Scottish Open

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Marc Warren to beat Ross Fisher - 5.5 points @ 10-11 (Bwin)

There seems to be a groundswell of opinion that Ross Fisher is somehow coming back to his best of 2008/9, but his slide down the rankings from top-10 through 38 and currently 108th, seems to suggest otherwise. Fisher has had his issues both on and off course but it would have been far better to see improvement through recent events such as the BMW and the Irish Open, tournaments where Fisher has a very decent record. The odd top-10 and fairly promising round is not enough to convince me that he is anywhere near right and he is now desperate to get into The Open next week having missed out at qualification at Sunningdale. 68th and 42nd here in two efforts contribute to the thought that he simply isn't going to be too much of a match for the in-form Warren.

The Scot is a bit of an enigma. Lauded by Colin Montgomerie for carrying him over the line at the 2007 World Cup, he hasn't kicked on in terms of winning and does often spoil genuine chances with very naive mistakes. Nothing demonstrates that more than here last season when having a one-shot lead with four holes to go. In typical Warren style, he dropped four shots to finish one off a play-off and a possible change to his career. Lately, he has led both the Spanish Open and the PGA at Wentworth before dropping vital shots down the stretch. Nevertheless, all that reads well ahead of his match-up rival, and top-20 finishes in Ireland and France again make him much higher rated than a 10-11 each-of-two. Warren claims that his team have helped him look at these errors and learn from them, and even if that is exaggerated, everything we have on paper gives him a major chance to win this week, let alone finish ahead of his frustrated rival.