Two Italians with stacks of winning form can feature in the Catalunya Championship, as El Prat makes a welcome return to the schedule.
- El Prat returns after 11 years off the schedule
- Local hope Angel Ayora heads the betting
- Accuracy and short-game could prove key
Golf betting tips: Catalunya Championship
2pts e.w. Guido Migliozzi at 35/1 (bet365 1/5 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8)
1.5pts e.w. Marcus Armitage at 40/1 (Betfred, bet365 1/5 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8)
1.5pts e.w. Matteo Manassero at 55/1 (Coral, Ladbrokes 1/5 1,2,3,4,5,6,7)
1pt e.w. Marcus Kinhult at 125/1 (Betfred, bet365 1/5 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8)
1pt e.w. Jeff Winther at 140/1 (bet365 1/5 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8)
1pt e.w. Angel Hidalgo at 170/1 (bet365 1/5 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8)
The Estrella Damm Catalunya Championship returns to the DP World Tour schedule after a four-year gap and with respect to its former venue, Real Club de Golf El Prat surely represents an upgrade. Considered by many to be Barcelona's best golf club, it has hosted multiple editions of the Open de Espana along with plenty of other tournaments, recognition for its supreme conditioning and the fact that there are no weak holes.
With a corresponding LIV Golf event on the calendar (at the time of writing, at least), the field is the purest so far this season in terms of being packed with players who are, essentially, full-time DP World Tour golfers. Perhaps the only surprise is that it does not feature Race to Dubai leader Patrick Reed, who will therefore head to the PGA Championship having been off since his tie for 12th in the Masters.
Reed is missing out. El Prat, a 7,057-yard par 72, would've been right up his street based on what we've seen in recent visits, so consistent in what they demanded that the results are interchangeable. In 2015, short-hitting short-game specialist James Morrison won in 10-under; in 2011, short-hitting fade icon Thomas Aiken won in 10-under. In 2006, a Challenge Tour event went to the arrow-straight David Drysdale in, you guessed it, 10-under.
There have been a few tweaks since and we've a slightly different make-up of holes than were used back then, but the message remains that El Prat is subtly well-protected. Fairways are actually quite generous in spots, there's barely any water and, clearly, the overall yardage isn't a defence, yet nobody who has played the Pink Course will tell you anything other than it is a serious test of golf.
That view is supported by scoring in the Spanish Amateur five years ago and I would expect El Prat to again hold its own, with good weather probably enough to push scoring lower than it was, without this developing into a shootout.
Two of the key reasons for this are the bunkering and the greens and Barcelona local Pablo Larrazabal highlighted the latter when providing a tour of the course back in 2015. He'd been third to Aiken in 2011 and it's worth saying that 2015 winner Morrison is among the handful of players who can match Larrazabal's short-game skills. They will be tested again, I expect.
Quim Vidal, the DP World Tour rookie who is a member here at El Prat, said of the layout being used this time: "The Pink course is very technical; you must place the ball in a specific spot every time and I don’t think long hitters have an advantage. Some of the tees are tricky and, above all, the greens are very undulating, and if you lose your concentration, you can really get into trouble around them."
Reed would've loved it but in his absence, Angel Ayora and Jayden Schaper head the betting in a weak field for the grade. Ayora's floor is rising higher all the time whereas Schaper looks an ideal type for this course in many ways, the main concern with him being a cooling of the putter. That's kept him out of contention on a light schedule and explains a poor second round in Turkey on his return to action.
Last week's event looks our best recent guide so I'm hoping the top two are underwhelming again, leaving the way clear for MATTEO MANASSERO to justify my belief that he's being consistently underrated in the betting.
We were on at 70/1 when he flew home for ninth in India a month or so ago and again when he narrowly missed the cut in China, but after he put that behind him with 13th in Turkey, Manassero continues to look close to challenging for a title.
His very first came in Spain on a tight, tree-lined course and he's since been runner-up in the Andalucia Masters at another of them, as well as being one of those who has played here previously. Manassero was 29th after a slow start in 2011, that his return to action after winning in Malaysia, and while he was down the field in 2015, it was one of just five cuts he made all year.
Returning now with three top-25 finishes in four, the exception a narrow missed cut on a funky golf course, he looks precisely the right type for the test ahead. I would say he's just about the best player on the DP World Tour with a wedge in hand and his iron play in general is excellent, his last six starts averaging 1.25 strokes-gained per round with his approaches.
