July 1st – European and PGA Tours
A superb field kicks off this week’s edition to the European Tour in the French National title, Alstom Open de France at Le Golf National. Normally a reasonable field with a couple of the big names on the European Tour contesting but this year it is filled with stars, many of which are in form. I start, as I have so many times before, with MARTIN KAYMER ($15.00) who won here last year in a playoff against LEE WESTWOOD ($11.00) who is the early favourite here this week. Both have been in great form this year but you’d have to say the price of Westwood is a little short considering the dramas he’s had to deal with this week. He was rushed to hospital after fearing he had got Deep Vein Thrombosis (DVT) when his calf and ankle swelled up and caused him a great deal of pain. Although it was found to just be a reaction to the heat it leaves me questioning his mindset and lead-up to the tournament and think Kaymer is a much stronger option. Kaymer has been very solid this year and will love the layout of the greens here in Paris. They aren’t super quick but require a good eye and confidence to strike your putts which the German has in spades. Accuracy off the tee is much more important than length around this course and a strong mindset is critical for the final holes which have a ton of water surrounding them. RORY McILROY ($21.00) again finds himself at the top of the early prices but I think until this kid shows some consistency I won’t be placing any money on him. Clearly a super talent but I think he will really struggle to keep his head for 4 days over those closing holes. He is advantaged with the warmer weather causing the usually luscious rough to be tamed meaning his occasional wayward drives won’t be fully punished. I think there could be a real threat to the title from the Danes who have performed well in this tournament before. SOREN HANSEN ($41.00) along with ANDERS HANSEN ($67.00) have been in ok form recently but the real contender is SOREN KJELDSEN ($41.00) who like his fellow countrymen has a good record here but has got much stronger recent form seeing him regularly feature in the top portion of leaderboard’s in recent times. For the Aussie followers RICHARD GREEN ($51.00) has been in horrible form except for his 2nd place finish in Portugal only a couple of weeks ago. That was out of the blue as his other tournaments have been very ordinary of late. However, his record here is outstanding with finishes of 2nd (2004), 7th (2006), 4th (2008) and 6th (2009) showing he really loves the layout here. Clearly the lack of distance required off the tees is a huge advantage for him.
The PGA Tour is a much harder read this week as the AT & T National has moved to a new venue in Pennsylvania and I have very little info on the new course except the fact it is nearby where SEAN O’HAIR ($23.00) and JIM FURYK ($13.00) grew up. RICKY FOWLER ($29.00) did have a huge win here with his college team as well so he at least has some background on the course. Out of those 3 O’Hair standouts out as the top pick as I believe he’s hitting the ball better than the other 2 at the moment (although only just). His strong finish in the US Open is clear in the memory bank and his good record on Par 4’s will be the key on a course that is only a Par 70. The last player I’ll mention is no surprise, TIGER WOODS ($4.50) who is really starting to show glimpses of his former self. Some superb iron play and chipping around the green saw him with the chance to claim yet another major until his putter let him down. I can’t see it being too far away before he is a real force in the game once again. I was tempted to take Ben Crane to beat Dustin Johnson in the Head to Heads with the assumption that Johnson would still have to be reeling from the memory of his US Open crumble but he is normally such a strong minded player that I’ll leave it alone for now. We have 3 very good bets already.
Our bets this weekend are:
MARTIN MAYMER to beat Rory McIlroy at $1.80 on SportsBet (Sports Managed Fund 10% Bet)
LUKE DONALD to beat Lee Westwood at $2.08 on SportsBet (Sports Managed Fund 5% Bet)
SEAN O’HAIR to beat Bo Van Pelt at $1.90 on SportsBet (Sports Managed Fund 10% Bet)
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What a great resource!