Czech Masters 2024 Tips: Jamie’s six for victory in Prague

Action resumes on the DP World Tour this week following a five-week absence. With events to come in each of the next 11 weeks, it’s one of the tour’s busiest periods of the year and we kick off the resumption in Czechia, with the Czech Masters at the new host course of PGA National OAKS Prague.

Our golf tipster Jamie Worsley is back with another comprehensive preview and he's picked out six players to consider backing each-way as he takes us through his Czech Masters Betting Tips...

TOURNAMENT HISTORY

The Czech Masters debuted in 2014 and has been played almost every year since, excluding 2020 when it was cancelled due to the pandemic.

Jamie Donaldson came out on top of an all-Welsh battle in that inaugural edition, beating Bradley Dredge at Albatross Golf Club – the host course from 2014-2023 – by two strokes.

The Welshman was succeeded by Thomas Pieters in 2015 and following a second victory in 2019, the Belgian remains the only player to win multiple Czech Masters titles.

Last five winners:

• 2023 – Winner: Todd Clements (-22); runner-up: Matt Wallace (-21)
• 2022 – Winner: Max Kieffer (-16); runner-up: Gavin Green (-15)
• 2021 – Winner: Johannes Veerman (-15); runners-up: Sean Crocker, Tapio Pulkkanen (-13)
• 2019 – Winner: Thomas Pieters (-19); runner-up: Adri Arnaus (-18)
• 2018 – Winner: Andrea Pavan (-22); runner-up: Padraig Harrington (-20)

Todd Clements won a closely-fought contest last year, shooting a superb final-round 63 to beat Matt Wallace into 2^nd by one shot. The Englishman returns to defend this week at the tournament’s new home and aims to become the first player to win the event back-to-back.

THE COURSE

PGA National OAKS Prague only opened in 2020 and was designed by American architect, Kyle Phillips.

The course will play as a par 72 and to a lengthy 7592 yards. It possesses 10x par 4s (386-489 yards), 4x par 5s (557-623 yards) and 4x par 3s (184-234 yards).

Starting off in a wooded, parkland setting over the first few holes, the course then moves into more open and exposed territory, with patches of native rough helping in giving this undulating venue a somewhat linksy feel in places.

Most holes are framed by the large and often dramatic bunkering, many of which are substantially deep. They strategically protect the extremely generous, sloping fairways and litter the boundaries of the large, elevated bentgrass greens.

Said putting surfaces are speedy and undulating, whilst most are oblong in shape and regularly sit at an angle to the fairway position. Which brings its challenges in approach.

The players will also have to contend with frequent and occasionally striking elevation changes, adding more pressure on players when hitting into the greens.

There’s no real substitute for seeing a course in action, which means that despite all of the info out there, we are a little in the dark this week. The front nine appears to be the most scoreable, with several shorter par 4s potentially there to be attacked, as well as the shortest par 5 on the course - the 557-yard 4^th.

The field may then need to hang on when entering the inward nine, where we have several lengthy par 4s (three above 480 yards) and that 234-yard par 3 17^th looking the most challenging of the shortest holes.

It is a course that has received plenty of acclaim and is already ranked as the best in the country by some. It will be exciting to see it in action this week.

THE WEATHER

Hot and humid conditions carry with them the threat of thunderstorms this week, on the Wednesday preceding the event and then over the weekend. The event does look set to start in a pleasantly warm and bright setting, and with little in the way of wind throughout, there’s little to cause too much concern.

KEY STATS

• SG: Approach
• SG: Off-the-Tee/Driving Distance
• SG: Putting (Bentgrass)

We have little to go off this week, therefore I’m going to keep it simple from a statistical point of view, siding with strong ball-strikers.

Precision in approach into these large greens will likely be a necessity, as players attempt to access some tricky pin positions. Whilst also making sure to avoid the dangerous bunkers that lurk menacingly around them.

Quality drivers, especially those who also possess length, should relish this course. Even on the more parkland holes, the course is very spacious and with several long par 4s/5s, those with power are best equipped to tackle the setup.

Finally, players who have proven capable of putting on quick bentgrass surfaces should be respected

CORRELATING EVENTS

It’s never easy to correlate an essentially brand-new course with others, though we do have some angles of attack this week.

