Wenyi Ding is worth sticking with as he returns home for the Volvo China Open says Ben Coley, who bids for back-to-back DP World Tour winners.
- Ayora and Hillier top the market at around 11/1
- Enhance Anting threw up home shock last year
- Two locals fit the bill including 90/1 shot
Golf betting tips: Volvo China Open
3pts e.w. Wenyi Ding at 22/1 (Coral, Ladbrokes 1/5 1,2,3,4,5,6,7)
1.5pts e.w. Matteo Manassero at 40/1 (General 1/5 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8)
1.5pts e.w. Adrian Otaegui at 45/1 (General 1/5 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8)
1pt e.w. Kota Kaneko at 50/1 (Coral, Ladbrokes 1/5 1,2,3,4,5,6,7)
1pt e.w. Sampson Zheng at 90/1 (Coral, Ladbrokes 1/5 1,2,3,4,5,6,7)
We're back in the Far East for the latest DP World Tour return as Ashun Wu defends his title in the Volvo China Open.
Wu produced a sparkling finish last year, seven Sunday birdies and a helping hand from Jordan Smith enough to see him capture this title at a course is turns out he knew well. Back then we didn't, hence no bet was recommended on these pages, and the challenge now we revisit Enhance Anting is to figure out whether we learned enough, if anything at all, from the first significant tournament to be held at this golf course.
Wu had been without a top-10 finish anywhere in more than a year so it was a surprise win, but his style of play matches up quite nicely with the more reliable form guides in behind. Both he and Jordan Smith ended the year inside the top 30 in driving accuracy and they put that to use here, ranking fifth and second respectively; arguably, it was Wu's superior scrambling skills (led the field) which made the difference in the end.
With a couple of the other contenders sharp around the greens that makes sense as one way in, as this par 71, which features three par-fives and a driveable par-four, does have pretty dramatic greens and some severe run-offs. It's one of those modern golf courses which you might say lacks subtlety and if asked to liken it with any we've had so far this year, perhaps Royal GC in Bahrain and DLF in India would top the list.
DLF certainly has a place in the analysis, particularly when you consider that for much of the event, Eugenio Chacarra had looked set to follow up his Indian Open breakthrough. He's since contended again at DLF while third-placed Yannik Paul loves it there. Look beyond them and even seventh-placed Tapio Pulkkanen has hints of DLF form, as does Jacob Skov Olesen in eighth, and Joost Luiten wasn't too far behind either.
While Smith is known for his rock-solid driving, my sense is that we can look more towards the second and third shots for clues. Wenyi Ding said this is 'a second-shot course' and it's hard to argue with him, especially given that the fairways were so easy to hit. Anyone finding 75% would only have ranked 44th for the week and the leader in driving accuracy hit 53 of 56, so it looks to be what you do next that counts.
With that in mind, MATTEO MANASSERO makes the staking plan again having flown home for ninth place in India last time out.
That's not the first time the Italian has played well at DLF and it represented another step up after a quiet but largely progressive first few months of the year, having shown a few good signs before a closing 65 for 24th in South Africa.
Two strong performances in succession should set him up to press on now and we shouldn't forget that in his last full DP World Tour season, he not only won in the spring but went on to contend for Rolex Series titles on his way to a PGA Tour card.
Now back at the right level he remains a class act in this grade and certainly, when it comes to those second and third shots there are few if any who can match him. Across his last four starts, Manassero is gaining 2.3 strokes per round with his approaches and work around the green and as well as being the best chipper on the DP World Tour for my money, his approach work remains excellent.
With signs of putting improvement too, it's a matter of whether the course fits on his first try, and I think it ought to. He's never been all that accurate off the tee and as he isn't long, Manassero's ideal set-up might just be wide fairways without playing into the hands of bombers, which is precisely what he gets here. In many ways, his game is a superior version of Wu's and he has an excellent record in Asia, having won in Singapore and Malaysia early on in his career.
It's worth noting that versus India last time, we're without Akshay Bhatia, David Puig, Casey Jarvis, Elvis Smylie, Dan Bradbury, Jacob Skov Olesen and the winner, Alex Fitzpatrick, as well as Martin Couvra who joins him on the PGA Tour this week. With that in mind the revised prices about Manassero look excellent.
Adrian can box clever
At another course I'd say the same about 11/1 the favourites but I'm not sold on Angel Ayora or Daniel Hillier here, particularly the latter after a long break since he won on home soil. Victory at some stage soon appears close to inevitable for Ayora but I'd rather feel like he can boss things off the tee. In this event last year, Luiten and Wu put up numbers comparable to Marco Penge, which to me says a lot.
So we'll side with a couple of less flashy golfers, with ADRIAN OTAEGUI next.
He wasn't as impressive at DLF last time but does have some handy form there in the past and prior to it, a run of 6-6-3 made him one of the form players on the circuit. One quiet week at a penal course and he's in effect slid down the market, as he's about the same price in what is definitely a weaker field.
Otaegui won this title two years ago having been runner-up in 2024 so his form in China stands out, and I thought last year's 26th here was solid. He'd prepared with a wide-margin missed cut in India and went on to add 11th place in Hainan, where he was third just last month.
Following those two efforts he went several months without another top-50 finish anywhere so my sense is that he returns in much better form and without the burden of defending his title, something he doesn't have much experience of as his first two wins came in experimental events and it took five years for the Scottish Championship to return to the schedule after he won it.
