Turkish Airlines Open Tips 2026

In a week with plenty of unknowns and a course that seemingly negates the firepower of some of those at the top of the betting market, I’m starting my team of five a little further down the betting board with Eugenio Chacarra.

Like last week’s winner Bernd Wiesberger, Chacarra is an ex-LIV player plying his trade on the DP World Tour nowadays and the Spaniard is very much focussed on progressing to PGA Tour level at some point in the near future. A win at last year’s Hero Indian Open set the foundations for him to turn that dream into a reality, and at 17^th on the Race to Dubai as we head toward the summer tournaments he’s in good shape if he can keep his foot to the floor.

That victory last March is interesting form for this week, as was his valiant defence of that same title a month ago where he finished 2^nd behind man-of-the-moment Alex Fitzpatrick. Although stylistically quite different, the difficulty factor at DLF G&CC and this weeks test may well see similar names rising to the top of the leaderboard over the course of four days.

9^th at the Korn Ferry Tour’s Tulum Championship meant that he had far more travelling to do ahead of last week’s China Open, so 33^rd overall wasn’t a disaster and he’ll be far better acclimatised ahead of this week’s action in Turkey.

Although the evidence is sparse to say the least, Oliver Farr’s win here at National GC back in 2014 combined with the course description and specification would suggest that keeping out of trouble from off the tee is the best plan of attack around here, and to that end Nathan Kimsey makes a lot of appeal.

When we used to see him on the DP World Tour, Farr’s game was formed around finding fairways and Englishman Kimsey is no different, ranking 6^th on Tour for Driving Accuracy for the season-to-date and showing good progress on that count after finishing 60^th overall for 2025.

That metronomic approach has served him well so far in 2026, with finishes of 9^th in Bahrain, 5^th in Kenya, 9^th in South African and 6^th last week in China pushing the 33 year-old up to a creditable 30^th in the Race to Dubai rankings at this stage in the season.

The Lincolnshire man led the field for both Driving Accuracy and GIR in that season’s best finish at Karen Country Club, another fiddly tree-lined affair, and he was almost as impressive last week in Shanghai, topping the fairways found count once again whilst hitting over 80% of greens for 5^th on that metric.

An indifferent record in Turkey overall isn’t a concern given the change to a more amenable venue this week, and I can see Nathan seriously contending for his breakthrough DP World Tour title here this week.

The argument for Francesco Molinari is similar to that of Kimsey in terms of this course fitting his style of game, however whereas the Englishman’s career is on the ascendancy, the 2018 Open Champion is instead looking for something to reignite what’s been a steady slide since those heady days at the end of the last decade.

A starring role at the 2018 Ryder Cup followed Molinari’s success at Carnoustie with both performances sandwiched between his two regular PGA Tour victories at the 2018 Quicken Loans National and the 2019 Arnold Palmer Invitational, however since then it’s been a barren spell with no wins and the eventual loss of his PGA Tour card.

At the age of 43 perhaps there’s a little life in the old dog yet though. 10^th at the Nedbank to complete his 2025 outings was positive, as was 4^th at the Dubai Desert Classic at Rolex Series level. 6^th last time out at the Indian Open showed the kind of guile and resilience that may well be required this week to card rounds of 72, 72, 71, 70, and he arrives here in typically metronomic form, ranking 12^th on Tour for Driving Accuracy and 4^th for SG Approach.

A little further down the betting, I’ll also take a chance on Kiradech Aphibarnrat whose improvement last week in China was noteworthy.

A 2026 campaign that had seen the burly Thai record nothing better than 34^th in Kenya from 8 starts, last week’s tie for 13^th was undoubtedly a big step forward, punctuated by Friday and Sunday rounds of 66 as he recorded his best finish for 12 months.

In truth there have been some clues statistically that he was playing some nice golf without tying all aspects of his game together. 8^th to halfway in Kenya was fuelled by 2^nd for fairways found, and he was 7^th after 36 holes the following week in South Africa before fading once again. 20^th into Sunday in New Delhi could have been far better were it not for a nightmare Sunday, however since that point in time we’ve seen progress with his GIR performances and a warming with the putter to suggest he’s not far from putting it all together once week and challenging for a title.

For me, Aphibarnrat is a traditional-style golfer who likes to shape his ball and is well suited to tracks where strategy outweighs brute force. 2^nd at Wentworth in 2021 springs to mind for a strong effort on a tree-lined course and he might just sneak into the paying places here this week.

Finally I’ll take a very speculative punt on Dylan Naidoo who’s available at a huge price to build on his South African Open victory last year by winning another DP World Tour title.

Never the most consistent of players – if we’re being polite – the 28 year-old popped up to win his home Open last year at Durban on a short course with a classical vibe to it at 300/1, and we’re getting double that price this week or more if you’re brave enough to go with fewer each-way places.

Whereas he’d finished 2^nd in Mauritius the previous December to give a vague and distant clue that he could be competitive when everything clicked, this year has been even patchier which is why we’re getting the price here this week. Nothing better than a tie for 54^th in Bahrain from his first 7 starts of this year hardly instils confidence, however 23^rd at the Mediclinic Invitational on the Sunshine Tour with four rounds in the 60s may have just sparked some confidence and he backed that up with 25^th last week in China. In isolation that may not sound much, however 11^th for SG Off the Tee last week was backed up with 4^th for both =SG Approach and SG Tee to Green – as well as 6^th for Driving Accuracy and 2^nd for GIR in old money. If he can repeat that and find a spark with the putter than perhaps he’ll make a mockery of his dismissive odds.