The main one is to lean on those with form on other Kyle Phillips-designed courses. He’s designed several that have been used on the DP World Tour over the years, such as current Abu Dhabi Championship host, Yas Links and host of the KLM Open from 2021-2023, Bernardus Golf.

He of course designed Kingsbarns, which is seen annually as one of the three courses used in the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship and staying in Scotland, 2017 Scottish Open host, Dundonald Links is also one of his.

Other courses used on the DPWT that were designed by Phillips include Hilversumsche Golf Club, host of the KLM Open from 2010-2012; 2015/16 Nordea Masters host, PGA Sweden National; and 2016 British Masters host, The Grove.

Away from Phillips’ designs and as a largely exposed course with generous fairways and large greens, I did think our previous Czech Masters host, Albatross Golf Resort and the host of the Portugal Masters, Dom Pedro – Victoria Course, could also be worth a look this week.

THE FIELD

We have a solid DP World Tour field for our return. Ryo Hisatsune makes just his second start on the tour this year after recording his best finish of 2024 on the PGA Tour last week in the Wyndham Championship, finishing 3^rd. He is the top-ranked player in the field at #77 and one of just two from inside the top-100, joined by #93, Romain Langasque.

Todd Clements is the defending champion, and he is joined by two other former winners: Max Kieffer (2022) and Andrea Pavan (2018).

Sami Valimaki also returns from the PGA Tour to make his second DPWT start this year; last week’s winner of the Scottish Challenge on the Challenge Tour, Brandon Robinson-Thompson will tee-it-up; whilst we are joined by American duo, Brandt Snedeker and Jason Dufner, who received a tournament invite to play this week.

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

SELECTIONS

Market leaders: Tom McKibbin 14/1, Matthew Jordan 20/1, Bernd Wiesberger 22/1, Richard Mansell 22/1, Ryo Hisatsune 25/1, Ewen Ferguson 25/1

The combination of this new course and many of these players having several weeks off makes this a difficult event to gauge, therefore I’m going to leave those at the very top of the betting alone.

Instead, I’m going to start with Frenchman, Antoine Rozner, who has been in excellent form in approach this year and with these generous fairways likely to be more forgiving of his current lack of accuracy with the driver, it looks a suitable setup.

1.75 pts Antoine Rozner each-way (1/5 - 8 places) @ 30/1

Rozner’s performances this year have either been feast or famine. In his 13 starts he’s missed four cuts but recorded seven top-25 finishes. He’s hit the top-10 on three occasions, most recently recording his best finish of the year when 5^th in the Italian Open at the end of June. Before then going on to finish 26^th in the Scottish Open when we last saw him.

He’s regressed with the driver this year, still packing plenty of power but his inaccuracy has made the club somewhat detrimental to his chances. Though as mentioned, he should relish playing into these wide fairways and as the second-best iron player on tour so far this season, he certainly has the arsenal to attack these greens.

Rozner is no stranger to winning in Czechia, having waltzed to an incredible seven-stroke victory in the Prague Golf Challenge on the Challenge Tour in 2019. He’s also performed well in the country in each of his starts in the Czech Masters on the DPWT, recording finishes of 13^th and 22^nd, and with top-10’s in the Alfred Dunhill Links and Portugal Masters providing us with extra encouragement, he has every chance of going well this week.

1 pt Joe Dean each way (1/5 - 6 places) @ 55/1

Joe Dean continued his fantastic run of form this year when we last saw him in The Open Championship at Royal Troon, finishing 25^th. He produced a top-class all-round ball-striking performance there, with his approach play matching the quality he’d shown off-the-tee and in putting all season. If managing to reproduce that here, he’d have a big chance.

Dean showed his quality right at the start of the year, finishing 2^nd in the Kenya Open and has gone on to record two further top-5s in his limited starts, finishing 2^nd in the KLM Open - when we were on at huge odds – and 5^th in the Soudal Open.

He ranked 15^th off-the-tee at Royal Troon, no surprise considering this big hitter is 27^th on tour this season, whilst he also ranks 5^th on the greens. His irons have been inconsistent, though he has produced two of his best performances with the clubs over his last four starts, indeed he ranked 25^th in approach in The Open.

Dean has no comp form to speak of, though that 2^nd-place finish in the KLM Open came on a similarly open and exposed course. I’m hoping that experience will serve him well in Czechia.

