Joburg Open: Free Tips, Prediction and Odds

The DP World Tour remains in South Africa for the closing leg of the International Swing, the Joburg Open, which takes place for the third consecutive season at Houghton Golf Club.

First staged in 2007, this event has bounced around several venues in the Johannesburg area with Houghton, which underwent a Jack Nicklaus redesign before reopening in 2009, taking over hosting duties for the first time in November 2022, when England's Dan Bradbury was a shock winner.

South Africa's Dean Burmester triumphed at much shorter odds the following season, but both men are strong ball-strikers and Nicklaus designs tend to be second-shot courses which put an emphasis on approach play.

This year, the tournament has shifted from a November slot to March, becoming the final event in the DP World Tour's eight-week International Swing, which started with the Team Cup in January.

Reigning champion Burmester is unable to defend his title as he's competing in Hong Kong on the LIV Tour so another South African, Jayden Schaper, assumes outright favouritism at 18/1.

Joburg Open free betting tips and predictions

Daniel Brown to win and each-way - 33/1

Unsurprisingly, South Africans have a strong record in this event, but two of the last four editions went the way of Europeans and England's in-form Daniel Brown looks to have solid claims in a weak field.

An accurate driver of the ball, Brown skipped the Kenya Open and the South African Open over the last fortnight, so it's perhaps significant that he's making the one-off trip to Houghton, a course where he was competitive in 2023, finishing 17th, having entered the final round inside the top ten.

The Yorkshireman carded rounds of 69, 68, 65 over the opening three rounds on that occasion and he has been a regular on DP World Tour leaderboards this season, losing out in a Bahrain Championship play-off then finishing tenth at the Qatar Masters last month. 

A winner of the ISPS Handa World Invitational at Galgorm Castle in 2023, Brown posted several fine results last year, most notably when tenth behind Xander Schauffele at the Open Championship.

He has an eye-catching record in South Africa at this time of the year, finishing ninth and and fourth in two editions of the SDC Championship at another Nicklaus design, St Francis Links, and compiling form figures of 12-17-23 in the Jonsson Workwear Open from 2022 to 2024.

Francesco Laporta to win and each-way - 28/1

A tree-lined second-shot course will play to the strengths of Francesco Laporta and the steady Italian has a good opportunity to earn a first DP World Tour title this week.

Laporta, who has won three times on the Challenge Tour, finished sixth in the Nedbank Challenge in South Africa at the start of the season he's shown promise this year, finishing 13th in Bahrain when he was right there heading into the back nine of the final round, and 21st in Qatar the following week.

He started poorly in the South African Open last week, carding a first-round 76 in a tournament which was marked by weather delays, but he battled back manfully in the second round, firing a 66 to miss the cut by two shots.

Laporta finished 13th at Houghton in 2023, shooting four rounds in the 60s. He was also tenth in the 2023 South African Open and 16th in last year's SDC Championship, which illustrates his comfort in this part of the world.

Dylan Frittelli to win and each-way - 66/1

Given a South African has won 10 of the 16 previous Joburg Opens, it would be wrong to go into battle without a member of the home team on side and the best option could prove to be Dylan Frittelli.

A PGA Tour winner at the 2019 John Deere Classic, Frittelli's career has stalled in recent years, but he showed he still has what it takes to win at DP World Tour level when winning in Bahrain last season.

The 34-year-old is a Joburg native who was 12th on his sole competitive Houghton appearance in the 2023 edition of this tournament.

While he remains inconsistent, Frittelli was tenth in much more exalted company in the Dubai Desert Classic to start this year and he carded opening rounds of 69-69 in Durban last week before fading on Saturday, finishing 63rd.

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This article was written by a partner sports writer via Spotlight Sports Group. All odds displayed on this page were correct at the time of writing and are subject to withdrawal or change at any time.