The Seve Trophy. 4 points Continental Europe to win @ 13/8 with Paddy Power, Skybet, SportingBet. lost 4 points Only one win from four for the Continental European team, but perhaps they are the value for this years renewal. Certainly the GB & Ireland (well, it should read just GB as there are no Irish players in the team!) is missing many of the big names who have scored a lot of points in the past. No Harrington, Westwood, Poulter, McGinley, Howell or Clarke. Ok, Clarke is hopelessly out of form, but experience of the format and top level match play is valuable. Instead we have the likes of Marc Warren, Oliver Wilson and Graeme Storm, hardly like for like swaps. They are decent enough players but can you really see them playing the next Ryder Cup? The current form of Dyson and Casey is cause for concern and not having at least one Irish player when the event is in Ireland is a big mistake, the natives may well end up supporting the away team. The European side is also populated by five rookies and there is no Fasth, Stenson, Olazabal or Garcia, but perhaps no great loss as only Fasth is playing well at present. There new boys, Brier has had a great season, but may be a bit jaded after a busy year. Havret looks a weak player right now, Fernandez Castano looks to be coming back to form. If you ignore his missed cut last week Ilonen is in great form and Soren Hansen is perhaps the most in form playing on tour right now. Certainly, the European rookies look stronger than the GB ones. Of the established players, Jimenez is back to form just in time and with experience he should play a lot this weekend. Bjorn is very hard to call, he can be very good, or terrible, but he does play well in Ireland, is desperate to play in one more Ryder Cup and will be trying to impress Faldo. Karlsson is another player who is getting back to form and a top 15 finish for Jacquelin last week was a positive for another player who must like the taste of Guinness with five top 20 finishes from his last nine Irish events. A good record but one that pale in comparison to Peter Hanson’s 4/9/7/3 finishes in the Emerald Isle. The Swede is a steady player, making the cut in his last 10 events and looks a good partner for Karlsson. Seve’s side does have the look of a team that will pick itself, two Swedes, two French, two Spanish, two Danes with just Ilonen and Brier being without a national partner. This very much a team event and I feel that Seve has a bunch of players that will gel nicely and hopefully he will not tinker too much with the pairings. 2 points e/w Justin Rose to be top combined points scorer @ 8/1 with BlueSq. lost 2.51 points For the outright best points scorer, Justin Rose looks a good bet at 8/1. I have never been a huge fan of Rose, certainly for outright betting in stroke play events, but he has played very well this season. The fact that he finished in the top 12 in the four majors underlines the fact that he is competing at the very top of the sport and that form is in a different league to that shown by many of the others playing in this event. He has impressed in this event before, scoring 3.5 points from a possible 5. A lot depends on who he is partnered with, but Rose can carry a weaker partner or perhaps Faldo might put him out with the mighty Monty as a banker. |
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