Ladies European

Evian Masters

Outright plays (1.5 units):

Juli Inkster to win 25/1 e.w. @ Stan James
Large price for an in-form player. She has finished in the top-10 in six of her last seven starts, including a win at the LPGA Corning Classic, and this is a course on which the LPGA players have played well in the past. Inkster has not performed that well on her two previous visits, but it is hard to see her outside the top-10 in this form.

Rosie Jones to win 33/1 e.w. @ Stan James
Jones missed the Big Apple Classic last week for only the 3rd time since 1990, presumably a result of the scheduling change for this event as she has an excellent record at Wykagyl. Like Inkster, her previous finishes on this course have been fair and it is her current form that makes this price look big: five top-10 finishes in her last six starts, including a win at the Asahi Ryokuken International. Having prepared well for this and next week's event, she should have her best finish yet on this course.

Grace Park to win 33/1 e.w. @ William Hill
Park was elected as the Evian Masters Ambassador in 2001 and looks a strong candidate to earn a different title this week. She did play last week in New York, but she recorded her fourth top-3 finish in six starts to keep her impressive run of form intact. Her course form is better than that of Inkster and Jones and fatigue is the only concern over Park recording at least another very high finish.

Michele Redman to win 50/1 e.w. @ Stan James
Adding a fourth outright selection again. Redman was one of the players that Park overtook at the end of last week's event resulting in her finishing outside the places. But in good form and having secured top-10 finishes in two of three visits, this looks a large price. Again, fatigue is the main concern.

Matchup plays (1.5 units unless stated):

Lorie Kane to beat Laura Davies -110 @ SkyBet [3 units]
Opposing Davies who has failed to find her early season form in the past few months apart from one week in the Ladies Irish Open and has failed to match her early form in this event in recent years - she won this event in 1995 and 1996. Kane has had two top-3 finishes in her last four starts and is in far better form.

Catriona Matthew to beat Laura Davies +107 @ Five Dimes
Same with the very consistent Matthew. Davies has failed to finish ahead of her in their last six common events and with that record and with at least a comparable recent course history, these odds are rather generous.

Catriona Matthew to beat Janice Moodie -110 @ SkyBet
Moodie's form has improved recently. She has made two of her last three cuts, including a top-10 finish last time out, but she had missed her previous three cuts. Her course form is also patchy - a top-5 finish and two poor results - so an easy side with Matthew.

Janice Moodie to beat Iben Tinning -118 @ Expekt
Siding with Moodie against Tinning though whose course form is extremely poor. In a 78-player event, she has a best finish of 35th in four attempts. She may have been very consistent on the Ladies European Tour this year, but a best finish of 5th is not particularly impressive for the Solheim Cup player. Moodie is slowly gaining form and is far more likely to finish in the top-half of the leaderboard.

Lorie Kane to beat Hee-Won Han +103 @ Five Dimes
This will be Han's fourth straight week of 72-hole events and if that were not tiring enough, she won the Big Apple Classic on Sunday and will now tee it up across the Atlantic in an event that starts a day early. Han finished behind Kane on her debut last year and could be forgiven a slow start this week.

Cristie Kerr to beat Maria Hjorth -118 @ Expekt [4.5 units]
Hjorth may never have won this event, but few can match her three 2nd place finishes in this event in the past five years. Few, however, would want to match her current form though. She has missed seven of her last ten cuts and will surely find it very hard to continue her form in this event. Kerr is not at her best at the moment, but she is making cuts and being competitive and finished 25th on her previous appearance in 2001.

Carin Koch to beat Maria Hjorth -115 @ Five Dimes
Will also side with Koch against Hjorth as she does have a decent course history and has played reasonably well since returning to competitive golf. She finished 4th in the Open de France last month and finished ahead of Hjorth in their two common events since then.

Rosie Jones to beat Patricia Meunier-Lebouc  -115 @ Five Dimes
Adding two more plays on Jones as her extremely consistent golf makes her a profitable player to follow for matchups. She has finished ahead of Meunier-Lebouc in five of their last six common events and only thought that Meunier-Lebouc's home field advantage will counter this is refuted by her course history.

Rosie Jones to beat Lorena Ochoa -110 @ SkyBet
Ochoa has no course history and that will surely be a disadvantage and with Jones finishing ahead of the Mexican in each of their last four common events, she should have the better week this week.

No 1st round plays.

2nd round plays (1.5 units unless stated):

Se Ri Pak to beat Juli Inkster -138 @ Five Dimes [3 units]
Laura Davies to beat Jeong Jang -115 @ Five Dimes
Leta Lindley to beat Samantha Head -135 @ Five Dimes [4.5 units]
Kelly Robbins to beat Wendy Ward -130 @ Five Dimes
Suzann Pettersen to beat Candie Kung -108 @ Five Dimes

2nd round update: 1-3-1; -0.80 units

Pak/Inkster TIED (Push)
Davies/Jang LOST by 5
Lindley/Head WON by 1
Robbins/Ward LOST by 5
Pettersen/Kung LOST by 1

3rd round plays (3 units):

Lorena Ochoa to beat Hee-Won Han -118 @ Five Dimes
Juli Inkster to beat Karrie Webb -115 @ Five Dimes
Dorothy Delasin to beat Maria Hjorth -110 @ Five Dimes

3rd round update: 1-2-0; -3.84 units

Ochoa/Han LOST by 6
Inkster/Webb WON by 4
Delasin/Hjorth LOST by 2

4th round plays (1.5 units):

Cristie Kerr to beat Natalie Gulbis -128 @ Five Dimes
Helen Alfredsson to beat Betsy King -130 @ Five Dimes

4th round update: 2-0-0; +3.00 units

Kerr/Gulbis WON by 4
Alfredsson/King WON by 1

Final update:

Matchups: 6-3-0; +8.81 units

Kane/Davies WON by 13
Matthew/Davies WON by 1
Matthew/Moodie LOST by 9
Moodie/Tinning WON by 6
Kane/Han LOST by 6
Kerr/Hjorth WON by 15
Koch/Hjorth WON by 13
Jones/Meunier-Lebouc WON by 7
Jones/Ochoa TIED (Lost)

18-holes: 4-5-1; -1.64 units

Outrights: 2-2; +25.88 units

Inkster 1st
Jones 3rd
Park 17th
Redman 7th

Occupied the top-two places for virtually the whole tournament, so extremely glad one of them stayed there until the end! Inkster had been tied for the overnight lead with Jones, but shot 65 to win the event by six shots and become the first American to win this event. Very impressive performance! Redman almost made it three players in the places - she finished two shots short - and the matchups were very profitable as well even though Ochoa's birdie-birdie finish meant that she tied with Jones which means a losing wager at SkyBet. Still a great result!