Without that pressure he ought to be hopeful of returning to the levels that saw him finish third behind Jordan Gumberg in Hainan and sixth in two strong South African events before that, all this the product of his customarily strong approach play and tidy short-game.
Otaegui's weaknesses are the driver and the putter but I'm not too worried about the former around here, and before India he'd putted well three events in a row. That rather sums him up: when Otaegui does gain strokes on the field with the putter, even his weak driving can be mitigated by the rest. Hopefully that's what we're in for this week.
Certainly there aren't many who are hitting their irons as he is and at around 40/1, the case for Otaegui is similar to the case for Manassero.
Next, KOTA KANEKO fits the bill on paper and the young Japanese could be ready to step up and contend for the first time in his rookie season.
Kaneko earned status thanks to a brilliant campaign on the Japan Golf Tour where he comfortably topped the money list thanks to two wins, five more top-threes, and a host of strong performances in just his third year as a professional.
He's taken no time to adapt, making the cut in all six DP World Your events he's played so far and also getting through to the weekend in the Sony Open having only narrowly missed his PGA Tour card at Q-School in December, and what we're seeing from a statistical perspective is an accurate driver with a dynamite short-game.
That draws immediate parallels with Wu and while I'd be wary of taking the strokes-gained figures available at face value, the traditional, more reliable stats have him at 13th in fairways, fifth in scrambling and sixth in bogey avoidance.
The latter in particular catches the eye as it was key to Wu's victory and explains perhaps why Kaneko took to DLF at the first time of asking, finishing 24th. He'd been 23rd in the Hainan Classic a week earlier to give us some China promise, while 15th in Qatar saw him threaten the places behind Patrick Reed.
There is one snag and that's a missed cut back home last time, but it came by a single shot after he'd been 12th in an International Series event, also in his homeland. The positive spin here is that he's played six competitive rounds while most of these have had their feet up and one bad day at the office is nothing to worry about.
Returning to Asia is a positive and while his ball-striking stats do require improvement, I'll take him to dazzle on and around the greens again and underline his potential in the process.
Compatriot Yuto Katsuragawa has two top-10 finishes in three and all of his best DP World Tour form has come in Asia, but a prolonged spell of poor putting does worry me. By contrast, Chacarra has holed the lot over his last two starts, but the talented Spaniard was in Mexico on Sunday night and faces a long trip to China which might prove hard to overcome.
With this and doubts over the top two in mind I find myself compelled to put forward WENYI DING again.
The young Chinese is about the same price he was in Hainan a few weeks ago and that's fine with me, as he fared best of the market leaders there until a horror finish. Ding was 14th in the end but had got to within a shot on Sunday before his back-nine capitulation.
Still, the bigger picture is that since turning pro his form figures at home read 11-8-45-6-14 and having bossed the China Tour as a 16-year-old before going on to excel at college in the US, this is a fabulous young talent who ought to be going close again in the near future.
That the worst performance from those five came in Hainan allows us to mark up his 14th place and eighth place here last year suggests the course could be an even better fit, though I'd say they offer comparable tests.
I do like that he's played since, in the International Series Japan event, and while a bit underwhelming he did finish strongly to set himself up for what's a huge event for him and his compatriots.
We'll have to see how he gets on if he is back in the mix but with strong Chinese representation on last year's leaderboard, that is where I expect him to be. Here's hoping he can follow Fitzpatrick's lead and win for us having been persevered with.
Strong chance for Sampson
Fellow Chinese youngster SAMPSON ZHENG is playing well and could also make an impression at a nice price.
Zheng was 20th in the ISPS Handa Japan-Australasia Championship six weeks ago, followed it with 17th on the DP World Tour in the Hainan Classic, and then 12th in the aforementioned International Series Japan, alongside Kaneko.
That's solid golf from a youngster who was a promising amateur in his own right and there's been plenty of it in Asia especially, including fourth place behind Miguel Tabuena in the Philippines last October.
One week later he went off about 80/1 for the Hong Kong Open and what's striking about that is I put up Ding at 66/1 for the same tournament, so to have them as far apart as 20/1 and 80-90/1 seems a little strange to my eye.
Given that Zheng is playing well and has done since back-to-back top-20 finishes in Saudi Arabia to end last year, he looks to offer a spot of value albeit we are still learning about the make-up of his game. It is though encouraging that he was 13th in driving accuracy on the Asian Tour last year and eighth in scrambling, again a formula which Wu put to use here last year.
Zheng is a bit of an unknown quantity but I'm happy taking my chances in preference to Maximilian Steinlechner, who continues to hint at something better and did lose a pair of play-offs in China last year. With him I just wonder if the course is as suitable so he's omitted along with Sebastian Garcia and Euan Walker, the final two names on my list.
Walker is a neat and tidy golfer who has found form lately while Garcia is playing well, won in China last year, and has form which correlates nicely with Wu. However, he also has a big number in him and only really appealed in the first-round leader market, though the idea of checking his progress at 3am on Thursday morning does not exactly appeal as the right way to live life.
Posted at 20:00 BST on 20/04/26
Safer gambling
We are committed in our support of safer gambling. Recommended bets are advised to over-18s and we strongly encourage readers to wager only what they can afford to lose.
If you are concerned about your gambling, please call the National Gambling Helpline / GamCare on 0808 8020 133.
Further support and information can be found at begambleaware.org and gamblingtherapy.org.