European Senior

Energis Senior Masters

The strongest field outside the Senior British Open assembles this week for the Senior European Tour event at Wentworth. The field includes the double-winners on Tour so far, Seiji Ebihara, Denis O’Sullivan, Noel Ratcliffe and Ian Stanley and it also marks the debut on this Tour of Rodger Davis who won the Volvo PGA Championship in 1986 at Wentworth, though that was on the adjacent West course. It looks like being an open contest and with four years of course form and two bookmakers pricing up this event, it's hard to avoid an interest.

The three selections this week are John Morgan, Simon Owen and John Grace. Morgan has combined membership of the Senior PGA and European Senior Tours for some time, but this year he has concentrated his time in Europe as he becomes less competitive Stateside through age. The result has been some very consistent finishes and back-to-back 3rd places at the STC Scandinavian International and the Senior British Open. He is still a player of high quality and with two decent finishes in this event in his previous visits, he looks a decent proposition for a top-5 place at least.

Simon Owen sold his farm in New Zealand to raise the funds to support a return to competitive golf and while he has yet to win, he been playing extremely well. He has three top-10 finishes in his last four Tour events, including the Senior British Open, and was an impressive 4th at the PGA Seniors Championship. At long odds, he looks a better value proposition than the single-figure favorites.

Finally, John Grace is another who attracts long odds in a market that is not meticulously researched. He won three times last year and this year, while being winless, has finished in the top-10 in five of his ten starts and in the top-20 in nine of them. A consistent golfer who has finished 7th in the last two years in this event, he should be at lower odds than 66/1, but thankfully he is not!

Outright plays:

John Morgan to win 25/1 e.w. @ Stan James [5 places option]

Simon Owen to win 50/1 e.w. @ Stan James [5 places option]

John Grace to win 66/1 e.w. @ Stan James [5 places option]

Final update: 1-2 and +0.25 units

Almost a decent week! None of the picks got close to the winner, David Oakley, but Simon Owen got a half-share of 5th place for a small profit, while Morgan dropped a shot on the last hole to move out of that top-5 place. He finished 7th, while Grace finished 14th, just three shots out of a place finish.