Golf Betting Tips: Five first-time winners waiting to happen

Romain Wattel is fancied to spearhead a golden era for French golf

One of the best golf betting angles involves trying to identify up and coming players before they've nailed their first win. Paul Krishnamurty lists his five to follow in this regard...

Perseverance pays in a wide-open sport like golf and the heartiest of congratulations are due to anyone who took triple-figure odds about Chris Wood finally breaking his European Tour duck last week in Qatar, four and a half years since he made the frame as an amateur in the Open Championship and went into so many notebooks. Its been a long struggle for Wood fans, but at those odds, one win more or less pays for all the losses. 

By the same token, commiserations are due to anyone who backed runner-up George Coetzee, whose superb closing 65 looked to have earned a play-off and another crack at that elusive breakthrough win on a main tour. That was George's seventh top-three and 15th top-six finish on the Euro Tour and at number 48, is the highest non-winner in the world rankings. 

The secret, however, is well and truly out and it could be ages before we get attractive odds about the South African again. In order to find the best value, we'll need to search a bit further down the rankings and identify the emerging names not yet on most pundits' radars. Here's five players, all still regularly available at massive odds, who I reckon are due to break through in 2013.
 
Brendon De Jonge

De Jonge is the only one of this quintet already inside the world's top-100 but the Zimbabwean is usually available at very big prices, largely because of repeat failures in contention. Nevertheless, he has become very consistent, missing only one cut on the PGA Tour since last April and hitting over 70% of greens in regulation over the last six months. That particular stat is usually an excellent guide to a player's wellbeing and, having closed 2012 with a trio of top-four finishes, De Jonge seems likely to continue knocking on the door.

Harris English

Following on from a promising amateur career, this 23 year-old made an instant impact during last year's rookie season, finishing strongly with four top-25s from last six events. 2013 also started well with seven straight sub-70 rounds, and with bags of improvement left to come, English will be on many 'players to follow' lists. Harris also boasts impressive greens in regulation stats but his real strength lies in driving distance, so back him on long, wide-open courses where that advantage can be maximised.

Jimmy Walker

This 34 year-old Texan lacks the long-term potential of someone like English, but the flipside is that he's nearly always available at big prices. Walker is certainly making progress and becoming ever more consistent, making every cut since last July. Last weekend's fourth place at Torrey Pines was Jimmy's seventh top-ten from his last nine California starts, so clearly tournaments in that particular state represent the best opportunities to back him to achieve what appears to be an imminent breakthrough.

Victor Dubuisson 

French golf looks set for a golden era, with the following two players carrying tremendous potential and confidently predicted to break through on this year's European Tour. Dubuisson's long game has repeatedly impressed during his first two seasons and a 75% success rate for greens in regulation during 2012 would stand out in any company. He particularly caught the eye during April's 'Far East Swing', finishing 11th in Malaysia, fourth in the China Open and third in South Korea's Ballantines Championship. If the market hasn't woken up by the time those tournaments come around again, get on!

Romain Wattel 

Regular readers of my Find Me a 100 Winner column will be well aware of my liking for Wattel. Rather like his compatriot Dubuisson, Romain has already registered plenty of top-tens and, having already experienced final day pressure when registering consecutive top-threes at Crans and Gleneagles last summer, should be wiser when the next opportunity arises. A very big-hitter and top-grade putter, the best tournaments to back Wattel are ones where birdie accumulation is at a premium.