Betfred British Masters 2024 Tips: Olesen the man for the Belfry

The last two weeks on the DP World Tour have seen breakthrough victories for talented Frenchmen, as Frederic LaCroix followed David Ravetto’s win in the Czech Masters by producing an impressive final round display to claim the Danish Golf Championship on Sunday.

The tour now moves on to England and the Betfred British Masters at The Belfry’s Brabazon Course, which will again be hosted by Sir Nick Faldo this year.

Our golf tipster Jamie Worsley is in sensational form with six outright wins in the last six weeks and he's back with another comprehensive preview, picking out six players to consider backing each-way, as he takes us through his Betfred British Masters Betting Tips with Betfred paying a massive TEN places for our sponsored event...

TOURNAMENT HISTORY

The British Masters is one of the oldest tournaments on the calendar, debuting before the creation of the DP World Tour in 1946 and then taking part in the tour’s inaugural season in 1972.

It took place almost every year following that – excluding in 1984 – before being cancelled in 2009. However, it returned in 2015 and has remained on the calendar since.

13 players have won this event twice, including Seve Ballesteros (1986, 1991), Ian Woosnam (1983, 1994) and Greg Norman (1981, 1982). The event’s prestigious history is further enhanced by wins for stars such as Bernhard Langer (1980), Lee Trevino (1985), Colin Montgomerie (1998), Justin Rose (2002), Lee Westwood (2007), Matt Fitzpatrick (2015) and Sir Nick Faldo (1989).

Last five winners:

• 2023 – Winner: Daniel Hillier (-10); runners-up: Gunner Wiebe, Oliver Wilson (-8)
• 2022 – Winner: Thorbjorn Olesen (-10); runner-up: Sebastian Soderberg (-9)
• 2021 – Winner: Richard Bland (-13, playoff); runner-up: Guido Migliozzi (-13)
• 2020 – Winner: Renato Paratore (-18); runner-up: Rasmus Hojgaard (-15)
• 2019 – Winner: Marcus Kinhult (-16); runners-up: Robert MacIntyre, Eddie Pepperell, Matt Wallace (-15)

New Zealand’s Daniel Hillier is this week’s defending champion, having shot a superb 6-under 66 in last year’s closing round to jump up 10 spots on the leaderboard and secure a memorable first DP World Tour victory.

THE COURSE

The British Masters was staged at several different courses when it first returned but The Belfry’s Brabazon Course took over hosting duties in 2021.

Originally designed by Peter Allis in 1977 and renovated by Dave Thomas in the late 90s, this four-time Ryder Cup host also hosted the ISPS Handa UK Championship in 2020 – which was won by Rasmus Hojgaard - as well as the 2006/07/08 editions of the British Masters, among plenty of other DPWT events.

The Brabazon Course is a par 72 and measures 7336 yards. It possesses 12x par 4s (319-497 yards), 3x par 5s (538-566 yards) and 3x par 3s (177-226 yards).

This US-style parkland course historically provided a significant test, averaging a winning score of -12.7 in those renewals from 2006-2008. The challenge has shown no signs of letting up in the four events hosted in recent years, with an average winning score of -11.75 since 2020.

With narrow, largely doglegging fairways, this flat and densely tree-lined venue provides a strategic challenge. Said fairways are smartly bunkered and additionally protected by punishing rough, playing a part in the Brabazon Course being one of the toughest ball-striking courses on tour.

There’s plenty of variety on the average-sized poa/bent mixed greens, with some very small and some huge. These fast, undulating and often multi-tiered surfaces are difficult to putt and are guarded by large, deep bunkers.

Water is a feature of 11 holes at the venue, which helps to create a fun, risk/reward feel throughout much of the 18. It comes into play on two of the three par 3s and par 5s, though it’s two par 4s that are the course’s most familiar.

The back nine begins with the drivable 319-yard par 4 10^th. The extremely narrow green here is guarded by water short and left, with three bunkers long making for a tough chip back towards the water.

Those closing nine holes then finishes with the longest par 4 on the Brabazon Course at 497 yards. Water protects the angled fairway to the left and then sits short of the long, narrow, multi-tiered final green.

As always, these two contrasting holes will provide us with a great deal of drama and have a big say in who takes home the title this week.

THE WEATHER

There is a little rain forecast for Wednesday, but we’ll see largely dry, sunny and pleasantly warm conditions throughout the tournament.

Though the players will be tasked with handling some moderately gusty winds at points, the breeze is predominantly gentle and shouldn’t trouble them too much.

KEY STATS

• SG: Approach
• Greens-in-Regulation

This tough challenge will ask questions of the field in every aspect. Though it’s a place where I’d favour players in-sync with their long game, especially iron play.

