The Palm Course at Saujana Golf and Country Club in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, plays host to this week’s Maybank Championship. The course has hosted this event six times but not since 2009. That said, it’s worth noting that Thongchai Jaidee (more on him later) won the Malaysian Open here at Saujana in in 2004 and 2005.
With a lack of recent course history, I’ll be concentrating on both Recent and Long-term (LT) Adjusted Round Scores (Adj Rd Scores) this week.
The Big Three
Feel The Bernd
Bernd Wiesberger ($12,000) is the most expensive golfer in the field this week, but his current 8.3 percent odds to win are tied for second. Weisberger’s LT Adj Rd Score (69.4) ranks third, his 73.2 percent LT Greens in Regulation (GIR) is ninth, and his 14.2 LT Adjusted Birdies Per Tournament (Adj Bird Avg) is sixth.
Bernd’s 69.1 Recent Adj Rd Score is tied for fifth: He has finished fourth, 32nd, and 37th so far this season. Weisberger has finished T2 in his last two trips to Malaysia.
Per our free Trends tool, golfers with comparable salaries and odds to win have traditionally produced an +8.46 Plus/Minus with 57.6 percent Consistency. He currently leads the slate with 10 Pro Trends in our Player Models.
27 Straight Cuts
Speaking of consistency: Rafael Cabrera-Bello ($11,800) has made the cut in 27 straight tournaments. RCB is currently the betting favorite with 9.1 percent odds to win. Per usual, Cabrera-Bello’s 75.4 percent LT GIR is top in the field, his 69.3 LT Adj Rd Score is second, and his 14.6 LT Adj Bird Avg is tied for third.
Encouragingly, RCB’s 68.7 Recent Adj Rd Score also leads the field: He has finished 19th, sixth, and 11th in his three starts this year. Rafa’s 17.3 Recent Adj Bird Avg ranks 10th, and his 77.6 DraftKings points per tournament (PPT) over the past 12 months is the second-best average in the field.
RCB has played this course twice with a T37 in 2009 and a T68 in 2007 when he shot an 83 on Sunday.
The 2011 Masters Champion
Charl Scwartzel ($11,200) has not yet played in a tournament in 2017, but he did close out his 2016 season with third- and fourth-place finishes, averaging a whopping 122.75 DK PPT at those events. Schwartzel’s 68.8 LT Adj Rd Score leads the field as does his 16.1 LT Adj Bird Avg.
Scwartzel has never played at Saujana but #MalaysianNarrativeTruthers will be pleased to know he has three top-six finishes in the Malaysian Open. Charl has also claimed at least one top-five finish in the year’s first two months for the past 12 years.
Editor’s Note: We hope you enjoy the world’s smallest GIF.
The Bump and Run
Choke up and take a narrow stance.
Lee Westwood ($11,000): Westwood’s 70.0 LT Adj Rd Score ranks eighth, and he has top-30 LT GIR (69.0) and LT Driving Accuracy (63.4) percentages. His impressive 68.8 Recent Adj Rd Score and 19.5 Recent Adj Bird Avg rank second and third. Westwood won this event the last time it was played here at Saujana. He has won seven times in 11 starts on the Asian Tour since 2010.
Kiradech Aphibarnrat ($9,600): Aphibarnrat’s 69.6 Recent Adj Rd Score is tied for 10th, and he has a top-25 Recent Adj Bird Avg (14.7). He started the year with top-five and top-10 finishes before missing the cut last week. Kiradech won the Malaysian Open in 2013 (at a different course) . . . so that piece of information might not be relevant.
Tommy Fleetwood ($8,300): Fleetwood won the Abu Dhabi Championship to kick off the 2017 season then promptly missed two cuts. Fleetwood’s 70.4 LT Adj Rd Score is the 11th-best score in the field, his 73.7 LT GIR percentage is sixth, and his 13.4 LT Adj Bird Avg is top-20. His incredible 81 percent Recent GIR leads the field. Fleetwood is an intriguing (and potentially low-owned) play in guaranteed prize pools this week due to the recent missed cuts.
Thomas Aiken ($7,700): Aiken’s 70.5 LT Adj Rd Score is tied for 12th, and his 73.6 percent LT GIR and 70.6 LT Driving Accuracy (DA) are both seventh. Aiken has looked sharp in 2017: He has two top-five finishes and a top-15 performance in four starts. His 69.1 Recent Adj Rd Score is tied for fifth, and he has a juicy 80.3 Recent GIR percentage.
Mikko Korhonen ($6,600): Korhonen has top-25 rankings in LT Adj Rd Score (70.7), LT GIR (72.7 percent), and LT DA (63.9 percent). Korhonen has made all three of his cuts in 2017 and has the 15th-best Recent Adj Rd Score (70.1) this week. He has averaged 15.5 birdies per tournament this year.
Matteo Manassero ($6,200): If you’re looking to go extreme stars and scrubs, Mannassero could be your guy. He won the Malaysian Open in 2011 and finished T7 in 2012. His 70.8 Recent Adj Rd Score is inside the top 30 this week, and his 80.4 Recent GIR percentage is second overall.
The Euro Course Horse
In addition to having two wins at this course, the aforementioned Thongchai Jaidee ($8,900) is tied for the sixth-best LT Adj Rd Score (69.9) and has a top-20 LT Adj Bird Avg (13.4). Thongchai missed the first two cuts of the Desert Swing this year but bounced back with a 15th-place finish at the Dubai Desert Classic.
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Be sure to visit our suite of Tools to research all of the golfers. Good luck this week!
