Aa St Omer Open

72-hole plays (1pt unless stated):

Ian Garbutt to beat Jean Hugo -103 @ Five Dimes [2pts]
Don't see why Hugo should be the favourite in this match. Since last June, these two players have competed in twelve common events and Hugo has finished ahead of Garbutt on only one occasion. He has also missed four of six cuts on the Challenge Tour this year, so while he does have the advantage of course experience, he does not seem to be playing well enough to take advantage of it.

Peter Hanson to beat Jean-Francois Lucquin -125 @ Five Dimes
Both should finish highly in this event, but have Hanson with an edge. He leads his opponent in the h2h standings for this year across all events and he beat him when they both competed in 2001 - they have both had top-5 finishes in different years since. Another angle is that Hanson has made the weekend in eight of nine starts in France, whereas Lucquin has managed only five of ten (all but three were Challenge Tour events) in his homeland. Enough for me to side with Hanson in a tight match.

Henrik Nystrom to beat Leif Westerberg -114 @ Expekt
There is no denying Westerberg's form at the moment. Three consecutive top-5 finishes on the Challenge Tour is impressive, but he has missed the cut in both his main Tour events recently unlike Nystrom who finished 17ht at Gleneagles last week. Another factor is there head-to-head record. Across all tours, Nystrom holds a 13-1-0 lead in their last 14 common events.

Final update: 1-1-0; +0.86pts

Garbutt/Hugo WON by 4
Hanson/Lucquin VOID (Hanson dns)
Nystrom/Westerberg LOST by 8

Very nearly a sweep to finish in profit for the event. Westerberg looked like missing on Friday until he eagled the last hole to make the cut on the line. A nine-shot swing on the last day made it look like an easy win for Westerberg.