Open de Espana 2025 FRL Tips: Three to go low in Madrid

The Open de Espana begins tomorrow, and with ideal playing conditions predicted during the first round, there is nothing to stop the players from making birdies in Madrid.

Here are three players to follow in Jamie Worsley's Open de Espana 2025 FRL Tips...

You can read Jamie's full Open de Espana Betting Tips main preview here. 

It is forecast to be cloudy and a little cooler (16°C) as the first players tee off at 8.40am. However, the sun will begin to poke through before midday, while temperatures rise steadily to reach 25°C in the afternoon. There is no rain in the forecast and with a gentle 7-8mph breeze of little concern, it will be up to the course to defend itself.

With these forgiving conditions set to be constant throughout day one, it looks unlikely that we’ll see any kind of draw bias. This means we can pick freely across tomorrow’s tee times to find this week’s first-round leader at Club de Campo Villa de Madrid.

0.75 pts Tom Vaillant each-way (1/4 - 5 places) @ 80/1

Start time: 1.20pm

First up is young Frenchman Tom Vaillant. He’s been in fine first-round form of late, taking the day-one lead at Wentworth three starts ago, and after enjoying a promising debut at Club de Campo in 2024, he’s poised to make a strong start on Thursday.

Vaillant has played his best golf of the season over the previous three months, recording three top-25s and missing just one cut in seven starts. He ranks 25^th in this field in SG: Total over that time – gaining strokes with every club except the driver – and is regularly firing low rounds, often coming on day one.

That’s exactly what he did in last week’s Dunhill Links, starting with a seven-under 65 at Kingsbarns to sit 7^th thru 18 holes. He began even better than that two starts previous in the BMW PGA Championship, shooting an eight-under 64 to share the first-round lead with Ludvig Aberg. His low-scoring ability was also on show at Crans-sur-Sierre five starts ago, as he closed with rounds of 64-66 to finish 17^th in the European Masters.

Vaillant now descends on a course where he finished 18^th last year, and with confidence high, don’t be surprised to see him fly out of the gates once again.

Open de Espana Odds 

0.75 pts Sam Bairstow each-way (1/4 - 5 places) @ 90/1

Start time: 2.50pm

Sam Bairstow has finished the first round inside the top eight in two of his last three outings. He also made a positive start on his Open de Espana debut last year, and with the driver on song, he can go low in tomorrow’s late-afternoon sunshine.

Bairstow was in terrific form at the beginning of the season but completely lost his way in the three months from June to September. However, he made his first cut in four starts at Wentworth a month ago, finishing 63^rd, and backed that up with a 28^th-place finish in the Open de France.

Each of those results was engineered by a fast start. He opened with a five-under 67 in the BMW PGA to finish the first round in 8^th place, and in France, a four-under 67 saw him occupy 4^th position at the close of play on Thursday.

Bairstow finished 45^th on his first spin around Club de Campo last year but started that event superbly, sitting in 2^nd after a four-under 67 in round one. He managed that while struggling with the driver at the time; arriving here in much better form with the club – ranking 18^th over the last six weeks – he looks well placed to make another quick start in Madrid.

0.75 pts Alfredo Garcia-Heredia each-way (1/4 - 5 places) @ 125/1

Start time: 9.40am

Alfredo Garcia-Heredia is a player who tends to excel himself on home soil, possessing three consecutive top-10 finishes in this event. He was impressive when finishing 12^th in the Irish Open four starts ago, and although he’s been underwhelming since, a return to Spain could spark him back into life.

Three starts prior to that effort at the K Club, Garcia-Heredia made one of his strongest starts of the year in the Danish Golf Championship, opening with a four-under 67 to sit 7^th after round one.

Although he didn’t start as positively at the K Club, his middle rounds of 65 and 67 showed his ability to go low. That was a performance fuelled by quality on the greens – an area in which he ranks 19^th over the past three months.

Garcia-Heredia’s record at Club de Campo speaks for itself: finishing 6^th in 2022, 9^th in 2023, and 10^th in 2024. He’s shot 11 out of 12 rounds under par across those events, including two rounds of 64 and a 65, and with that level of comfort around this venue clear, he can hit the front on Thursday.

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