Lee Slattery won his maiden back in 2011 with a score of 15-under whilst 2013 victor Francois Calmels gagged up by seven shots in 2013 and a score of -18. Looking at their respective results shows their best efforts when birdies are easy to come by - Slattery plays well in the Omega, Italian, Lyoness and Africa Opens, and has a CT victory at the Telenet with a score of -21, whilst the Frenchman followed up his victory with a win at the D+D in 22-under- all scores that point to a birdie-fest rather than a slog round.

Although I'd like Ricardo Gouveia to be winning every week for selfish reasons, I'm happy I took the price about him in the OOM race as he looks sure to be going off sub-30 every week this season. The 23-year-old is going to be on main Tour for certain within two years and has a game that is going places. He backed up his first win in 2014 with a good showing at Q-School, whilst his efforts on the Algarve Tour in the close season were impressive despite the small but quality fields. His 12th at Kenya was an excellent warm-up for the weeks ahead and had it not been for an unusually quiet Sunday back-nine (2-over) he would surely have been placed. Trouble is that everyone knows this and at 25-1 he has to be left off, although with some trepidation.

Instead I am going to bite the bullet again with the 'other' OOM bet - Hugues Joannes who let me down badly in Kenya. The Belgian burst on to the scene right from the start in 2014 with a runner-up finish to multiple winner Moritz Lampert (significantly in Spain) and it was the birdie-fest that caught the eye, eventually finishing a couple behind the 20-under winning score. He never quite matched that effort but posted top-10 at the D+D (link to Calmels?) and a close 14th at the Foshan (-10) before ranking 35th in the OOM. Since then, he has competed against Gouveia in Portugal and with impressive success, winning a couple with ease, and it's that form that will give him top finishes this year. Madeira was a well-known flop and Kenya may not have suited so at 66-1 he is worth another chance on a track where he can open his shoulders.

Talking of smacking the ball a mile, Korean-born American Sihwan Kim looks wrong at 50-1. Kim has struggled to back-up his impressive amateur career but can still boast a very decent couple of years on the CT with a final ranking of 34th and 9th through 2012/2013. In that maiden season, the former US Junior Amateur champion finished with eight top-10s including a loss at the Rolex in 26-under! A further three scores in double-figures indicate a birdie-machine and it was only his lack of experience that stopped him obtaining the illusive victory. Back he came in 2013 and listed twelve top-20s including seven top-10s on his way to a top-10 and a European Tour card. 

Kim caught the eye a few times on the main Tour last year, often starting well but failing to be able to put four solid rounds together, something that he dragged over from those formative years on the second-tier Tour but the opening rounds at Laguna, Irish Open and Perth were impressive in the context of this event. The 9th-place finish at the Australian event saw him pick up his best cheque of the season and helped a finish of 130th in the R2D, but most notably he went into payday in the final group before an appalling 3-over front-nine wrecked any chance he had. In typical Kim fashion he opened with a 5-under 66 in Joburg before collapsing in the second round and whilst I haven't been able to find out much about what he has been up to since then, this looks a perfect opportunity for him to get back on track. Ignoring the 2013 missed-cut here due to it being the first outing of the season, he is a far better player now and stands out at least in terms of class relative to the field, given he will surely be encouraged by compatriot Byeong An's progress through the ranks, and close friend Peter Uilhein's status. 

Italian Matteo Delpodio is one of those 'thirty-somethings' that should be ready to progress through the ranks. A decent record in the third-tier class preceded an initial 41st in the 2012 OOM, a season on the main Tour, and finally improving to 32nd last season back at this level. Whilst not winning, he has however shown a predilection for going low as when showing up well at the Fred Olsen, Swiss Challenge, Kazakhstan and Shankai. He perhaps needed the outing at Kenya being another to drop away after an encouraging Thursday, but given Calmels also had a moderate opener to his season before winning here, that is no worry. With recent form figures in Spain of 8/19/mc/3  I'll take him at the price to small stakes to heed the advice from good friend Edoardo Molinari and take that main Tour experience forward throughout the season.

Talking of 'Ed's', it is about time that Frenchman Edouard Dubois made a return to the winner's circle. Twice a winner in 2011, shooting 13-under and 23-under, he can clearly win a low-scoring event and performed quite respectably in 2014 making eight cuts from eleven outings on the European Tour. After a pipe-opener on the Pro Golf tour, he made an encouraging start to this season with a 28th at Kenya (15th after three rounds) and is surely capable of another top-30 ranking at the end of the year. 4th here in 2013, he also lists a runner-up at the Challenge De Espana in the same year and a top-20 in the NH event a year later and is yet another that represents the class-droppers.

Frenchman Cyril Bouniol was another to hone his game in the States and admits that recent travelling back-and-forth has been somewhat difficult, but nevertheless takes a drop in grade having qualified for the 2015 main Tour on the back of a last-gasp effort at Q-School. Making 15 cuts from 22 events with seven top-10s make the rookie season impressive enough and makes the return to form last time out in Kenya less of a surprise - the 13th place finish being the worst it could have been given the stand-out 75 of the third round. It may be that Bouniol isn't ready for the challenge of the main circuit, but also that his life has changed with recent marriage and a new coaching team, all things that take time to gel together. Kenya was encouraging and he arrives in Spain with a 5th in the 2014 Challenge de Catalunya for encouragement. At the price he was always up the list of candidates.