip in the Scandinavian Mixed event. 

However, his 31st-place finish in the Dubai Desert Classic was his best strokes-gained performance since September, and excluding a poor opening round in approach, his game looked to be in good shape throughout the bag. 

He ranked 3rd in birdie average and approach last season, which makes him a danger on a setup that yields plenty of birdies. Indeed, he's shown this in his last two visits, finishing 25th in 2022 and 9th last year.  

Each of those results were engineered by strong starts, shooting a 66 to sit 3rd after the opening round in 2022, whilst a 5-under 67 took Soderberg to 11th place in round one last year. 

Calum Hill 

Start time: 08:10 

Calum Hill started 2025 in encouraging fashion, finishing 17th in last week's Dubai Desert Classic. All areas of his game showed signs of life at points and after a promising showing at Al Hamra last year, he has the ability to go low on Thursday. 

Hill was largely disappointing last year, with a runner-up finish in the Scandinavian Mixed his only top-10 finish. He looks to have found something in the off-season if last week was anything to go by, as he finished 17th among that strong field at Emirates GC. A result that was aided by a strong start, as he shot a 67 to sit in 5th place at the end of round one. 

The Scot putted excellently and showed lots of promise with the ball-striking. He produced two very strong rounds in approach and after driving it poorly over the first two days, he appeared to have got it under control at the weekend. 

Hill missed the cut here on debut in 2023 but was much improved in in 2024, following a 72 in the opening round with three straight rounds in the 60s to finish 37th. When combined with last week's performance, I'm optimistic he can capitalise on the calm conditions tomorrow morning. 

Ivan Cantero 

Start time: 08:50 

Ivan Cantero was in fine first-round form at the end of 2024 and continuing that theme into the opening round in Dubai, the big-hitting Spaniard can bully Al Hamra early doors. 

Cantero produced a good sequence of results to finish out last year, following a 6th-place finish in the Genesis Championship with another top-25 in the Australian PGA Championship, then making the weekend in the Aussie and Mauritius Opens.  

He finished 31st last week upon the return, in which he opened with a 2-under-par round to sit 26th after round one. This somewhat mirrored how he performed over the first 18 holes in that final handful of events last year, as he took the first-round lead in the Genesis Championship and also sat inside the top 10 after round one in Australia and Mauritius. 

The driver is his biggest weapon, ranking 10th in driving distance and 15th off-the-tee last year. Though the putter can frustrate, he is capable of spiking his performance on the greens, as shown by each of his three best putting rounds in 2024 coming in round one. 

Cantero missed the cut on debut in the Ras Al Khaimah Championship last year, where he drove it well but couldn't find anything on the greens. That being said, he does have previous on Peter Harradine designs, finishing 2nd in the 2023 Abu Dhabi Challenge on the Challenge Tour.   

David Ravetto 

Start time: 08:20 

My final selection here is France's David Ravetto. Another player who can take it to this course with his power tomorrow morning, after making an encouraging start to 2025. 

Ravetto broke new ground in 2024, claiming a first professional win on the Challenge Tour in the Dimension Data Pro-Am in February, before then breaking through on the DPWT with an impressive four-shot win in the Czech Masters. 

He was typically inconsistent for the rest of the year, finishing 4th in the Danish Golf Championship but then recorded just the one further top 40. That being said, there was lots to like about his returning 45th-place finish in Dubai – including a first-round 68 to sit 9th after 18 holes – as he showed quality in all areas but just couldn't manage to put it all together at once. 

Ravetto excels off-the-tee, ranking 27th in 2024 and he's also among the 15 longest hitters. Although finishing down in 53rd on his debut here in 2023, he's had plenty of low rounds on similar courses, shooting a 63 and 64 on his way to that Czech Masters win last year. 

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