The DP World Tour returns from its summer holidays with the Danish Golf Championship at Great Northern, for which Ben Coley has five selections.
Golf betting tips: Danish Golf Championship
2pts e.w. Jacob Skov Olesen at 25/1 (Coral, Ladbrokes 1/5 1,2,3,4,5,6,7)
1.5pts e.w. Calum Hill at 33/1 (Coral, Ladbrokes 1/5 1,2,3,4,5,6,7)
1.5pts e.w. Caleb Surratt at 35/1 (Betfred 1/5 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8)
1pt e.w. Joe Dean at 66/1 (Betfred 1/5 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8)
0.5pt e.w. Ross Fisher at 200/1 (bet365 1/5 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8)
When top-level golf only comes to your country once or twice a year, it must be difficult to know where to host it. On the one hand, a permanent home helps in various ways, building familiarity, identity and making it easier to create history. On the other, a more nomadic approach ensures that you are able to reach further afield; that more people can get up close and, perhaps, fall in love with the game if they're not already.
It's no doubt a source of frustration to fans in France, for example, that it's Paris or nothing for the DP World Tour. But when we return to Le Golf National after a year away for renovations, we'll know what to expect because we know what's happened there before. Even if Scottie Scheffler hadn't won Olympic gold in 2024, the history of the Open de France has been strengthened by the fact it has a home.
The Danish Golf Championship appeared set to go down that route, to the extent that it was for a while known as the Made In HimmerLand, named after the golf course which had begun to build a level of notoriety thanks to its fabulous 16th hole and a tee box on a roof. But after eight years there came to an end in 2023, we've gone from Lubker near Aarhus to Fureso near Copenhagen and now, for the first time, we're heading to Great Northern near Odense for another new venture.
No doubt the keenest of Danish golf fans has followed the DP World Tour around the country and they'll be impressed by what they're met with on arrival at this sleek, modern, exclusive course, the first in Denmark to have been designed by Jack Nicklaus. It looks like the kind of place where everything is in its right place and while there will undoubtedly be those who prefer last year's more rugged venue, the players may not take much convincing that luxury equals upgrade.
The course is modern and expansive, with seven man-made lakes playing their part and one whopping ridge giving Nicklaus the elevation change his design group has always preferred. Eight holes run along it, the rest down at the bottom, and for what it's worth the nines are reversed for this tournament. That means we close with a run of driveable par-four, reachable par-five, and par-three over water. It should make for some fun and games at the weekend, though the original 18th is a par-five with an island green which would've done just fine.
The look and feel of the event will fundamentally change from last year, but the demands of the course may not. Marco Penge beating Rasmus Hojgaard on one of the most bomber-heavy leaderboards of the season paints a very clear picture, yet a hole-by-hole tour leaves little doubt in my mind that Great Northern would be similar if played under calm conditions. One of the four par-fives may be within reach of some but not others and the same goes for two short par-fours which do not feature water and are there to be taken on for those long enough.
At Fureso, Penge had seven goes at driving a par-four – he's not defending his title, but in his absence I wonder if there will be a clutch of bigger hitters who manage eight such attempts. And this sense that longer drivers have a potential edge is strengthened by the fact that, for all the talk of seven lakes, I can only identify five holes where water plays a key role: nine, 13, 14, 15 and 18. Perhaps the sixth too but that will be a short iron approach after a forced lay-up, while the water at the par-three eighth really shouldn't threaten players of this calibre.
There will be those caught out by holes 13, 14 and 15, but two of these are long par-fours and there's going to be ample opportunity to hit driver around here. There will be some hold-your-breath moments if you side with the wildest of the powerhouses, but on balance I'd still rather do that than assume someone extremely short – the retiring Alex Bjork, for example – can plot their way around and win by staying dry. On what information we have, that seems unlikely to me.
The one curve ball is the weather as it's striking how much scoring has varied in Nordic Golf League events held here. When Oliver Gillberg won it was easy and those short par-fours yielded plenty of eagles, but when Peter Baek did, the final-round scoring average was 77. Scoring at last September's renewal was high (75-plus for a weak field) and I do get the sense that, despite generous fairways, any significant wind could turn this place pretty nasty.
On that front, Thursday is set to be calm, with the wind rising each day. Come Sunday it could play a significant role in the tournament and that does add a complicating factor, though it could pay to note that the KLM Open held earlier this year was a windy renewal on a similar-looking course that went the way of a big-hitter, Eugenio Chacarra. Events like that, the Dunhill Links, the Scottish Open, the Open de France, the Qatar Masters and perhaps even something like a Sicily Open from days gone by could offer some help.
This is an undeniably weak field ahead of a much more competitive run of events and when something similar unfolded following last summer's break, a home player with a touch of class won the Nexo Championship in Aberdeen. It would be no shock to see one of the big three Danes follow suit here and as he contended on the PGA Tour two weeks ago, is the longest driver, has the best strike-rate and plenty of correlating form, then Rasmus Hojgaard would be my pick among them.
However I'd rather play each-way and will try again with CALUM HILL instead.