Daniel Hillier is a player at his best in ball-striking and he ranked top-20 in both approach and greens-in-regulation on his way to victory last year. Whilst the runner-up to Hillier, Oliver Wilson, hit more greens than anyone.

Thorbjorn Olesen ranked 16^th in approach when winning in 2022; Sebastian Soderberg in 2^nd was top-10 in approach and GIR; meanwhile, 3^rd-place finisher, Justin Walters, ranked 1^st in approach and 3^rd in GIR.

2021 was all about the iron play, as winner, Richard Bland ranked 1^st in approach and 2^nd in GIR. Guido Migliozzi – who lost to Bland in a playoff – ranked 7^th in approach and 8^th in GIR.

• SG: Off-the-Tee and/or Driving Accuracy

Although the driver doesn’t rank as importantly among the main contenders, few players are able to drive poorly around this tight venue and contend.

Daniel Hillier and Oliver Wilson both ranked a solid top-25 in driving accuracy last year; three of the top-5 ranked inside the top-25 off-the-tee in 2022; and Richard Bland ranked 1^st in driving accuracy in 2021, with both him and Guido Migliozzi 27^th or better off-the-tee.

• SG: Putting (poa/bent)

If players aren’t too dialled in with their approach play then they’ll be left with some difficult, lengthy downhill putts on these surfaces and will need to show quality with the flat stick.

Each of the top-3 last year ranked inside the top-20 on the greens, with winner, Daniel Hillier ranking 4^th. Whilst Thorbjorn Olesen ranked 2^nd with the putter in 2022.

• Scrambling

Good scrambling is usually a necessity due to those low greens-in-regulation percentages.

All three of the winners since 2021 have ranked top-6 in this area, with Daniel Hillier ranking 5^th, Thorbjorn Olesen ranking 6^th and Richard Bland ranking 1^st.

• Par 4 Scoring

Finally, the par 4s are in higher supply this week, and it typically proves important to handle these holes if wanting to occupy a spot near the top of the leaderboard..

CORRELATING EVENTS (COURSES)

Omega European Masters (Crans-sur-Sierre)

Although much shorter, hillier and at altitude, Crans-sur-Sierre has some striking comp form with the Brabazon Course. The tree-lined course does have similarities, as a venue with many risk/reward holes and has a similarly demanding short game challenge to this week.

Notable correlating form:

Rasmus Hojgaard:

UK Championship (1^st) / OEM (1^st)

Richard Bland:

British Masters (1^st) / OEM (5^th)

Sebastian Soderberg:

British Masters (2^nd) / OEM (1^st)

Oliver Wilson:

British Masters (2^nd) / OEM (5^th)

Richie Ramsay:

British Masters (3^rd) / OEM (1^st)

Connor Syme:

British Masters (3^rd) / OEM (3^rd)

Soudal Open (Rinkven International)

The tree-lined Rinkven International– which also hosted the Belgian Knockout in 2018/19 - ranks closely to The Belfry’s Brabazon Course in most aspects and has developed some taking form-ties.

Notable correlating form:

Thorbjorn Olesen:

British Masters (1^st) / Soudal (3^rd)

Guido Migliozzi:

British Masters (2^nd) / Belgian Knockout (1^st)

Adrian Meronk:

British Masters (3^rd) / Soudal (6^th)

Richie Ramsay:

British Masters (3^rd) / Soudal (7^th)

Ewen Ferguson:

British Masters (4^th) / Belgian Knockout (3^rd)

Niklas Norgaard:

British Masters (7^th) / Soudal (2^nd)

Yannik Paul:

British Masters (8^th) / Soudal (2^nd)

Romain Langasque:

British Masters (8^th, 8^th) / Soudal (2^nd)

Dan Bradbury:

British Masters (8^th) / Soudal (10^th)

Alfred Dunhill Championship (Leopard Creek)

Leopard Creek in South Africa is another tree-lined venue that ranks as a closely-matched ball-striking test to the Brabazon Course. It can help us in finding this week’s winner.

Notable correlating form:

Thorbjorn Olesen:

British Masters (1^st) / Alfred Dunhill (2^nd)

Richard Bland:

British Masters (1^st) / Alfred Dunhill (2^nd)

Oliver Wilson:

British Masters (2^nd) / Alfred Dunhill (5^th)

Adrian Meronk:

British Masters (3^rd) / Alfred Dunhill (2^nd)

Andy Sullivan:

British Masters (6^th, 9^th) / Alfred Dunhill (3^rd, 7^th)

Marcus Armitage:

UK Championship (7^th) / Alfred Dunhill (6^th)

ISPS Handa World Invitational/2020 Irish Open (Galgorm Castle)

With it’s narrow, tree-lined fairways and small greens, Galgorm Castle provides a similar ball-striking challenge to what players will find at The Belfry. Also having comparable short-game stats, it is arguably the strongest statistical comp this week.

