Golf – HSBC Champions Tournament, Shanghai, China. A good quality field for this big money event and not surprisingly Tiger Woods dominates the betting, the 13/8 favourite. Not a price that interests me, but neither am I in a rush to lay him. He may be a bit rusty after few weeks off, but given his form in 2006, he does look a class above even a decent field like this. He was beaten by Howell last year but his game is in better shape now. The outright betting market holds little appeal with such a strong favourite, but there are plenty of other markets to choose from. 1 point e/w Ian Poulter Top GB & Ireland player @ 8/1 with Totesport. lost 2 points The Beau Brummel of golf is now playing to a standard that allows him to get away with his crimes against fashion. A win and a total of 4 top 10 finishes in his last 7 events highlights his strong run of form. He was a reasonable 19th here last season and should be better for his first trip to China. The competition is pretty strong but not totally convincing. While Casey looks a threat, his post Ryder Cup has been erratic and a brilliant 63 at St. Andrews distorts what has been a fairly average run of just 3 sub 71 rounds from 12. The ultra consistent Donald has been doing a lot of globe trotting in the last 2 weeks and 3 back to back events on 3 different continents may take its toll. Harrington could be forgiven for being jaded after his great effort to win the 2006 OOM. This is the time of year he usually hangs up the clubs to spend time with his family, but no doubt the extra wonga offered to ‘Europe’s No.1’ has made the trip worthwhile. Howell is defending Champion, but with his shoulder injury, you have to wonder if he was not defending his title, would he be here? Monty’s form has taken a major dip and there must be a question mark over Dredge after his pathetic effort at Valderrama. The rest are not in the same class. 7 points Poulter to beat Montgomerie @ 4/5 with SportingOdds, BetUk. lost 7 points These two players are miles apart on current form. Poulter has won the last 3 H2H’s and in the process averaged over 3 shots a round less than Captain Grumpy. That’s a huge gulf in performance and Monty’s 6th place in Germany at the start of September has been his only decent bit of form since a good run in June and early July. Poulter on the other hand has been playing very well for the last 3 months, missing just 1 cut (when he needed a big last gasp result to make the Ryder Cup team) and that was his only finish outside the top 22 since late July. Poulter beat Monty by 5 strokes here last year and a repeat would be no surprise. 5 points Peter O’Malley to beat Paul Broadhurst @ 10/11 with SportingOdds. Won 4.54 points O’Malley nearly landed a nice bet for us at Valderrama and perhaps this course will not suit him as much as the last two short fiddly tracks in Spain in which he finished 5th and 9th. However, Broadhurst is not a great long distance traveller, having missed 6 cuts in his last 10 Asian Tour events and never better than 19th. O’Malley seems happier in these conditions having only missed 1 cut in his last 10 Asian Tour events, with 5 top 15 finishes. On their recent H2H record it is O’Malley who has the impressive record of winning 7 of the last 10 mutual events. |
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