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Betfair Picks - European Tour |
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9-2; +3.32pts Pre-tournament plays: BACK 1pt Miguel Angel Jimenez 190 mc
Jaco Van Zyl 85 38th
Backing Jimenez again on the basis of two runners-up finishes on the Champions Tour in his last two outings - he can still be competitive on this Tour
Van Zyl missed the cut at Oakmont last week, but that should minimise the fatigue effects of that event and he has did finish 12th-23rd-7th in his last three European Tour events in May LAY 20pts liability Jeung-Hun Wang 70 mc
Hao-Tong Li 110 mc
Zander Lombard 190 21st
Brandon Stone 85 33rd
Chris Hanson 240 38th
Wang is still a go-against play at double-digit odds while he struggles to repeat his earlier season form in these stronger European Tour events
Li has also won this season, but his form has since dropped and, like Li, will strugge in these stronger events in mainland Europe without any previous course history
Lombard is another who has never played in this event, let alone on this course, and while he did finish 5th in the much-weaker Lyoness Open, he could only manage 69th on the Challenge Tour last week
Stone does have a top-10 finish in this event, but that was at a different course and he has never played this course previously; missed cuts in his last two starts also suggests that he shouldn't be double-digit odds
Hanson has shown good form recently, but he showed in the Trophee Hassan II that he is not yet at the level to win on this Tour Pre-rd3 plays: LAY 20pts liability Thorbjorn Olesen 10.5 2nd
Andy Sullivan 80 21st
Joost Luiten 19 16th
Sergio Garcia 22 5th
Stenson looks very difficult to beat at this stage - he is joint leader, leads the field in dricing accuracy and greens in regulation, has finished in the top-10 in each of the last six BMW Internal Opens and is the highest-ranked player in the field - so opposing others around him at the available odds
Olesen has been in poor form - missed cuts in his last two starts - and has missed the cut in three of four previous BMW International Opens, so I wouldn't price him at these odds even though he is 4th on the leaderboard
Sullivan has the ability to close a seven-shot on the leaders, but ranking 39th in greens in regulation so far this week, without a top-10 finish in 11 starts and with a very poor record in this event, it looks very unlikely that he will threaten the leaders from his current position outside the top-20
Luiten is closer in 7th place and in better form than Olesen and Luiten, but he is still four shots behind the leaders and he has never won on the European Tour when this many shots behind with 36 holes to play
Like Sullivan, Garcia has the ability to close a six-shot gap, but these odds looks rather short for someone that far behind and in 14th place - if he did manage it, I would expect fatigue from his 5th place finish in last week's U.S. Open to become a factor over the back nine on Sunday
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