Ben Coley's golf betting tips: DP World India Championship preview and best bets

Golf betting tips: DP World India Championship

4pts win Aaron Rai (without McIlroy/Fleetwood) at 14/1 (General)

2pts e.w. Daniel Hillier at 30/1 (Ladbrokes, Coral 1/5 1,2,3,4,5,6,7)

2pts e.w. Casey Jarvis at 35/1 (Ladbrokes, Coral 1/5 1,2,3,4,5,6,7)

1pt e.w. Angel Hidalgo at 110/1 (Betfred, bet365 1/5 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8)

1pt e.w. Matteo Manassero at 125/1 (Ladbrokes, Coral 1/5 1,2,3,4,5,6,7)

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Everyone old enough (which probably means everyone, because they tell me teenagers aren't watching live golf for some reason) was thrilled when the DP World Tour returned to Delhi GC last year. This storied old golf course, replete with tombs and mausoleums and unalike anything else on the circuit, was deeply missed and warmly welcomed back, the occasion marked by a quality field and a suitable champion as Tommy Fleetwood capped a glorious autumn with his 11th professional win.

It isn't just the calendar which separates this from its older sibling, the Hero Indian Open, which takes place in the spring. Whereas that event has found its niche at a gaudy golf course designed with the sole intention of making people look very silly, Delhi offers no tricks, only a puzzle that is solved through logic, patience and execution. That Fleetwood reached an eye-watering 22-under suggests golf has moved on from these small, short, tight courses, but it's too soon to be labelling Delhi a pushover. No doubt, it will push back against some of the more clumsy players, as it always has.

Fleetwood returns to defend his title after a welcome step back in the right direction in Scotland, but the main draw is again Rory McIlroy. He was 26th on his debut here last year, when electing not to put a driver in his bag, and it would be easy to assume that the nature of the course found him out. The reality though is that his long-game was comparable to Fleetwood's but he couldn't buy a putt, which so happens to be precisely the reason he didn't make odds as big as 10/1 appear foolish in the BMW PGA Championship last time we saw him.

That McIlroy may again choose to dispense with driver tells you all about the negatives, but I get the sense he's desperate to knock off some of these events he's added to a globetrotting schedule – and he's certainly determined to reel in Patrick Reed and win his eighth Race to Dubai title. I think he'll do it, too, providing the DP World Tour can stick to its plan to go to the Middle East for its final two events of the season. Even granting Reed a small head-start heading into them, McIlroy would have to be a warm favourite given how effective he is under those conditions and at those courses.

At this one, he's more vulnerable, regardless of how well he struck it last year. Tellingly, not only were there still five players ahead of him in the off-the-tee stats, but at least three of them almost never are. Jayden Schaper, a shortish, accurate driver, was number one in the field. Andrea Pavan, who at one stage suffered with the driving yips and has always been at his weakest off the tee, was fourth. Dan Bradbury, the accurate Englishman, ranked fifth and Viktor Hovland was the elite player who outperformed McIlroy.

All this is because to drive ('drive') well here is to avoid trouble. Schaper was 11th in fairways, Hovland first, Bradbury fourth, Pavan also 11th. McIlroy himself was 16th – without his driver, remember – and the champion, Fleetwood, ranked eighth. However, this is also where old-world statistics aren't necessarily able to paint a complete picture, even at an old-world course. Runner-up Keita Nakajima for example ranked 61st in fairways but made just four bogeys and nothing worse all week, proof enough that he was anything but wild. He was 15th for the season in driving accuracy, too.

That is the number one mission at Delhi: keep the ball in play.

Nakajima's form at DLF, home of the Indian Open, reads 1-2, and there are strong ties between two aesthetically different but functionally similar courses. They're further highlighted by Alex Fitzpatrick, third here and a subsequent winner there, plus Joost Luiten in sixth and lesser-known players like Jens Dantorp and Marcel Schneider, while 2025 Indian Open hero Eugenio Chacarra was a decent 26th here too and almost won again at DLF this year.

Other clues can be found at Eichenried (Thriston Lawrence, Hovland, Luiten, Nakajima, Daniel Hillier), Le Golf National (Fleetwood, Luiten, Michael Kim, Bradbury, Bernd Wiesberger), Crans (Lawrence, Nakajima, Fitzpatrick, Jorge Campillo, Alfredo Garcia-Heredia, Wiesberger) and the Belfry (Nakajima, Hillier, Lawrence) and the message here returns us to McIlroy's choice of 14 clubs to take into battle with this charming place: driver really isn't going to get you very far at all. As well as McIlroy not even packing his, Hovland didn't hit one the entire week.

Class will get you a long way though and AARON RAI has that in abundance, as we saw when he produced the most decisive major Sunday of the year to capture the PGA Championship.