1 pt Alejandro Del Rey each-way (1/5 - 8 places) @ 55/1

Alejandro Del Rey has had a couple of eye-catching performances of late on exposed golf courses and with his iron play showing promise on his last start, this strong and lengthy driver can enjoy a good week at PGA National OAKS Prague.

Del Rey started the season well, making each of his first eight cuts and hitting the top-25 on three occasions, including a 7^th-place finish in the Porsche Singapore Open. He has missed four of his last seven cuts but amongst them there have been two noteworthy performances, as he finished 21^st in the KLM Open and when we last saw him, he was an excellent 15^th against a world class field in the Scottish Open.

He drove and putted well there, areas in which he ranks 28^th and 44^th on tour this season. However, I was more taken with his approach performance, as despite only ranking 31^st, it was comfortably his best performance with the clubs for over three months. I’m hoping he can step it up again in that area this week.

Del Rey ranks 5^th on tour in driving distance, meaning he has the firepower to crack this lengthy setup. He’s also another with positive form in Czechia, finishing 5^th in the 2022 Czech Challenge on the Challenge Tour and with top-5s in this event, as well as the Dunhill Links last year, there’s plenty of reason to be optimistic about his chances of performing this week.

1 pt Tom Lewis each-way (1/5 - 8 places) @ 70/1

Tom Lewis’ form has been progressing nicely of late and with this the type of course at which he’s often impressed, he can continue that progress this week.

Lewis struggled at the start of this year, missing three cuts in nine starts and recording just the one top-40 finish. Though he has found something across his last six starts.

He made a sudden return to form six starts ago in the European Open, finishing 8^th and he has maintained a higher level of performance since, making each of his last four cuts and coming into this week after finishing 10^th in the International Series England on the Asian Tour last week.

The Englishman ranks 14^th in this field in strokes-gained total over his last five starts and has especially excelled in approach, ranking 30^th over this time, whilst he has gained strokes in five of his last six starts off-the-tee.

Lewis has a strong record in this event, finishing 3^rd in 2017 and 6^th in 2018. He’s also a two-time winner of the Portugal Masters and with several top-5s in the Dunhill Links increasing my confidence in his ability to perform here, he was an interesting contender.

1 pt Robin Williams each-way (1/5 - 8 places) @ 70/1

Robin Williams has been in excellent form in 2024 across both the Challenge Tour and in his limited starts on the DPWT. As a strong, power-packed driver, he should enjoy this course and with many of these players potentially lacking a bit of sharpness, he can take advantage to record a first win at this level.

Williams has had six top-5s this season, five of which have come on the Challenge Tour and one on the DPWT. The first of these came in the Dimension Data Pro-Am back in February, finishing 3^rd and he then went one better two starts later in the SDC Championship on the DPWT, losing out in a playoff to Jordan Gumberg.

He again hit the top-5 when 5^th in the Challenge de Espana and then recorded his second runner-up finish of the year in the Kaskada Challenge, which takes place just a couple of hours outside of Prague at Kaskada Golf Resort.

Williams comes into this after adding a further two top-5s over his last three starts, finishing 5^th in the NI Open and 3^rd in last week’s Scottish Challenge. With the strength of his driving, I’m expecting him to again prove he belongs at this level.

1 pt Nick Bachem each-way (1/5 - 8 places) @ 100/1

Nick Bachem has largely struggled this season, but he showed some promise when we last saw him in the Scottish Open and with this usually strong driver no stranger to performing in Czechia, he made plenty of sense this week.

Bachem has missed six of his 13 cuts this season and prior to the Scottish Open he’d recorded just one top-40, which came when contending in the SDC Championship, before eventually finishing 4^th.

Having missed the cut on his previous start in the Italian Open, there was little reason to expect a performance out of the German in the Scottish Open. However, he belied his recent form to finish 26^th in that elite field, shooting four rounds in the 60s and ranking 5^th in the field off-the-tee.

The driving performance wouldn’t have been a surprise ordinarily, but he hasn’t been driving it as strongly as in recent years. Hopefully he’s turned his fortunes around with that effort.

Bachem finished 4^th in last year’s Czech Masters on debut and with many of his best performances on the tour coming on open and exposed setups, this looks a good course for this big-hitter to keep the improvement coming.

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