Hill hit the front when selected in Austria back in May only to fade to 17th and was selected again when 30th in Germany, but there's been little to dissuade me from sticking with a player who has done everything but win this season.
Second place in Bahrain ought to have seen Hill capture his third DP World Tour title but I do like that as a potential form guide, as it's a modern, exposed course with wide, rolling fairways, plenty of water and a driveable par-four thrown in with the full suite of par-fives, so often the formula these days.
Hill then responded brilliantly with a staying-on second at Doha, where players who can handle a breeze are always at an advantage, and while yet to match that level since he's putting together the most consistent season of his career. Right now he's on a run of eight cuts made in a row, the first time he's done so since graduating from the Challenge Tour in 2019.
A class act at that level, injuries have hampered Hill's progress but he seems to be in a really good place now and I liked how he fared in a world-class field last time, hanging around close enough to the top 20 throughout the Scottish Open until a poor closing nine saw him fall to a share of 44th.
This should be a nice place for him to return to action following four weeks away. Not only has Hill won in Denmark, been second in Sweden and third in Finland, these from very few opportunities in Scandinavia, but he's played well on both starts at Le Golf National too (10-18).
And then there's the fact that his two DP World Tour wins so far have come on courses designed by Nicklaus. The first is perhaps the most instructive as it was at London Golf Club, which is similar in some ways, whereas the second was in South Africa and was a redesign, rather than being a Nicklaus creation.
Regardless, that's a nice little boost to a profile I like and Hill was first on my list.
Next, I've thought long and hard about siding with CALEB SURRATT but on balance there's enough to like.
Make no mistake, were the forecast flat calm he'd be the headline bet and with a chunky recommendation as the upside here is significant. Surratt was a world-class amateur before joining LIV Golf and at his best, he's shown that he has the ability to win at a higher level than this.
Hints of that best have been on show recently, as he was fifth at LIV's UK event and then an admirable 15th in New Jersey, where he sat 49th after round one but climbed back to a position of respectability. He actually doubled his last hole of the tournament, but it only cost him one place on a strung-out leaderboard.
This run represents Surratt's best golf of the season and you have to wonder whether to some degree this can be explained by a couple of outside factors, namely the position LIV Golf now finds itself in, and the success of some of the very best young golfers in the USA out on the PGA Tour.
Surratt wouldn't be human if seeing Jackson Koivun then Michael Thorbjornsen win didn't spark something within and then Michael Brennan made it a trio of his contemporaries, players he competed against in college, who've gone and proven themselves on the strongest tour in golf, each of them guaranteed of a place in the Masters next April.
Surratt is yet to play there but he has more pressing matters at hand, because it's feasible he has nowhere to play at all next year. Without getting into the public statement offered by LIV Golf last week or the ongoing speculation regarding its future, there's no guarantee there is a '2.0', as they're calling it. My guess is that there will be, but stripped-back, for less money, with lesser players, and perhaps even no world ranking points.
Little wonder Surratt has been exploring options and he had even considered playing a HotelPlanner Tour event before successfully qualifying for the Open last month, more evidence of good golf even if he played poorly in the event itself. Indeed the very reason he's flying from New Jersey to Denmark is because winning here would earn him status for 2027, which he currently does not have anywhere beyond LIV Golf.
Now, need and outcome seldom align perfectly but in a weak field, at a course where his power could be a huge asset, and on the back of his best two performances of the year, Surratt looks a fascinating candidate here. I'll be hoping the wind doesn't whip up, as he may, but can certainly see him building a platform if conditions are as forecast on Thursday.
The other Olesen ready to win
Where the wind is a nagging worry for Surratt's chances, it's the reason I'm willing to side with JACOB SKOV OLESEN despite having initially been keen to look beyond the first half-dozen in the betting.
The left-hander is undoubtedly one of the best young players on the DP World Tour having been an excellent amateur in his own right, and everything we've seen from him so far confirms that exposed courses where conditions play a part often see him in his best light.
Olesen has six top-six finishes this year, the first of them in Qatar where he was selected on these pages and briefly threatened to win in a stronger field. He backed that up in Kenya and that is an important part of the logic, because he later went 4-4-MC-2 during the course of a month, and now arrives here having been sixth last time.
That was on the PGA Tour, at a big golf course by the coast, so while Olesen isn't the longest, he's long enough to cope with this. He's also proven on home soil as it was this event two years ago in which he first made something of a name for himself, finishing fifth as an amateur, before bagging his first top-10 as a professional by the coast once more in Mauritius.
Making the DP World Tour Championship as a rookie was a mighty effort which again relied on form by the sea, both of his top-fives coming at links courses in Scotland, and remember this is a player who became the first Dane to win the Amateur Championship before making the switch to the pro ranks and leading the Open on day one the following summer.
Another who played college golf with some of those recent PGA Tour winners, who he knows he's capable of joining out there having bagged two PGA Tour top-10s this year, Olesen is hard to ignore and the fact that he was third in the return event last summer is a nice additional bonus. Hopefully his putter remains red-hot, as it has been of late.
