The LIV Golf Invitational Jeddah: Australia’s Cameron Smith Struggled Last Week

• The seventh event of the first LIV Golf season
• The circuit heads to the backyard of its Saudi Arabian backers
• Dustin Johnson has already been crowned Individual Champion of 2022

The LIV Golf Invitational Jeddah Odds

BetMGM odds. Note that not all bookmakers are offering odds on LIV Golf and some states are limiting options too. BetMGM and BetRivers have priced it up and these states are permitting wagers at DraftKings: Arizona, Connecticut, Wyoming, Oregon, and Illinois.

The LIV Golf Invitational Jeddah Picks and Predictions

Dustin Johnson is the outright pick at +550 with BetRivers

Ian Poulter each at +4000 with BetMGM

This week sees the seventh event of the first LIV Golf season and it is also the last which includes an individual element (the final tournament of the season, in Miami, is a pure team competition).

Any hopes of a frantic and exciting dash to the winning line (and the $18 million bonus) have been foxed by the excellence of Dustin Johnson.

The American holds such a dominant lead in the race for individual honors that he cannot be caught this week – so he’s a huge winner even before he tees it up (as, of course, are all those in the field who were tempted by huge signing on fees).

Last week’s Bangkok event witnessed a huge shock with victory for Spain’s Eugenio Lopez-Chacarra, an amateur at the start of this season and a youngster with no previous top-20 finish on a professional tour. He not only landed the win, but he also banked $4 million in prize money.

Course Report

Royal Greens Golf & Country Club has hosted the Saudi International for the last four years, the first three of them on the DP World Tour before this year it transferred to the Asian Tour.

It is located on the Red Sea and that is not the only water feature – wadis and lake also threaten errant blows from both the tee and fairway.

A blustery wind is the key defense of a set-up that played as a par 70 with a yardage of around 7,000 yards when it has hosted the regular tours (there is currently no course information on the LIV Golf website).

The Favourites

There is absolutely nothing surprising about Dustin Johnson leading the betting.

Not only has he already sewn up the individual title for the year, but he has also done so with great consistency finishing top eight in five of his six starts, never finishing worse than 16th, winning once, and being a runner-up twice.

Then there is his course form: four starts, twice a winner, once a runner-up, never finishing worse than eighth.

Australia’s Cameron Smith struggled last week, never getting started and failing to break 70 in finishing 42nd.

But, before then, he was a four-time winner for the year including in his second LIV start.

He made his Royal Greens debut earlier this year when he opened with two laps of 66 for fourth place.

What of Joaquin Niemann? At first glance, his LIV returns are heading in the wrong direction.

He was second on debut, fourth next up, and 20th last week. On the other hand, he carded an equal best-of-the-day 65 in the final round after a slow start.

He also made his first start on the course earlier this year and opened with another 65 on his way to 10th.

DJ to Spin Another Tune

It’s quite intriguing that a number of players in the field have a poor record at Royal Greens.

Patrick Reed has played four times and never finished better than 38th, Lee Westwood has no top 20 in his four starts, and Henrik Stenson’s four appearances have a best of 17th.

In contrast, as we’ve already seen, Dustin Johnson has a superb logbook on the course.

In addition to his two wins and one second place in just four appearances, he’s also gone sub-70 in 12 of his 14 laps.

“I like the golf course,” he said with typical understatement earlier this year. “I’ve obviously done pretty well here the last three years, so I look forward to coming over here. It’s a tournament I enjoy playing, a golf course that I’ve always thought sets up well for me, and a place where I have a lot of good memories.”

Take him in the outright at +550 with BetRivers.

Poulter’s Time to Shine

Englishman Ian Poulter has not had the best time of it since he joined LIV.

A big factor in that is likely to be that he is one of the more notable rebels and he has both enthusiastically taken the fight to the courts and had to deal with the issue in the media.

Last week he opened with a 66, his equal best effort since he joined the circuit and it left him sharing fourth on the first-round leaderboard – he has never been higher this summer.

Encouraged, he can utilize his good experience of the course.

He was sixth on debut in 2019, landed top 20s in both 2020 and 2021, and was on track for another before a sloppy final round earlier this year.

Take him each way with BetMGM offering +4000 and five places.

How to Watch The LIV Golf Invitational Jeddah