FREE GOLF BETTING GUIDE AND TIPS

Henrik Stenson
Keith Allison

Justine Rose
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Branden Grace
James Kennedy

Ian Poulter
Keith Allison

Louis Oosthuizen
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Andy Sullivan
Catherine Kotze SASPA

This is the first Greg Norman designed track in Dubai along with sister course Fire at the Jumeirah Golf Estates. The Earth course is a very open layout with generous fairways and large sloping greens, so position is all-important.

Talk about bringing coals to Newcastle, or Sand to Dubai, which is exactly what has happened here. The bleached white sand in the fairway waste areas and bunkers was imported from North Carolina. There really isn’t too much rough to worry about, but the players will have tricky recovery shots off the red wood chips if they do manage to miss these wide fairways.

The most challenging hole is the final hole, with its rock-lined stream meandering up the middle of its 620-yard fairway. The hole gently climbs to the huge and undulating green, a fitting crescendo to this 7706 yards track.

Jumeirah Golf Estates have overseeded the tees, fairways and rough on the Earth course with ryegrass, offering greater contrast and definition to the brilliant white bunkers and barkmulched landscape areas. The course will prove to be a tougher test this year for the players than in 2009 and 2010, with more of a premium being placed on finding the fairways with tee shots.

My tips to win:

Henrik Stenson 13/2 – with PaddyPower – will be trying to make it three wins in a row at this week’s World Tour Championship. Henrik has never been outside the Top 25 any time he has teed it up here, so you can expect the tall Swede to be in the thick of it again this Sunday.

Another player who has a good record here but has never won the event is Justin Rose 8/1 – with Ladbrokes – Justin has two runners-up finishes and a Top 10 in the last three years, and should come into this week in confident mood after his final round 67 saw him move up the leaderboard six places at last week's BMW Masters.

I am going with Branden Grace 22/1 – with Bet365 – again the third of my picks I am sticking with this week, but I think we will see a different Branden Grace this week than the one who teed it up at the BMW Masters. Branden did make the Top 25 in that event and with his Top 5 the previous week I think this is the one he wants. As I said last week, it has been a good year for the South African but a win, especially the Tour Championship will be what turns a good year into a great year.

My each-way tips:

Ian Poulter 35/1 – with Bet365 – has a good record over the Jumeirah Golf Estates Earth course and has only finished outside the Top 25 once in the history of the event, and he has two runners-up finishes in that run. Ian is another player who should come into this week in confident mood after finishing in the Top 15 at last week's BMW Masters, he also had a Top 16 finish at the Turkish Open a few weeks ago and I think being back on the European Tour has helped relax the Englishman.

Louis Oosthuizen 35/1 – with Bet365 – has only finished outside the Top 15 once in the history of this event and has three Top 6 finishes in that run. Louis has three runners-up finishes so far this year, two of those came in the The Open and US Open championships and he also has four other Top 10s. The last time Oosthuizen went a year without winning on the European Tour was in 2009, I am sure he will not want to let that record slip.

My outside tip:

I know how much Andy Sullivan 80/1 – with Bet365 – loves Dubai and I also know from what he has been saying that he is striking the ball well and is just waiting for his putter to catch fire again. Any player that has three wins to his name in one season plus seven other Top 20 finishes – three of which were Top 10s – it's hard not to take notice of those comments.

As always good luck