|
Golf. Jo’Burg Open. A huge field of over 200 players with the first two rounds played over two different courses makes this European – Sunshine Tour co-sanctioned event not the most attractive betting object. The quality of the field is not great and a big priced ‘unknown’ winner would be no surprise. It is strange to see Darren Clarke as 18/1 third favourite as his fall down the world rankings over the last twelve months has been meteoric. There have been some signs of a return to form and at his best he is would be a worthy favourite, but he still has a lot to prove before representing value at these sort of odds. Richard Sterne is 16/1 co-favourite but is far from the best of his form and makes little appeal, while Schwartzel is the worst value of all the market leaders given his recent form of six missed cuts from his last ten events. Of the ‘name’ players in the field Louis Oosthuizen looks to have the best claims. His recent form is good outside of the one occasion that this column tipped him when he missed the cut in the Alfred Dunhill Championship. He got off to a terrible start in that (4 over after five holes if I remember correctly) and never recovered on a course that was not giving up many birdies. He bounced back from that with a 3rd place finish in the South Africa Open the following week and his form figures of 1/11/2/mc/ 3 are as impressive as anyone’s in this field. He finished 19th in this event last year with a poor third round 74 costing him a much higher finish. 1 point e/w Louis Oosthuizen @ 22/1 with Blue Sq. lost 2 points Another home player who warrants a small each way bet is Garth Mulroy who enjoyed a good finish to his year on the Nationwide Tour in America (four top ten finishes from his last eleven events). This event probably represents a drop in class from that Tour, underlined by his 3rd place finish in the SA Open just before the Christmas break. That was all the more impressive when you consider he opened with a first round 80! He is very long off the tee and that should be an advantage on the long East Course which will be played three times. 0.5 points e/w Garth Mulroy @ 33/1 generally available. T2nd - Won 3.63 points On the match betting front, Richard Bland looks a decent bet to beat the desperately out of form Darren Fichardt. Bland is no model of consistency, nor in any great form, but he looks a better player than Fichardt right now. Fichardt endured a dire 2007 with just one finish inside the top 40 since February, a run that included 13 missed cuts. Bland is in better form having made six of his last eight cuts, is 5-2 up on South African H2H’s, finished ahead in this last year and is currently playing a least two shots around better than Fichardt. 5 points Richard Bland to beat Darren Fichardt @ 10/11 with Stan James. won 4.54 points Wednesday 9th January - adding: 5 points Oosthuizen to beat Schwartzel @ 2.02 (tie no bet) with Unibet. lost 5 points Oosthuizen looks overpriced in this match up. Schwartzel is not in good form as mentioned earlier and these two players H2H stats highlight this with Oosthuizen 7-1 up in their last eight mutual events and the last 5 they have both played in South Africa. |
|
|
Betting Previews
|
||