Southern Africa

Nashua Nedtel Cellular Masters

The South African Masters is boosted by the arrival of Retief Goosen and Mark McNulty from Melbourne and a number of other South Africans who regularly ply their trade on foreign Tours. But it is a Tour lacking depth and this is reflected in the odds for this event; both players are available at single figure odds. For McNulty it is certainly justified, he has won this event five times and has won on this course five times as well. The tight par-70 course where wind is normally a factor suits his accurate game, that's for sure! He comes off two good wins last week, but the odds are too short to side with him this week.

The same is also the case with Retief Goosen, and even more so. He was defeated in the first round last week, has never won this event and his power game will be ill-suited to the course. Instead we'll side with three of lesser returning players for this event: Darren Fichardt, Justin Hobday and James Kingston. Fichardt has combined regular golf on the Sunshine and Canadian Tours over the past two seasons and finished a respectable 21st in the Stenham Swazi Open here eleven months ago. One of a fairly small number of player who are good enough to win this event.

Hobday and Kingston have both been combining their Sunshine Tour schedules with time on the Asian PGA Tour, and both have been performing very well there. Hobday finished 5th behind Vijay Singh in the Taiwan Open in September and was later 3rd in November at the Star Alliance Open, the position he finished on this course in both events staged here last year. With 27% of all his finishes being in the top-5 over the last two years, he looks tremendous value for an each-way bet.

The same can be said for Kingston who won twice on the Davidoff Tour last year and finished 9th on the Order of Merit. He played in the Stanham Swazi Open here last year and finished 10th, while his record of top-5 finishes over the last two years is just as impressive as Hobday's: 16% while spending much more time on the very competitive Asian PGA Tour. Again, the each-way bet looks great value.

Outright plays:

Darren Fichardt to win e/w 25/1 @ William Hill

Justin Hobday to win e/w 40/1 @ William Hill

James Kingston e/w 50/1 @ William Hill

Final update: 0-3 and -3.00 units

Very disappointing week! All three were blown away by the high winds of the 2nd day, with Kingston missing the cut. The other two did not recover over the weekend with Fichardt finally finishing 30th and Hobday 55th. A little galling that the #1 in the Tour-Tips ratings, Mark McNulty, won the event, but over the season chasing better value prices will be more profitable than taking single-odds favorites.