Steve Palmer's Race to Dubai preview, best bets, free golf tips, analysis

Best bets, free golf tips and analysis for the Race to Dubai, which concludes at the 2020 DP World Tour Championship.

Best bets

Victor Perez
1pt each-way 80-1 Betfred
Back this tip with Paddy Power

Erik van Rooyen
1pt each-way 66-1 bet365, Betfred, Sky Bet
Back this tip with bet365

Thomas Pieters
1pt each-way 66-1 general
Back this tip with Coral

Palmer's top tip
Victor Perez 80-1

The Majors and WGCs always play a pivotal role in determining the winner of the Race to Dubai and punters planning a hearty investment on the 2020 European points race should be focusing on those with the best chance of success in the most prestigious events on the calendar.

Jon Rahm and Rory McIlroy are by far the most likely RTD contenders to win Majors and WGCs next year, which is why they are both so short in the betting, and high-rollers will probably not be considering a RTD wager on anyone else.

One of Rahm, the defending Race to Dubai champion, or McIlroy, a three-time victor, seems likely to end 2020 on top of the standings, and a case could be made for backing both at the freely available 7-2 apiece.

Such small profit margins do not appeal to everyone, though, and even picking between the pair is difficult. Rahm could easily repeat his 2019 triumph, which he completed by winning the curtain-closing Tour Championship, but he has no competitive experience of three of the four Major venues being used next year. Augusta is the only 2020 Major course at which Rahm has teed up.

McIlroy won the 2015 WGC-Match Play at Harding Park, which stages the US PGA for the first time next year. And he tied for 25th in the 2011 Open at Royal St George's, where the Claret Jug will be paraded again in July.

McIlroy is the slightly more appealing of the front two, but the Northern Irishman spoke negatively about European set-ups after the Dunhill Links Championship in September and he has said he will play a maximum of just one regulation European Tour event prior to the Open next year.

In a campaign which includes the Olympics and a Ryder Cup – Rahm and McIlroy are certainties to appear in both barring injury or illness – the superstar duo may be less inclined than ever to load their late-season European Tour schedule.

All things considered, resisting both Rahm and McIlroy is the preferred course of action, leaving the stake money for each-way wagers on three big-priced outsiders. There are four places up for grabs, so even if 2020 does turn into the Rahm and Rory show, there are still two spots available.

Victor Perez has matured into a hugely consistent ball-striker who can be relied upon to bank healthy cheques on a regular basis. And the Frenchman will end the year in the all-important top 50 of the world rankings, so will access all the mega-bucks gatherings next year.

Perez is based in Scotland, where he won the Dunhill Links in September, so three of the five Rolex Series events – the Irish Open, Scottish Open and BMW PGA Championship – are relatively close to home for him.

Perez lacks Stateside experience, so will have plenty of new gigs on his schedule, but he went to college in New Mexico from 2011 to 2015 and could take to American venues like a duck to water. His tee-to-green solidity will give him a squeak in the US PGA and US Open, while the Dunhill Links champion will command plenty of respect at Royal St George's.

Perez closed 2019 with form figures of 1-57-16-4-2-20, finishing 13th in the RTD having started the year ranked 132nd in the world. The progressive 27-year-old, with experienced caddie JP Fitzgerald alongside, can improve further in 2020 and go into the season-ending DP World Tour Championship with a sniff of RTD success.

Next best
Erik van Rooyen 66-1

Tenth place in the 2019 Race to Dubai provided further evidence that Erik van Rooyen is slowly but surely becoming one of the elite, and 29-year-old South African seems well capable of moving further up the European Tour pecking order in the months to come.

Getting off the mark on the European Tour was becoming a headache for Van Rooyen, who won on the Sunshine Tour and the Challenge Tour in 2017 but was struggling to get over the line in front in the higher grade. A courageous final-hole birdie in the Scandinavian Invitation at the end of August, though, saw the mild-mannered six-footer make an overdue breakthrough.

Since the joy in Sweden, Van Rooyen has performed well, particularly in Turkey, where he lost in a playoff, and he may soon develop into a serious Major contender. His four Major appearances have yielded form figures of 17-8-43-20 and his top-class ball-striking lends itself to difficult Major venues. He will close 2019 with a world ranking of 50, so has set himself up well for 2020. And like Perez, he attended college Stateside – at the University of Minnesota.

Other selection
Thomas Pieters 66-1

Residing outside the top 80 in the world rankings means Thomas Pieters is going to have to make a strong start to 2020 to access the events which are key to Race to Dubai success, but the brilliant Belgian is well capable of that.

A fast start to the new year could secure a return to the Masters, where he finished fourth on his debut in 2017, and his A-game is clearly good enough to challenge for the biggest prizes in the sport. The four-time European Tour champion – a World Cup winner last year – is still only 27 and has scope for a glorious decade ahead.

Pieters, who starred at the University of Illinois before top scoring in the 2016 Ryder Cup, showed his determination to regain his Team Europe spot by teeing up in the Mauritius Open at the start of this month. His 13th place there followed sixth in the DP World Tour Championship and the Czech Masters champion can be expected to be busy and successful in the months ahead.

Today's top sports betting stories

Follow us on Twitter @racingpostsport

Like us on Facebook RacingPostSport