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18-Hole Match Picks - European Tour

Tipster: Stanley

Odds: 2-Balls

 

 

Odds: 3-Balls

British Open
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3-1; +8.30pts  (system plays: 10-6-2) 

Round 1 play (4pts):

Spencer Levin to beat Thomas Aiken +110 @ 5Dimes  WON by 2
Levin may have only played in one Open Championship - 2007 @ Carmoustie; he missed the cut - but he has shown himself to be one of the leading players on the PGA Tour this year: he ranks inside the top-10 in Scoring Average and already has nine top-15 finishes this year, including last time out in the AT&T National two weeks ago. And some of those performances have been in windy weather - he finished 14th in the windswept Honda Classic and in the particularly windy conditions in the first round of the Arnold Palmer Invitational, he shot 66 and was leading at the end of the day. With Aiken, he did play well in Spain in May and won the Open de Espana, but he has missed his last three cuts and can be opposed at this price.

[unofficial rd1 system plays: Ogilvy tb Woodland +110 (W); O'Hair tb Olesen +105 (T); Moore tb Baddeley -105 (W); Campbell tb Jamieson -105 (W); Moore tb Quiros +100 (W)]

 

Round 2 play (4pts):

Spencer Levin to beat Peter Whiteford +100 @ Unibet  WON by 6
Backing Levin for a second day and expecting him to produce a solid round in the first group out. By contrast, this is mainly a play against Whiteford. From a player who struggled on the European Tour last year, he has been in a great run of form over the last two months, but in the last two weeks he has struggled after getting onto the leaderboard - 72-75-71 after being 6th in the opening round of the Open de France and 73 after leading the Scottish Open. Today, he was again on the leaderboard and in the top-five at 2-under-par after eight holes, but dropped back to finish the day in 36th place. Making his Open debut, a similar trend looks likely to continue tomorrow.

[unofficial rd2 system plays: O'Hair tb Olesen +100 (W); Na tb Lawrie +108 (L)]

 

Round 3 play (2pts):

Miguel Angel Jimenez to beat Pablo Larrazabal -105 @ Pinnacle [also available @ 5Dimes, The Greek, Carib and WSEX]  WON by 4
This is uncharted territory for Larrazabal - his record in Majors so far reads: 70th, mc, mc. After 36 holes of this Open Championship, he lies in 7th place. However, it must be noted that he has benefitted greatly from the draw - those players that teed off in the 2nd half of the draw on Thursday have shot, on average, 3.15 shots better over the two rounds than those players that teed off in the 1st half of the draw on Thursday. Jimenez had an early tee-time on Thursday, so he should really be four shots ahead of Larrazabal, as opposed to just one. Anyway, with the forecast for very poor weather on Saturday, it will be Jimenez's laid-back attitude that will be his greatest advantage in this matchup in what should be a very high-scoring day.

[unofficial rd3 system play: Clarke tb Glover -109 (W)]

 

Round 4 play (2pts):

Charles Howell to beat Richard Green -105 @ Unibet [available generally]  LOST by 3
Both players have improved their leaderboard position at the end of each round and now lie in 25th place. That's too far behind to be in contention tomorrow, but the value in the final round has to be with the player who has finished in the top-5 in his last three starts. Others price Howell as low as -150, so they obviously agree - Howell is the form player and that shouldn't end tomorrow.

[unofficial rd4 system plays: Howell tb Rock -105 (W); Stricker tb Schwartzel -116 (W); Love tb Coetzee -107 (W); Johnson D tb Mickelson +110 (L); Howell tb Jacobson +105 (L); Palmer tb Coetzee -111 (L); Watson B tb Immelman +125 (W); Campbell tb Jacquelin -111 (T); Ikeda tb Lewis -110 (L); Jimenez tb Clarke +105 (L)]