Rai was a bit less decisive when trying to add the BMW PGA to his collection last time, but in the end that really boiled down to the mid-range birdie putts at the 15th and 16th holes that didn't drop before a 5-5 finish opened the door for JJ Spaun.

Still, it was confirmation that Rai is back in the sort of form which saw him follow up a contending effort in Myrtle Beach with that major breakthrough in May and while he's had a few weeks off this time, he should be itching to get back to work in a tournament which will carry great significance given his family ties to India, where both sets of grandparents were born.

On his mother's side, Rai also has ties to Kenya, and he won there back in his days on the Challenge Tour, before a top-10 finish at DLF offered promise that he'd double up here at some stage. However, as his career has taken off, that event hasn't been on his schedule, so if he is going to win in India too it may well be that it has to happen here in Delhi.

It so happens that he's a perfect fit for the golf course. Over the past four years on the PGA Tour, Rai is the only player to never leave the top six in driving accuracy. He ranked first last time at Wentworth and first at Bellerive in his previous start and there is simply nobody better in the game when it comes to hitting fairways. Rai is also a good wedge and short-iron player and he's sharp around the green, so around courses like Delhi he's immediately at an advantage.

We've seen him win at Fanling, which is certainly similar, as well as Muthaiga in Nairobi, while his PGA Tour breakthrough came at Sedgefield Country Club, where accuracy off the tee has always been important. And as for the near-miss at Wentworth followed by a break, note that last year he was third there and when next we saw him, he was winning in Abu Dhabi despite 10 weeks off.

There are no excuses on that front and if he putts to the standard we've seen in four of his last five starts, Rai should be in the mix. He's a good bet at 16/1 generally or 18/1 with a couple of smaller firms, but 14/1 without McIlroy and Fleetwood is my preference win-only, meaning we could get paid out if he's second or third.

With Min Woo Lee's iron play once again poor in the Baycurrent Classic last week, it's his friend DANIEL HILLIER who is considered the best each-way bet.

Unlike Min Woo, Hillier's approach work is high-class, enough to rank fourth on the DP World Tour this season among those with 40+ rounds behind them. We've seen the best of it recently, too, with rankings of third, seventh, 12th and fifth from his five starts since the Open, even if he insists last week's hole-in-one came out of the toe.

It was disappointing that he couldn't kick on from that stroke of fortune early in the tournament but it's clear that Hillier's long-game is thriving right now and all we need is a return to the good-but-not-spectacular putting which was enough to earn him second place at the Belfry in August, where he led the field from tee-to-green.

A former winner there who'd gone close at Eichenried, Hillier has some good correlating form but the clearest evidence that this suits comes from last year. Not only was ninth place his first top-10 finish since April and courtesy of top-10 rankings both off-the-tee and with his approaches, but it probably undersells the part he played in the tournament, because he was in a share of the lead with five holes to play.

Hillier's finishing effort and the fact he's not added to his one DP World Tour victory to date are both causes for concern, but the New Zealander looks a prime candidate to contend again. In doing so, he can solidify his place among the top 15 on the Race to Dubai, where a PGA Tour card is once again well within reach and he's the type who could take his game up another level if he can get there this time.

Who knows how many tournaments are going to take place before the end of the season given the situation in the Middle East, and where they may happen. For now though, given he was mediocre at Woo Jeong Hills last year, Hillier's best chance comes in Delhi, where his underrated accuracy from the tee can set him up to pepper flags.

Hopefully the putts drop and he can hang tough when he has to, but again there's the 'without' option for those happy taking fewer places.

Angel a gift from the gods?

Veterans Bernd Wiesberger and Joost Luiten are both of some interest, particularly the former, but both have been early movers and I can't see any juice in the available prices. Wiesberger will very likely play well and create a raft of birdie chances, but to beat this lot he'll need to putt better than he has since mid-summer, where he was found out when taking on world-class opposition.

ANGEL HIDALGO might be too but he took down Jon Rahm for his Open de Espana victory two years ago and has been threatening to double his tally this autumn.

Far less consistent than someone like Wiesberger, the Spaniard does at least have a likeable ability to capitalise on his good weeks and has done so twice in his last six starts, finishing fourth at Crans and second at Le Golf National. Both appeal as likeable form guides and he was able to compete because he put himself in position off the tee.

No wonder Hidalgo was backed off the boards last Monday, ahead of his return home, and he'd settled at about 50/1 by the evening. Unfortunately for backers, by Thursday lunchtime his chance was gone, because he played the first five holes in four-over. However, from then onwards Hidalgo shot nine-under, a score good enough for 11th place, and bar that first hour he performed much better than 32nd implies.

