FINAL RESULT: 0-3; -3.00pts

Kaymer 14th
Lara wd
Noren 23rd

Once more, there was hope of a top-5 finish from at least one of the selections even into the final round, but the event returned a blank.

Outright plays (total stake per play: 1pt)

Martin Kaymer to win 33/1 e.w. @ Boyle Sports [6 places]
He has a taken some time to adjust to this Tour, but there are signs that he has found his feet. He was never going to start off as he did on the European Challenge Tour last year when winning twice and finishing in the top-4 in six of his first seven Tour events as a Challenge Tour rookie, but with finishes of 15th in the Madeira Island Open and 3rd in the Estoril Open de Portugal, he is getting ever closer to that main Tour win. And with this course being used on the Challenge Tour last season for the first time - he finished 4th - he has a rare advantage as a Tour rookie over the rest of the field this week in course experience.

Jose Manuel Lara to win 50/1 e.w. @ Ladbrokes and ToteSport
Kaymer is obviously returning to form, but with Lara it is rather less obvious. Since winning the Hong Kong Open in November, he has a best finish of 44th in seven Tour starts this year, but it is notable that he had made the cut in all three events played in the Middle East/Europe (and not made the cut elsewhere) and in his last start, the Estoril Open de Portugal, he was the top-ranked player in greens in regulation that week, so his game in clearly returning. And there is nowhere better for it to return that in his home country where he has had so much success. Since the start of the 2005 season, for example, he has competed in eight events in Spain on the European Tour, finishing in the top-3 on three occasions and outside the top-12 only twice. His ball-striking was good last time out; now that he is back in Spain, he should be able to convert that into some very low scores.

Alexander Noren to win 85/1 e.w. @ Stan James
Kaymer, understandably, grabbed all the headlines on the Challenge Tour last season, but Noren also recorded a run of six top-6 finishes in seven events, including one win, and finished 3rd in the Rankings to earn his European Tour Card for this season. And, like Kaymer, he struggled to make cuts at the start of the season, but once the Tour finally reached European soil, it was a different matter: he finished 7th in the Madeira Island Open and held the lead heading into the final round of the Estoril Open de Portugal. He faltered on that occasion, he was still very impressive over those two events and, given his success on the Oklahoma State University team, he is unlikely to surrender such an opportunity again.