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Outright Picks - European Challenge Tour

Tipster: Jumbo

Odds: Outright

 
 
Kenya Open
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Philip Archer - 1 points each-way  @ 33-1 (Bet365)

Daniel Im - 0.50 point each-way @ 40-1 (bet365)

 

 

Hardly the easiest start to the Challenge Tour season and if there were clues in last months India event, there are precious few this week for a Kenyan Open that takes in a track last used in 2008.

It makes some sense to row along with small bets on players in form and, in that regard, two players stand out as potential winners here this week.

Forty-year-old Philip Archer may be a veteran of all Tours (including the Trilby one!) but he does win in turn and has racked up a win in each of the last two seasons and does tend to take the same routes early in the year.

In 2011, Archer went to Joburg and played poorly before finishing 19th a week later on the CT, whilst last season he finished 52nd in Joburg before 11th in India and a win in Columbia a week later. Following that was the fairly impressive 3rd in Kenya and whilst this is a different course it does show that he continues steady improvement as the season moves into it's first month. The events may be in a different order this year but 3rd in the season opener in India before a missed cut in Joburg (73/70, hardly horrendous) will put him in the right frame of mind for this week.

A player who took Brett Rumford to a play-off in the Omega European Masters in 2007, he boasts plenty of top-10/15 on the CT and should be right up there in a field that contains many no-hopers.

 

On the other end of the age scale, 28-year-old Daniel Im has already tried to qualify for the PGA Tour off the back of a successful Canadian career, when he burst on to the scene winning his first Pro event before one win from his next two. Runner-up later that season to Graham De Laet (now fully ensconced on the PGA Tour), Im has run up some nice figures although he seemed to go off the boil over the last season despite having one runners-up finish with a 63/65 weekend . Clearly now attempting to qualify for the big time through other means, he was impressive in his first ever look at the Kensville Challenge in India with four consistent rounds and there seems valid reason to stick with an in-form player in a weakfish field containing many home players that shouldn't be able to live with anyone with pretensions to the main Tours.