Notable correlating form:

Daniel Hillier:

British Masters (3^rd) / Galgorm (1^st)

Connor Syme:

British Masters (3^rd) / Galgorm (2^nd, 4^th)

Calum Hill:

British Masters (4^th) / Galgorm (1^st)

Ewen Ferguson:

British Masters (4^th) / Galgorm (1^st)

Made in HimmerLand (HimmerLand Resort)

Lastly, though the HimmerLand resort is a more exposed venue than the Brabazon Course, it possesses near identical averages in driving accuracy and scrambling. With an abundance of strong comp form to boot, we can look towards this former tour course for clues.

Notable correlating form:

Rasmus Hojgaard:

UK Championship (1^st) / HimmerLand (1^st)

Richard Bland:

British Masters (1^st) / HimmerLand (3^rd)

Oliver Wilson:

British Masters (2^nd) / HimmerLand (1^st, 4^th)

Guido Migliozzi:

British Masters (2^nd) / HimmerLand (2^nd)

Richie Ramsay:

British Masters (3^rd) / HimmerLand (3^rd)

Ewen Ferguson:

British Masters (4^th) / HimmerLand (2^nd)

Romain Langasque:

British Masters (8^th, 8^th) / HimmerLand (3^rd)

THE FIELD

Tyrrell Hatton makes just his second start of the season on the DP World Tour and is the top-ranked player in the field at #36 in the world. He is the only player from inside the top-50, though he is joined by a further four from inside the top-100, in the shape of Thriston Lawrence (#74), Thorbjorn Olesen (#86), Matt Wallace (#96) and Keita Nakajima (#100).

Daniel Hillier defends and is one of six former winners in attendance along with Thorbjorn Olesen (2022), Renato Paratore (2020), Marcus Kinhult (2019), Eddie Pepperell (2018) and Gonzalo Fernandez-Castano (2008).

George Coetzee makes his first DPWT in over 12 months after returning from injury; recent first-time PGA Tour winner, Harry Hall makes his British Masters debut; and there’s also a start for 16-year-old English amateur, Kris Kim, who impressed everyone when making the cut in the CJ CUP Byron Nelson on the PGA Tour back in May.

*You can get all the up to date and live Betfred British Masters Odds over on betfred.com

SELECTIONS

Market leaders: Tyrrell Hatton 15/2, Rasmus Hojgaard 22/1, Tom McKibbin 22/1, Matt Wallace 25/1, Thorbjorn Olesen 25/1, Ewen Ferguson 28/1,

Hatton comes in as the clear favourite but I’m happy to leave him alone at the price. It looks an open contest from there but with some positives signs of late, including in his 42^nd-place finish last week, I’m taking Thorbjorn Olesen to recapture the title he won in 2022.

2 pts Thorbjorn Olesen each-way (1/5 - 10 places) @ 25/1

Olesen has found the going a little tough on the PGA Tour this season, but right at the start of the year we saw exactly what he can do at this level. As he won the Ras Al Khaimah Championship on his third start of 2024.

That being said, he has performed well in strong fields across his last five starts, finishing 39^th in the Scottish Open, 43^rd in The Open and 14^th in the Olympics. Whilst after missing the cut in the Wyndham Championship on the PGA Tour, he recorded that 42nd-place finish at home in Denmark.

The Dane showed plenty of positives there, shooting -14 on holes 1-14 over the week but really struggled on the four closing holes, firing a combined +12. He had been showing promise over previous starts with his ball-striking, ranking 14^th in that 14^th-place finish in the Olympics and with the putter continually a strength, his game looks in a better place than the bare form figures suggest.

Olesen’s victory in this event in 2022 was his first on tour in almost four years. He has since added two more to highlight his class at this level and with two further top-20s recorded here, as well as top-3 finishes in the Alfred Dunhill Championship and Soudal Open, there is plenty to suggest he’ll be among the main contenders this week.

1.5 pts Thriston Lawrence each way (1/5 - 10 places) @ 35/1

Thriston Lawrence was an excellent 4^th in The Open just three starts ago and after having a superb primer in South Africa last week, where he won the SunBet Challenge by five strokes, he looks good value to follow up on that at The Belfry.

Lawrence has had three runner-up finishes on the DPWT this season, the latest of which came in the European Open back in June, but that top-5 at Royal Troon has to rate as his best display of the season.

He entered the final round there just a shot off the lead after a brilliant 6-under 65 in round three and did little in defeat, shooting a closing 68 to finish 4^th.