He ought to draw plenty of encouragement from that and we can take even more from his post-Open run, as along with those two top-fives he was also second through 54 holes at the Belfry. Throw in third at the K Club last year soon after he'd been 13th at the Brabazon and we have a very nice profile for the more tree-lined, positional courses on the DP World Tour, even if there was a gunslinging quality to his victory in Madrid.

Hidalgo has been 10th and 17th at DLF, another positive, and while he missed the cut here last year, that was the result of poor approach play having been as good as just about anyone off the tee. That had been a theme in the weeks prior to his Delhi debut, but this time he's gained strokes with his approaches in nine of his last 12 starts dating back to the beginning of June, while the putter has flashed often enough too.

He might look erratic at times but Hidalgo sits just outside the top 30 in driving accuracy this year and this looks the right place and the right time to chance him.

MATTEO MANASSERO has been frustrating to follow this year but the only superior iron player among the DP World Tour regulars is Patrick Reed, if we can call him that, and the Italian has to be worth chancing here.

He's never played Delhi before but three top-10s at DLF bode very well and they include his latest start there back in March, where he putted well on grainy, bermuda greens as he had two years earlier.

The putter continues to be Manassero's nemesis but he was effective enough in Scotland two starts ago and from tee-to-green, he really does look to be in a good place. As I've written before, there's probably nobody better at this level when we strip out the tee shot and the putter, his approach play and work around the green of a very high standard.

He averages almost a full stroke gained per round on approach since February and has seldom put a foot wrong in that department, so I continue to see positives which might eventually be rewarded. Remember, he was close to hitting the frame at enormous prices in the Irish Open (14th) and since then has made three cuts in four, hanging around close to the leaders at Le Golf National late last month.

Ultimately, we're buying into Delhi throwing up another leaderboard with strong ties to DLF. Were this tournament taking place across town I feel sure he'd be a good deal shorter in the market, but fewer drivers could make it even more suitable on this overdue first appearance. From 102nd in Race to Dubai points, Manassero needs to play well either here or in Korea, and fond memories of India make this the right choice.

At massive prices, Euan Walker and Ben Schmidt could play better than many expect. Walker has two top-20s from two appearances at DLF and was better last time, enough to give him hope as he battles to keep his status. Schmidt has even more to do after a miserable summer, but his best form has come at tighter courses, he was 11th here last year, and his approach play has been excellent over the past month or so.

But the reality of being a low-ranking DP World Tour member fighting for Race to Dubai points this late in the season is that they are extremely hard to come by and as much as Delhi has become easier than it once was, the competition has become much stiffer in the autumn. A successful week for players like Walker and Schmidt would mean a top-20 finish. Schmidt was in fact best of the rest when 11th last year: all those ahead bar Hillier and Jayden Schaper have held PGA Tour cards.

Schaper is limping towards that goal of PGA Tour membership and may welcome a return here, but CASEY JARVIS is preferred as the final selection.

Jarvis finished a good 17th last year when arriving out of sorts; indeed he was one of those 'other' golfers, finishing close behind the best of them in Schmidt. Now, he returns as a two-time DP World Tour champion whose PGA Tour card for next year is secure, which means he can now focus on actually winning the Race to Dubai itself.

To do so may require another victory and he was so close to securing it last time, when second in the Dunhill Links. We saw the best of him there in his hyper-aggressive approach play, some of the very best of the season, and we also saw the rawness that still exists when he made a bit of a silly mistake to give way to Adrian Meronk.

Still, it was the performance which sealed the deal in terms of that PGA Tour card and there could be more to come in Delhi, as he's improved his accuracy off the tee and is excellent around the green. Combine that with the return of his best approach work, which very much underpinned those back-to-back wins in the spring, and he's a serious proposition.

Jarvis's wins came in Kenya and South Africa, both on accuracy-first courses, and he's won at another of those in Austria on the HotelPlanner Tour. Bookend 66s last year helped demonstrate that Delhi suits and he's improved on each visit to DLF, where he shot a phenomenal 64 in round two of the Indian Open during that early-season purple patch.

He'd slowed thereafter until sixth in the Open reignited his season and while Dunhill Links form doesn't always carry over, this is a player who gets hot and stays hot. Jarvis won back-to-back titles back home in South Africa late last year, then went 1-1-2 in March, so the idea he might go 2-1 to throw his name into the hat for Race to Dubai honours seems entirely feasible to me.

Others on the shortlist include Oliver Lindell, who returned to form last week but still seeks his first professional win, and Ewen Ferguson, one of a clutch of Scots seeking to use Grant Forrest as inspiration. Ferguson though has been dealing with a persistent neck issue and missed the cut on his return in Spain, so while the course profile here is very different, he has a little to prove for now.

Posted at 19:00 BST on 12/10/25

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