To put that into context it's a figure which would've been clear first for the 2024 and 2025 seasons and he'd be in the top five with his around-the-green numbers for the same period, so if we are talking a course which accentuates those second and third shots then Manassero is one of the best-equipped players in the entire field.
He'd have been inside the top 10 last week had he not three-putted the 72nd hole but even that aspect of his game continues in good shape at the moment, while it's striking that he could gain strokes off the tee through his accuracy in Turkey. Perhaps rinse and repeat is asking too much where the course is concerned, never mind the player, but El Prat does seem set to offer a very similar challenge.
With that in mind, Manassero's compatriot GUIDO MIGLIOZZI also makes the staking plan.
He's another who can sometimes put himself on the back foot from the tee but he's been better since returning from a 10-week break (I expect related to his Dubai residence), showing positive signs in China and taking another step forward in Turkey. Doing so allowed the rest of his game to sing and in finishing runner-up he ranked first in strokes-gained approach.
The last time Migliozzi did that was in September's BMW PGA Championship and he went and contended when fifth in France the very next week. Rewind further to his previous instance of leading the field with his irons and he kept on hitting quality approaches to be eighth in Germany and then win the KLM Open.
It was his iron play that won him the Open de France in 2022 and that again came after a big spike in Italy, this time ranking third, and his US Open fourth the previous year followed back-to-back runner-up finishes in Europe, where again his approach work was of a very high standard. The message with Migliozzi is both a metaphorical and a literal one: strike while the irons are hot.
We're also at a good course for him, or at least we could be. Migliozzi is one of those reasonably powerful players who arguably prefers definition off the tee at shorter courses, having won in Kenya and Belgium and been second at the Belfry. His best in Spain is sixth at Valderrama, although he did lose a play-off on the Alps Tour and, if you go back far enough, won a big amateur title in Sotogrande.
Most readers will know that with him nothing is guaranteed but the 29-year-old again impressed when in with a sniff last week and that likeable quality will always merit respect when circumstances feel right. He barely hit a bad shot in the final round and had one or two putts dropped, he would've made life very difficult for the winner.
Hopefully, compensation awaits and he certainly will have left Turkey feeling bullish about the weeks ahead.
Sticking with the theme of those who performed well there, Ewen Ferguson and Jacob Skov Olesen both made some appeal. Ferguson I find a little tricky to pin down but there's a lot in his favour, while Olesen isn't all that far behind the likes of Ayora when it comes to young players ready to earn breakthrough victories and his short-game ought to be a significant advantage.
Antoine Rozner is also of some interest but he's been struggling badly with the driver and finding fairways is his biggest issue right now, so in light of the comments of Vidal plus the evidence of the last couple of tournaments held here, this doesn't feel like the right week. Rozner is a past winner in Spain who could be dangerous if keeping it in play but that's a big if on the evidence of the past 12 months.
MARCUS ARMITAGE is also further down the driving accuracy stats than I'd like him to be but he's generally been solid off the tee down the years and there have been clear signs of improvement lately, including twice ranking as the number one driver for the week.
Providing he's got that part of his game under control then more good things should happen for one-time DP World Tour winner who has four top-10s already this year, including two in his last three. That's more than he managed in the entirety of 2023, 2024 and 2025 and is the best start he's had to a year since 2021, when he'd bagged three top-10s before capturing the European Open in early June.
That came after he'd been eighth in Denmark so ninth place last week could prove a big clue and the fact he was eight-under in beating a load of generally accurate drivers suggests that while Green Eagle looks very different to El Prat, the fundamental requirements may well be similar.
Armitage certainly doesn't want a shootout, some of his best form elsewhere having come at places like Le Golf National, Leopard Creek, Wentworth and Diamond Country Club, and as well as being a quality iron player he's got a dynamite short-game. Last year saw him rank 14th in strokes-gained around the green but that's upgraded to seventh if we apply a minimum 50-round qualifier.
It's true that his approach work hasn't been as sharp in very recent starts but I like his spike potential and at a course which should prove a nice fit for a shot-shaper with a short-game, he's another from last week's leaderboard who is worth sticking with.
Winther worth another try
Martin Couvra, Tom Vaillant and the amateur Michael Mjaaseth all played the Spanish Amateur here and what's interesting about that is Edoard Espana had also done so prior to a career-best second to Morrison. Espana's appearance was back in 2011 when Laurie Canter won and others from that renewal include Adrian Otaegui, Eddie Pepperell, Jack Senior and Francesco Laporta.
Pepperell gave a detailed and largely positive account of his game in his latest Substack post and would be the pick of the quartet but I'm going further down the market to give JEFF WINTHER another try.
