Golf - Abu Dhabi Golf Championship. A good quality field for the start of the rich pickings on offer in the ‘Middle East Swing’ of the European tours. No doubt some of the top players will be getting well looked after, win or lose, and perhaps some of the big names might not be playing at this time of year if the rewards were not so great. Obviously the likes of Garcia, Stenson, Harrington and Goosen have to be respected but at 12/1 do any of them offer great value? Garcia has not won since September 2005, 29 events without winning suggests that his odds should be bigger. Harrington has never played well in this part of the world and I guess he is here as a result of being the 2006 OOM winner and the appearance money will be very good. Goosen had just 1 2006 win in a weak event in China and is 12/1 as a result of what has achieved in the past rather than what he has doing now. Good enough to win if he was in top form, but he has too many top 10’s without winning to suggest that he is not just right at the moment. Stenson looks the pick of the favourites. He was very strong in the Middle East last season with a 2nd here followed by a win in Qatar and a top ten in Dubai. He has a home in Dubai so will not bothered by the conditions. He has good distance of the tee, good GIR stats and has improved his putting. 3 wins on the European Tour in 2006 makes him a real threat in any event, but there is just a hint that he lets chances slip with the odd wild shot that gets him into serious trouble. Of the favourites, Stenson looks the best bet, but 12/1 is just not enough to recommend a bet. Outside of the ‘big names’ there are two players who have been playing great golf for a quite a while, but remain at attractive odds as they are not ‘fashionable’. Robert Karlsson and Jeev Milkha Singh. 1 point e/w Robert Karlsson @ 33/1 generally available. Lost 2 points A two time winner on the European Tour in 2006 (now a 7 time winner) he played in the Royal Trophy last week in Bangkok which will have knocked the rust off in a similar warm climate. His putting is top class, he is long of the tee and hits his irons with accuracy. He finished 2006 in good form with two top 10’s in his last 3 events and though only 30th here last year, his 2 & 3 rd scores of 69/67 shows that he can play the course very well. 1 point e/w Jeev Milkha Singh @ 40/1 with Totesport, Ladbrokes, VCBet, BetFred Lost 2 points I am a big fan of the emerging crop of Indian golfers and Singh is the best of the bunch. His consistency in competitions is remarkable (last 10 events 3/21/13/1/2/17/3/1/1/6). He played in no less than 39 tournaments in 2006, a remarkable number and on the Asian Tour, The Australasian Tour, the European Tour, the Japanese Tour and the USPGA tour, winning 4 times including the very prestigious Volvo Masters at Valderrama at the end of October. Thirteen top 10 finishes in the last 6 months of 2006 shows that he knows how to compete and his 3 wins in the his last 7 events shows that he now knows how to win. The downside is that he has no course form and has missed the cut in his only 2 visits to the Gulf, but he is now ranked in the Worlds top 40 players and now knows that he can beat the likes of Garcia and Harrington. Match Betting: 6 points Jeev Milkha Singh to beat Thomas Bjorn @ 10/11 with Ladbrokes. Lost 6 points Bjorn is something of an enigma. World class on his day, but also prone to simply giving up mentally and running up a big score. His form at the end of 2006 was certainly not world class and not a patch on that of the hot Singh. Bjorn is a long time resident of Dubai, so it could be that he can up his game ‘at home’, but on the most recent of form he is a couple of shots a round worst than the Indian. Bob Hope Chrysler Classic. If you haven’t taken out a subscription to the new Setanta golf channel, you wouldn’t be able to watch this…..which is a blessing. A Pro-Am for the first 4 days on different resort type courses, the coverage is always dire, unless you want to watch various celebs that you have never heard off hack around and talkin’ about the next ball game. 1 point e/w Berhard Langer to be top European player @ 14/1 with SportingOdds. Won 3.67 points Old players have a decent record in this event as the courses are not long and perhaps they are blessed with the greater patience needed to play with hackers for 5 hours a day. Whatever, old Bernhard is kind soul with the good grace to find this sort thing bearable. Despite this being the late Autumn of his proper golf career (before joining the Seniors tour next year) he has played well here. In the last 3 years he has finished 8/23/10 and been placed in the top European market twice (just missed out in 2005 by 1 place). His form at the end of 2006 was fairly good (4 top 25 USPGA tour finishes from 6 starts) and of course he teamed up with Marcel Siem to win the World Cup of Golf at the backend of the year. There are just 11 runners in the field at Stan James look nearer the mark, making the Veteran German an 8/1 shot. |
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