A good quality field line up for this European Tour event. Westwood and Clarke may be missing, but in their place comes Els and Norman to the fray. This event has an unusual position in the schedule: it is the final qualifying event for the Ryder Cup in alternate years. With the tension of trying to qualify an impediment to good golf, this has thrown up some very unlikely winners. When the course was the venue once again for this event in 1997, Robert Karlsson won as a 80/1 shot; the following year Russell Claydon won as a 125/1 shot. Sanity was resumed last year when Monty won, though all the attention focused on Padraig Harrington who played excellent golf under pressure to hold onto the 2nd place he needed to qualify for Brookline. This event certainly moved him up a level in the world golf hierarchy.
The course itself is very flat and treeless and measuring under 7000 yards for a par-72, offers little to challenge the stroke-makers. This has invariably been a putting contest, given the widely-acclaimed greens, hence the unexpected winners. It also works against Bernhard Langer. He has won ten times in his home country, but never in this event. On the contrary, Padraig Harrington is excellent around the greens and has an excellent record in this event and on this course: he has been 3rd, 9th and 2nd in his three outings in this event, the last two on this course. He is the top-ranked and with Monty and Els in the field, represents the best value. Available at 20/1 with DAS, this represents good e/w value.
The most-heavily backed players will be Monty and Els, but of these neither represents good value at no more than 6/1 each. Instead, the 2nd outright play is on Pierre Fulke who won the Scottish PGA Championship last week. He was 11th on this course on his last visit, two years ago and is the best-ranked putter in the whole field, lying 2nd only to Lee Westwood in this year's putting average stats. Both Victor Chandler and Paddy Power offer 40/1 for Fulke and both of them pay the e/w bet on the 1st five places.
The 3rd choice is not an outsider, but at odds of 33/1 could represent a good return even if only finishing in the top-5 rather than winning. Jarmo Sandelin has re-discovered his scoring touch in the past couple of months and has the lowest scoring average of the field over that time. He may drive for show, but won two European Tour events last year on the basis of his excellent putting. He currently ranks 8th on the European Tour in putting average. The odds of 33/1 are available quite widely, though Paddy Power do offer a place return on the first five, rather than the firs four, places and that's quite an incentive to play there.
Will have matchup plays in the morning.
The course itself is very flat and treeless and measuring under 7000 yards for a par-72, offers little to challenge the stroke-makers. This has invariably been a putting contest, given the widely-acclaimed greens, hence the unexpected winners. It also works against Bernhard Langer. He has won ten times in his home country, but never in this event. On the contrary, Padraig Harrington is excellent around the greens and has an excellent record in this event and on this course: he has been 3rd, 9th and 2nd in his three outings in this event, the last two on this course. He is the top-ranked and with Monty and Els in the field, represents the best value. Available at 20/1 with DAS, this represents good e/w value.
The most-heavily backed players will be Monty and Els, but of these neither represents good value at no more than 6/1 each. Instead, the 2nd outright play is on Pierre Fulke who won the Scottish PGA Championship last week. He was 11th on this course on his last visit, two years ago and is the best-ranked putter in the whole field, lying 2nd only to Lee Westwood in this year's putting average stats. Both Victor Chandler and Paddy Power offer 40/1 for Fulke and both of them pay the e/w bet on the 1st five places.
The 3rd choice is not an outsider, but at odds of 33/1 could represent a good return even if only finishing in the top-5 rather than winning. Jarmo Sandelin has re-discovered his scoring touch in the past couple of months and has the lowest scoring average of the field over that time. He may drive for show, but won two European Tour events last year on the basis of his excellent putting. He currently ranks 8th on the European Tour in putting average. The odds of 33/1 are available quite widely, though Paddy Power do offer a place return on the first five, rather than the firs four, places and that's quite an incentive to play there.
Will have matchup plays in the morning.
