The 2016 Rio Olympics have completely shaken up the golf schedule for this summer with the PGA Championship pushed up a week. The majority of golfers that aren’t competing in the final major of the season playing in the Kings Cup. That means we won’t see many big names at this event. Guys like Jordan Spieth, Dustin Johnson, Jason Day and Rory McIlroy are all playing in the PGA Championship. Whoever didn’t make the cut there (figuratively speaking) has opted to come to the Kings Cup and play in a very winnable event since the top dogs aren’t lurking.
Co-sanctioned with the European Tour for the first time, the Kings Cup will feature a field that consists of 90 players from the Asian Tour, 25 from the European Tour, 25 from the Thailand Professional Golf association and 16 tournament invites.
Event Details
Event: Kings Cup
Category: European
Date: July 28-31
Location: The Phoenix Gold Golf Club, Pattaya, Thailand
With 97 of the top-100 ranked players in the world competing in the PGA Championship, the field for this tournament could be difficult to navigate. It doesn’t help that there was no tournament in 2016 with Arnond Vongvanij, Prayad Marksaeng and Thaworn Wiratchant the last three Kings Cup winners from 2012 through 2014.
Past Five Winners
2014: Thaworn Wiratchant
2013: Prayad Marksaeng
2012: Arnond Vongvanij
2010: Udorn Duangdecha
2009: Chan Yih-Shin
What To Know About The Course
There isn’t much available online in terms of information about this course but what we do know is that the second nine in the Mountain Course and the ninth and 16th holes in particularly will be the most difficult. The course members play the ninth and 16th as par-fives but for tournament purposes they will be par-fours. Accuracy off the tee should be an important statistic to consider while putting numbers will be very important on the slow and small greens that mark the course. The fact that it’s a short resort course means Driving Distance shouldn’t be nearly as strong of a factor this week.
The Field
Prom Meesawat is the betting favorite to win the Kings Cup outright at +1800 odds and he’s followed by fellow Thai golfer Thanyakon Khrongpha, who is listed at +2000 odds. The fact that both players are listed at such long odds is testament to how wide open the field is but it also means there is an excellent opportunity to make some money. Eddie Pepperell, Carlos Pigem and Jazz Janewattananond round out the field of the top-five according to the sports betting odds and while navigating the list of players isn’t easy we can help when it comes to making the smart betting picks.
A Good Matchup To Bet: Prom Meesawat over Eddie Pepperell
Meesawat has only two wins over 300 starts but he is coming off a respectable 13th place finish at the Scottish Open and he finished third at the Queens Cup in Thailand last month. Meesawat should be in fine form heading in to this tournament and it wouldn’t surprise us if he finished in the top-10 while contending for the outright win. We aren’t nearly as intrigued by Pepperell as a short-priced favorite. An eighth-place finish at the Irish Open is the only decent finish he has put together all year so look for Meesawat to edge out Pepperell in the head-to-head betting matchup.
Top-Five Pick: Chris Hanson
Hanson hasn’t exactly thrived in recent European tournaments as he hasn’t finished in the top-10 since the Lyoness Open back in June and he has only two top-10 finishes in 13 starts this year. Hanson should be well rested after taking some time off since the Scottish Open at the beginning of the month and he has spent time in Thailand practicing at this course in preparation for the Kings Cup. Hanson is listed at +4500 to win this tournament outright and he might be worth taking a flyer on this week, especially when it comes to selecting a golfer to finish in the top-five.
Top 10 Odds To Win The Kings Cup
Prom Meesawat +1650
Eddie Pepperell +1650
Thanyakon Khrongpha +1650
Jazz Jenewattananond +2250
Carlos Pigem +2250
Adilson Da Silva +2850
Siddikur Rahman +3050
David Lipsky +3050
Paul Peterson +3250
Chris Hanson +3250
S S P Chawrasia +3250
