Golf.
Nissan Open.
The Americans have won 3 of the 4 European Tour events of the 2006 season with only Henrik Stenson upholding European honour. This week Stenson heads to America and he looks a good bet to be in contention once again. His big weakness has been his putting, but the early signs in 2006 are that he has made real progress in that department. His 2006 stats have him averaging 1.67 per hole, compared to his 2005 average of 1.79, which is a huge improvement, over 2 shots around lower. That is all Stenson needs to move from being a good player to a great one.
He is a rare beast in that not only can he drive the ball very straight, but also very long and his GIR stats are equally impressive 2nd in 2005 and 19th in 2006. The Riviera course rewards players who can put their ball in the right place off the tee and find the smallish greens with their iron shots, so it should suit this most accurate of player.
He has no course form to go on but he has done well on his trips across the pond, making the cut in the USPGA, 13th in the NEC Invitational in Ohio and 3rd in the AMEX Championship in California. He is a very confident young man and with form figures of 2/1/7 in 2006 you can see why.
1 point e/w Henrik Stenson outright @ 40/1 with Totesport
lost 2 points
Late update.
6 points Chad Campbell to beat Luke Donald @ 2.04 with Centrebet
lost 6 points
Chad is 4-0 up on course record H2H’s and over 1 shot a round better on recent form. Donald has missed two cuts from 4 starts, 67th in 2004 and may week have been lucky to finish 13th in the rain shortened 2005 renewal. Odds against with the tie no bet? Good value.
4 points Chad Campbell to beat Jim Furyk @ evens with BlueSq
lost 4 points
You would expect Furyk to have a good record on this traditional type of course but he has yet to finish higher than 32nd in his last 7 starts at Riviera. Campbell is up in both current and course form by around 1 shot a round. Evens is too big to pass up.
Malaysian Open.
Tricky event to get involved in as the venue is new and many of the players unfamiliar. One factor that will be important is the weather, very hot, humid with thunderstorms predicted for all 4 days. It could be a messy few days but the ‘local’ tour players should be able to cope better with the conditions.
0.5 point e/w Prayad Marksaeng @ 33/1 with Corals, BlueSq, Bet365, Ladbrokes
lost 1 point
6th in this event in 2002 and 3rd in 2004 and he looks to be in decent form, 3 top 20 finishes in his last 4 events.
5 points Prayad Marksaeng to beat Raphael Jacquelin @ evens with Bet365
lost 5 points
Jacquelin continues to be just about the most annoying golfer on the planet from a punting point of view. He has no consistency, his form is erratic to say the very least and just when you expect him to be hot, he goes cold, but it looks worth guessing that he will be rubbish this week. He has played the Malaysian Open twice and failed to finish better than 71st. He looks worth opposing with a ‘local’ in form player at a good price.
6 points Simon Dyson to beat Robert Jan Derksen at 10/11 with Ladbrokes.
won 5 points
Dyson is a Far East specialist and won the Asian Order of Merit in 2000, so the conditions will not be a problem. He has finished ahead of Derksen in 3 of the last 4 mutual events and given that he is virtually a ‘home’ player he is fancied to come out on top once again.
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