Justin Harding completes a trio of South Africans at the top of the market as we look at some of the players who may contend in our Canary Islands Championship tips.
This 6,871-yard par-71 resort course played pretty easy last week when sub-60 rounds were threatened on a couple of occasions by John Catlin and Scott Jamieson.
Burmester’s length was clearly advantageous but putting proved to be the most important with the first five all inside the top 20 in the stats.
Kim can call the shots
With that in mind, Sihwan Kim could be one to watch having finished inside the top 20 overall last week when he was four shots off the lead heading into the final round.
The 32-year-old American ranks inside the top 20 for strokes gained putting and he is also long enough to pick up shots at the five par-fives which he went round in 11 under.
Pedro Oriol closed with a superb 65-64 to finish in a tie for sixth having made the cut on the number and this Spaniard is another who could take advantage of mediocre competition to post a first win on the European Tour.
Oriol rose almost 300 places in the world rankings with his best finish on the top tier and he is also available at 80/1.
King Louis at last?
Finally, South Africans have dominated the European Tour since mid-March, with Harding, Daniel van Tonder, Higgo and Burmester all winning titles, with the last two coming in Spain.
Louis de Jager has hardly hit the heights since qualifying for the European Tour in 2018 but 12th place at the Tenerife Open suggests he likes this course and would like to join his countrymen in the winner’s circle.
De Jager was 11th at halfway last week thanks to a pair of 66s but five bogeys at the weekend cost him the chance of a top 10.
That performance will have given his confidence a major boost, though, and he can be backed at 50/1 which was lower than Burmester’s odds.