All areas of his game fired that week, ranking 5^th in putting and 6^th tee-to-green. The putter was no surprise as he ranks 1^st on the greens on tour and is one of the strongest drivers, ranking 17^th. His iron play can be a little hit-and-miss and I’m hoping he’ll carry over the form he showed north of the border a few weeks ago.

Lawrence has finished 36^th and 39^th on his two previous starts here and is yet to get anything going on the greens. That’s something he can put right this week in his current form and with his 2022 win in the Omega European Masters acting as a good pointer, he definitely has the game to conquer this layout.

1 pt Joe Dean each-way (1/5 - 10 places) @ 66/1

Joe Dean’s year showed no signs of letting up as he finished 5^th last week in Denmark. With his ball-striking and putting continuing to look strong, the Englishman can make a deserved tour breakthrough in the West Midlands.

Dean’s latest impressive result was his fourth top-5 finish of the season, following 2^nd-place finishes in the Kenya Open and KLM Open, and a 5^th in the Soudal Open. He comes into this after making his last six cuts in a row and has only missed two out of 10 on the DPWT this season.

He excels on the greens, ranking 6^th and is strong off-the-tee, combining length with reasonable accuracy to rank 27^th. His iron play hasn’t been as consistent as other areas, but he does have a top-20 performance in that area to build on from last week.

Dean will be making his debut in the event this week, though a 5^th-place finish in the Soudal Open a couple of months back suggests he has the game to make some noise on his first start.

1 pt Shubhankar Sharma each-way (1/5 - 10 places) @ 70/1

Shubhankar Sharma has been in good form over recent months and with his accuracy-dependant ball-striking and quality on the greens, he has the skillset to improve a surprisingly poor record at the course.

Sharma has made each of his last 10 cuts in a row and has performed well in some strong fields over that period. Following a 5^th-place finish in the Italian Open four starts ago he finished 39^th in the Scottish Open before recording an excellent top-20 in The Open, finishing 19^th. He did finish down the field when 40^th in the Olympics two starts ago but was back at it again last week, finishing 14^th in the Danish Golf Championship.

He's been at his best on the greens and in approach this season, ranking 9^th and 23^rd in each area respectively. Whilst at 33^rd in driving accuracy, he’s hitting the ball well enough to avoid most of the primary danger at the course.

With that, Sharma’s record here of three missed cuts and a solo 34^th-place finish in 2021 doesn’t quite ring true. In this current period of form, he can finally prove his suitability to the Brabazon Course.

1 pt Daniel Brown each-way (1/5 - 10 places) @ 110/1

I’m going to give Daniel Brown another shot after he missed the cut for us last week. He actually started well in Denmark, going 4-under thru 14 holes on day one but a sloppy finish dropped him back into the pack and he was unable to recover in round two. That being said, he still drove the ball well over the two days and as a generally solid iron player, he has the ball-striking ability to handle the Brabazon Course.

His excellent 10^th-place finish at The Open was just three starts ago and whilst he’s followed it with two missed cuts, there have been positives signs in each. With his iron play strong in Czechia and as mentioned, the driver firing last week. If he can put them together we can expect a much better showing here.

Brown missed the cut on his debut at the course last year but there was little to be positive about in the run up to that visit. Although, he’s a player who has often looked at his best on these tighter tree-lined venues, as we saw when 2^nd in the Open de Provence on the Challenge Tour in 2022 and when making his DPWT breakthrough last year, as he dominated the World Invitational at Galgorm Castle, winning by five strokes.

1 pt Todd Clements each-way (1/5 - 10 places) @ 125/1

I’m going to finish with Todd Clements. He’s had a few positive runs of form this year and is currently enjoying another. Coming into this week after his best finish of 2024 in Denmark, this strong iron player can double his DPWT tally at The Belfry.

Clements has missed six of 17 cuts this season and recorded five top-25s. Subsequent to missed cut in the Scottish Open five starts ago, he’s made his last four, finishing 33^rd in the Barracuda Championship, 51^st in the International Series – England, 28^th in the Czech Masters and recorded that best result of 2024 in the Danish Championship last week, finishing 10^th.

That was a result largely engineered by his approach play, ranking 4^th. Indeed, his iron play has been his biggest asset this year, ranking 35^th and he’s been much improved on the greens in recent starts. As a top-15 par 4 scorer and looking solid off-the-tee, he has many of the relevant areas of his game clicking for this test.

Clements missed the cut on debut last year, but he went into the week in extremely poor form, having missed five of his previous six cuts. A solid record in the Soudal Open – in which he finished 18^th this year – is a plus and in much better shape than 12 months ago, we can expect a higher-quality showing at the Brabazon Course this time around.

All our latest Golf Odds can be found over on Betfred.com. 

You can find all Jamie's latest Golf Betting Tips over on our dedicated golf Insights hub.