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Apologies, but this week’s preview needs to be very brief. Work commitments and a Wednesday start mean that there is time for limited analysis of angles and selections. It is a shame that the Tour takes a one-week break next week for the PGA Championship as this feels like the start of the main part of the European Tour schedule. For the next five months, other than Majors and WC events, the European Tour stays exclusively within Europe and with already-established events . The effect on the quality of the field from last week’s event is significant. They will compete on a relatively flat, tree-lined parkland course that features water on some rather famous holes: the driveable par-4 10th hole, the reachable par-5 17th hole and the challenging par-4 18th hole. The rest of the course is rather mild in comparison, but it should make for a very interesting finale. Apart from hosting four Ryder Cups between 1985 and 2002, the course was a regular venue on the European Tour between 1979 and 2008, including the Benson and Hedges International between 2000 and 2003 and the British Masters between 2006 and 2008. It seems such a long time since the EU-wide ban on sponsorship of sporting events by tobacco firms in July 2005. The Belfry made a welcome return to the European Tour last year with the UK Championship and is retained as the venue for this year’s British Masters which has a course rotation policy.That means that there is no guarantee that the European Tour will return here next year. The course has always played tough with narrow fairways and smaller-than-average greens and has always been a good test of ball-striking as well as a made-for-TV finish. Here are a couple of angle to identify players who should contend. Angle to consider: 1. Tee-to-green skills is key on this course The last seven winners on this course – Henrik Stenson, Angel Cabrera, Paul Casey, Johan Edfors, Lee Westwood, Gonzalo Fernandez-Castano and last year’s Rasmus Hojgaard – were all very good tee-to-green and all less than stellar around the greens. There are no stats for Stenson (2001) and Cabrera (2002), but they both possessed power off the tee and had very good greens in regulation stats at that time of their careers. The other five all ranked inside the top-20 for driving distance that week, but that was not the case for driving accuracy. The driveable par-4 10th hole and three par-5s that are reachable in two and so reward players that have power off the tee. In terms of last year’s UK Championship here, Hojgaard, Justin Walters (2nd) and Martin Kaymer (3rd) all ranked since the top-6 for greens in regulation that week. Benjamin Hebert also finished 3rd alongside Kaymer and ranked 1st in strokes gained: approach the green. Kaymer ranked 2nd and Hijgaard 4th in that stat. It is a very strong feature of European Ryder Cup venues that they are very strong tests of tee-to-green play as well as providing a strong risk-reward element. The winner will be very strong in this department 2. Class prevails at the Belfry The list of winners above is very impressive for any tournament. But it goes beyond the winners. Seven of the top-10 on the leaderboard last year were amongst the top-25 in terms of World Rankings at the start of the week. Given the first angle, this should not be a major surprise. Selections The above angles have been used to create a shortlist from which the following players has been selected. Bernd Wiesberger Wiesberger played on the PGA Tour between the WGC-Workday Championship and making the cut at The Masters so this will be his first event on the European Tour since the Middle East Swing where he finished 6th in the Dubai Desert Classic. Despite these limited appearances on Tour this year and playing on the much harder courses than have been used in recent months (mostly resort course), he still ranks 8th in greens in regulation on the Tour this year. Together with a top-5 finish here last year, he looks a strong candidate to play well on this course. Martin Kaymer Kaymer has been playing in Europe, finishing 3rd last time out in the Austrian Open. His game is very well-suited to this course – he ranks 11th in greens in regulation and 8th in strokes gained: approach the green on Tour this season – and he showed that last year when finishing 3rd. It could/should have been much better as he was a strong favourite until mistakes at the penultimate hole saw him finish one shot out of the playoff. He is certainly due a win. Rasmus Hojgaard Last year’s win was his second European Tour title in just 15 European Tour starts. It was always going to be difficult to maintain that momentum, but he secured two top-10 finishes against very strong fields in the Middle East earlier this year. Like Wiesberger, he hasn’t competed on the much easier resort courses of recent weeks, but he still ranks very high in the tee-to-green stats: 5th in greens in regulation and 9th in strokes gained: approach the green. Tips 0-3; -6.00pts 1pt e.w. Bernd Wiesberger 18/1 (Paddy Power, Betfair Sportsbook 1/5 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8) 34th 1pt e.w. Martin Kaymer 16/1 (Betfred 1/5 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10) mc 1pt e.w. Rasmus Hojgaard 18/1 (Betfred 1/5 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10) mc
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