Winther was midfield in Turkey but ranked second in strokes-gained approach and that's three of his last four starts which have seen him produce elite iron play. As he's widely considered one of the best putters on the DP World Tour, more of the same could well see him capitalise soon enough.
He will have to drive the ball straighter but ranked 31st and 47th in fairways over the last two seasons so there's hope there too, and what I really like is how strong a record he has in Spain. Down the years, Winther has five top-six finishes at this level and two more on the HotelPlanner Tour, a collection which includes his Mallorca Open win. A quarter of his DP World Tour top-10s have come in Spain.
Winther should be relishing this return and while he didn't threaten the places in Turkey, 38th on the back of an eye-catching 25th in China represents more solid golf. I'd make him a very short price to putt better and if he can drive it more in line with the Kenya Open, which came at a course with some similarities to this one, he could build on some sneaky recent promise.
Fellow Scandinavian MARCUS KINHULT is also on my radar after back-to-back top-30 finishes and he appeals as the right type for this.
Once considered one of the most promising young players in Europe and winner of a high-class British Masters back in 2019, Kinhult's progress has been halted by a battle with epilepsy and his results have been patchy since that diagnosis.
It's also fair to say that he's most effective on a very specific style of course, one where his lack of power can be overcome by a quality short-game. When that is the case and his iron play is as good as it sometimes can be he's very dangerous, and it was this time last year that he made a good run at the Turkish Open when selected on these pages.
Marcus Kinhult finishes at -11...
— DP World Tour (@DPWorldTour) June 23, 2024
Will it be enough? 😰#KLMOpen pic.twitter.com/5wxmieUO1a
He couldn't do that last week after a poor second round, but the other three were good for 29th place after 25th in China, and I love the fact he was first in fairways and third in greens in Turkey. Of course, we learn more from strokes-gained data but Kinhult was also 19th off the tee and 25th in approach play and that's by some way the best we've seen from him all season.
More of the same at a similar course and he'd be well capable of avoiding that one bad round and getting back in the mix, where he looked so comfortable when first beating Pepperell, Matt Wallace and Robert MacIntyre at Hillside, then losing a play-off to Tommy Fleetwood at Sun City.
Kinhult has won in Spain at a lower level and came through Qualifying School nearby when still a teenager. I'm sure he has more to offer and there are a couple of good golf courses coming up this month, which is handy as both his win and his subsequent play-off defeat in the KLM Open came in May.
Finally, ANGEL HIDALGO has winning course form and a Spanish Open title in the locker, so he'll do for me at 150/1.
Hidalgo beat Jon Rahm to register that sole DP World Tour victory so far, doing so with a winning score of 14-under, and his previous HotelPlanner Tour win had been in 12-under to demonstrate that he's another for whom a good test is preferred.
The former showed him to be a charismatic shot-maker with magic hands and while he's not been able to build on it on a consistent basis, we did see another flourish of high-class golf when third behind Rory McIlroy in last year's Irish Open at the tree-lined K Club.
That came after a back-to-form top-20 at the Belfry two starts previously so his 19th in China two weeks ago offers hopes of history repeating and while 52nd last week was a backwards step, he finished well and may wonder what might've been had he not lost six shots at the second hole alone.
HOW GOOD IS THIS?! 👏
— DP World Tour (@DPWorldTour) April 24, 2026
Angel Hidalgo hits DRIVER OFF THE DECK to inside 10ft! 🤯 #VolvoChinaOpen pic.twitter.com/2HsW53vfba
Hidalgo was five-under for the rest of the course and for some context, that means he matched Kota Kaneko and JC Ritchie (both T9) for 71 of the 72 holes. They play for 72 for a reason of course but Hidalgo looks like one who was better than the bare result and based on his previous step up, I'd say there have been enough reasons for positivity.
Sure to be geared up for this return to Spain, he can also call upon some sneaky course form having won the 2022 Barcelona Open. No, that isn't a tour event, but he saw off Pablo Larrazabal to do it. The other player in the mix that day? Mikael Lindberg, whose win in Turkey just earned him an invitation to the PGA Championship next week.
Maybe Hidalgo will draw some sort of inspiration from coming back to El Prat but regardless, he's a largely accurate driver whose putter has started to warm up, who has shown before he can rise to the occasion in his homeland, and whose best form has come against far better players than he faces here.
As with Winther and Kinhult he could bomb out, hence the prices we're taking, but I don't think anyone would be surprised to see Hidalgo raise his game and get back in the mix.
Posted at 18:00 BST on 04/05/26
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