After The PLAYERS Championship had to go into Monday to find a champion despite tee-times having been brought forward on Sunday, the question ahead of the Singapore Classic isn’t so much when it will finish, but whether it will even begin.
At the time of writing, the forecast suggests that rain, bucketloads of rain, is an inevitability from Wednesday morning. When it begins, it isn’t expected to stop until perhaps the weekend and if it comes down in the way it can out here, we could be in trouble.
It’s only two tournaments ago that the South African Open was cut to three rounds after a Sunday washout but that could feel like a relative marathon once we’re done at Laguna National. This is one of those weeks where it feels pertinent to remind readers that, for most bookmakers, 36 holes are needed for outright bets to stand.
You do wonder how much they’re paying Robert MacIntyre, who produced another excellent display at Sawgrass and is the one player in this field who will have had to endure both sets of delays. Like Shane Lowry last year, this seems an odd place to ramp up Masters preparations, but with Porsche the new title sponsors he’ll be looked after.
This former world number one amateur only turned pro late last year, signing off with victory in the Asia-Pacific Amateur Championship, and his career at Arizona State suggests we may just be talking about the first great male professional from China.
We’ll see about that in time but right now he’s showing that he can contend for DP World Tour titles, having been second at halfway in Qatar, finished better for 20th in Kenya, and then sat fifth at halfway before finishing 14th in Joburg.
Del Rey defied a slow start to be third on debut when leading after 54 holes, his best result in 2023, then produced his best result in 2024 when seventh despite having only scraped through to the weekend.
That says much about the task at hand and just as last year he arrived after finishing way down the field at the totally unsuitable Kenya Open, I don’t find it especially difficult to justify his performances since a runaway victory at Al Hamra, another big-hitters’ paradise.
Penge has gone 20-3-19 since returning, denied a chance to win in Durban when the final round was cancelled, and having ended last year with form figures of 28-22-MC-27 he really has now found his feet on the DP World Tour.
When that happened on the Challenge Tour he made hay and this dynamite putter, very much cut from the same cloth as players like Svensson and Bairstow, looks like he really should love a Laguna National course further softened by rain.
Another long driver, Ravetto won the Czech Masters on a long, soft course last autumn and whether it’s a guide to this event or not, the fact that Svensson was runner-up does tell you what the key requirement was that week.
Also 13th behind del Rey at Al Hamra, ninth on the PGA Tour in the big-hitters’ Barbasol Championship, a contender at the monster Blair Atholl and a winner in an event Wilco Nienaber has captured twice, he’s another with a pretty specific set of requirements.
Cantero wouldn’t have enjoyed the course in Joburg, nor is Kenya properly suitable, and if we take out those two his form figures read 31-5-4-14-25 since the beginning of the year.
We were on him when fifth at a massive price at Al Hamra, then again when fourth in Bahrain where he missed the play-off by one, and he’s drifted back out again following a run of courses which just don’t play to his strengths.
Like del Rey, he whacks it miles despite his short stature and with his driving numbers remaining strong, a decent week in other departments might be all that’s required given his potential to dominate off the tee.
Cantero’s approach play is much improved since this time last year, his putting always has the potential to spike, and I’d be confident we need not read anything into his missed cuts in Africa lately.
Finally, I want to chance GRANT FORREST at three-figure prices.
In the most straightforward terms, Forrest is a long driver who holes putts, which is how you’d describe Svensson, as well as third-placed Bairstow, and it’s very much the formula del Rey has put to use here too.
Forrest did it on debut himself, finishing sixth, and he was nicely set to challenge again after an opening 66 last year only to struggle over the final three rounds.
Putting four rounds together has been a bit of a problem lately, a fact demonstrated by finishing 64th in Kenya having been 10th at halfway, but he has made four cuts in five to begin the year and missed the other by a single shot. That’s the only cut he’s missed since last year’s US Open.
There are some indications then that Forrest isn’t far away, especially now his putter is beginning to warm up, and Laguna National is definitely a good course for the Scot.
I also like the fact his friend Calum Hill won in Kenya. Back in 2021, Hill was on hand to celebrate when Forrest won at Fairmont St Andrews, then Forrest returned the favour just a week later at the London Club.
Alone that fact wouldn’t be enough but around a course made for sluggers who make putts, and with the weather adding a dose of volatility, Forrest is one I have to be on.
Posted at 1805 GMT on 17/03/25
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