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Li Haotong - 1.50 points each-way @ 50-1 Stan James 12345 It wasn't only Li's 3rd in Sicily that caught the eye last week. Shooting a best-of-the-day 66 on Payday, including a par-5 albatross, he was all ready to go home with his bronze medal before the late collapse by eventual winner Alvaro Quiros caused him to stop the coach, remove his bags, and wait to see if he had made a play-off! In the end he finished a shot shy, but his entire demeanour and enthusiastic attitude won him many fans and he is clearly a 21-year-old going places. Li has a tendency to shoot low when it counts and history records his final round 67 at Shenzen in 2015, eventually losing a play-off to Aphibarnrat, before winning the China Open a few months later with a fourth round 64, another (joint) best of day, and beating a very similar field to this weeks. It then took till November for him to show top form again but, once again, when finishing second in Turkey he recorded a joint lowest round with plenty of this week's field behind. Clearly he is taking these encouraging snippets forward and is showing more consistency thus far this year with a 5th at the Maybank (Sunday 65...yes it was), 11th in his defence at the China Open, and last week's superb showing. A multiple winner on home turf throughout 2014 he looks very capable of stepping up a notch, a la Jeunghan Wang, and winning a big event. First round 3-under here is a fine warm-up for the rest of the event and I feel he is under-estimated by the layers, especially having gone 50-1 from a very acceptable 40-1 Given the prevelance of low scores over the weekend, I wouldn't worry if he went into the final couple of rounds a handful off the pace and would easily consider going back in at a larger price should the books allow.
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