The Crowns

FINAL RESULT: 1-3; -0.75pts

Yang 3rd
Ho 24th
Sheehan 41st
Kawagishi mc

One that got away? Most definitely after Yang opened with a 61 on Thursday! He was over-par for the next two days, but still had a chance down the stretch only to record too many bogeys over the final few holes. They proved costly as he finished just one shot out of the playoff.

Outright plays (total stake per play: 1pt)

Yong-Eun Yang to win 22/1 e.w. @ GolfingGods
Twice a winner in the last three months of the 2004 Japan Tour season, with a record of six top-5 finishes in his last eleven starts and with finishes of 5th and 8th in his two starts this year, Yang is one of the best players on this Tour and so deserves a short price on that basis alone. But with a top-10 finish on his debut around Nagoya last year with every round in the 60s, he really should be a feature on this week's leaderboard.

S.K. Ho to win 25/1 e.w. @ GolfingGods
By contrast, it had been an indifferent last three months of the 2004 Japan Tour season for Ho, particularly after he had won twice earlier in the year, including the Japan PGA Championship where he was a wire-to-wire winner. Any doubts over his form/confidence/fitness were dispelled with a 6th place finish in the Tsuruya Open last week and on a course on which he has finished 15th and then 5th in his two previous visits, he should be able to again repeat his earlier 2004 form.

Paul Sheehan to win 25/1 e.w. @ GolfingGods
Sheehan was also a two-time winner in 2004 and completes a trio of selections who finished in the top-5 on the 2004 Japan Tour Money List. And while his early 2005 form in Australia had not been particularly convincing, he bounced back in style with a 2nd place finish in the Tsuruya Open, though he had held the lead for the first three days. Worthy of support on that basis at 25/1, he is definitely value when his course form is factored in: 8th in 2003 and 2nd in 2004.

Ryoken Kawagishi to win 40/1 e.w. @ GolfingGods
By contrast, Kawagishi hasn't won since 1999 and doesn't have a particularly good record on this course, but he was well-placed for the first three rounds on his return to this event last year and his form over the last six months is noteworthy. In his last nine events, he has finished outside the top-15 only once and that was in the season-opening and weather-disrupted Token Homemate Cup (25th) and while he has not won, he has finished 2nd three times in that nine-event stretch. Very difficult to ignore that form at this price.