It's unlikely that Bernd Wiesberger's putter is red-hot but it doesn't have to be to make him competitive, and the Austrian has been eased out to tempting odds again. That's owing to successive missed cuts in the UK but if you isolate his form at this sort of level, it reads 1-13-13-4-21-MC-3 since April and confirms that he's been a persistent threat.
Wiesberger has won at Le Golf National and gone close in a windy Irish Open, winning a less windy Scottish equivalent and generally showcasing that his quality long-game is well equipped to handle what's ahead at the weekend. It's also potentially of note that he played in the final group of a major at a Nicklaus-designed course, albeit one very different to this on paper.
The other player prominent in the betting who I found hard to get away from is Oliver Lindell, the flying Finn who has been runner-up in the KLM Open, fifth in Qatar and ninth in Bahrain, among many other strong performances. He's a shot-maker who loves playing in the wind, his irons are excellent, and so was a mid-pack finish in Scotland without holing much. There is a heck of a lot to like.
But while he didn't do much wrong in the Netherlands, taking 20s about a player who has gone almost 250 events over the course of a decade without winning, since making that task look simple on the Nordic Golf League, is something I'm struggling with. I put up Lindell prior to the final round in the Netherlands when just two back and 9/1, the sort of scenario where I'd be happy to chance him. I can't at these prices, even if his underlying data, to coin a football phrase, does justify them.
Preference then is to chance JOE DEAN instead.
A longish hitter who can putt, Dean is somewhat in the Surratt mould but he's less explosive and, so far, has done more to demonstrate that he enjoys playing in the wind. That includes when runner-up in the 2024 KLM Open at the modern, links-like International, and when runner-up again in the Nexo Championship, the event which restarted the DP World Tour in Scotland this time last summer.
Also 18th on his sole start at Le Golf National, third back at the KLM Open four starts ago and good on both starts in Bahrain, Dean has plenty of the form lines I like. I'd even stretch that to include winning the new 'Last Chance Qualifier' on Monday of Open week, before missing the cut by just two shots at Birkdale.
Prior to that, Dean's form read 12-3-MC-9 so he's right back to his best and there is another angle I like, which is that quite often in the past we've seen surprise Open qualifiers shine back down in grade during the months which follow it. The most recent example was just last summer when Daniel Young won his first HotelPlanner Tour title after taking part in the Open, but there have been many others.
Dean himself was fifth in this two years ago when he'd been second in the KLM Open then qualified for the Open, so perhaps history will repeat at a different but potentially more suitable golf course. Hopefully he's had enough time to prepare having got married the week after Birkdale and if so he looks an each-way player.
At bigger prices, Freddy Schott is a powerhouse who won in Denmark on the HotelPlanner Tour and either side of a missed cut in the high-class Scottish Open, he was 16th on home soil and 34th in the Corales Puntacana. Winner of the Bahrain Championship at Hill's expense, he's another of those who would've appealed more had the forecast promised calm rather than the potential for chaos come the weekend.
Johannes Veerman also played well in the Dominican Republic and is the outsider who has given me most to think about. On the one hand, he'd missed eight cuts in a row prior to finishing 24th (second at halfway) and probably did enjoy the wide fairways and low scoring of the Corales Puntacana. On the other, he says he likes playing in the wind, was third in Qatar, and has two top-10s in three tries in this.
With a good record at Le Golf National to his name, this strong driver could threaten a third DP World Tour title and his strong record in the KLM Open is another decent pointer. I just don't know as a player who has been abysmal in all bar one event since April has done enough with two good rounds to merit inclusion, especially as his long-game stats are poor.
Jeff Winther has very recent form figures of 6-16 and is a player I had my eye on in the spring, so having made seven cuts in nine in his home event, he'd be one to consider for a top-20 finish. A strong record at Le Golf National and win by the coast suggest the course could be to his liking, too.
His compatriot Marcus Helligkilde is hinting at something good, came closest at a Nicklaus-designed course in Korea and has a solid record in this, but I'm amazed how short he is in the betting.
There's a case for Renato Paratore but the lightning-quick Italian will surely be opening a new sleeve of balls once or twice given how wayward he can be, so the one real dart I'm willing to throw comes in the form of veteran ROSS FISHER.
A former Open contender with three runner-up finishes in the Dunhill Links to his name, Fisher has the game for this and, very quietly, he's been hinting that he's close to a big performance for a little while now.
For more than a year, his driving had been poor and as that's always been the key part of his game, no wonder he struggled. However, that club seems to be fixed as he's ranked seventh for strokes-gained off-the-tee twice and 17th on another of his last four starts, while he's made six cuts in a row for the first time in almost three years.
Alongside that driving improvement, Fisher led the field in strokes-gained approach in that windy KLM Open I've referenced a few times, his irons then solid again in Germany on his latest start, where he was ninth at halfway before fading over the weekend.
We know the putter is his problem but even that was above-average last time out and if he can find another small step forward with that club, then this former Ryder Cup player can compete somewhere before the year is out.
Perhaps it'll be at enormous odds in the Dunhill Links if he gets into the field, but his last top-10 finish was here in Denmark, he was a good 18th in Bahrain, and he might just surprise a few.
Posted at 17:00 BST on 10/08/26
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