English Open

The week before the US Open and once again Monty, Clarke and Westwood tee it up at the English Open. Rather surprising that they are not preparing more fully for the 2nd major of the year, particularly Monty for whom next week represents his best chance of a major, but their appearance should make it more interesting week.

The Forest of Arden hosted this event in the early 1990s, was the home to the British Masters in 1997 and 1998 and then returned as the host to this event last year, so there is plenty of course form and a recognition by the PGA Tour that this is one of the premier tournament courses in Britain. This is quite a long course with wide fairways, but it is not with the driver that scores are made around this course, a key feature of players who play well here is that they have good greens in regulation stats. Water does feature on nine holes, but it is rather by default that greens in regulation is the key stat: with no significant rewards to long-hitting and no real penalties to wayward driving, it is the unusual nature of the greens that mean that good putters don't necessarily play well here. Seven of the greens are Bentgrass and the other eleven are Poa Annua and if putting on different surfaces was not problem enough, Poa Annua is famous for growing much faster during the day than Bentgrass so the greens will play at different speeds! Hence 'fairways and greens' is the order of the day.

Monty and Clarke have great records on this course, but are overlooked at single-figure prices. Instead, the three selections are Greg Turner, Peter O'Malley and Andrew Coltart. Turner won the British Masters on this course in 1997 and finished 12th last year. Currently standing 13th in this year's greens in regulation stats, but outside the top-100 in putting, this course is suited to Turner's game. He has already finished 2nd in the French Open and has a number of consistent top-30 finishes of late, so he looks much better value at 50/1 than Monty or Clarke.

Peter O'Malley is another with excellent course form. He has finished 12th, 19th and 10th on his last three visits and currently ranks 1st in driving accuracy and 9th in greens in regulation this season. He finished 3rd behind Woods in the Deutsche Bank Open last month and has been in fine form since, despite no repeating that top-10 finish. Again, good value at 50/1 he stands a good chance of a place finish on a course suited to his game.

Stephen Leaney was a tempting pick to make an Australasian set, but instead Andrew Coltart completes three selections at 50/1 and all with good greens in regulation stats and putting that is hardly spectacular. His form this season has been very good, but in every tournament bar the Deutsche Bank Open he has had one bad round to ruin his week. Last week he was 4th after two rounds but had a very poor weekend to fall away. If he can just avoid that one bad round, he looks a decent shot to repeat his top-5 finish of the Deutsche Bank Open.

Outright plays:

Greg Turner to win 50/1 e.w. @ NetBetSports

Peter O'Malley to win 50/1 e.w. @ Victor Chandler or NetBetSports

Andrew Coltart to win 50/1 e.w. @ Surrey or NetBetSports

72-hole plays:

Domingo Hospital to beat Elliot Boult -111 @ Simon Bold [2 units]
Hospital has not played since finishing 17th at the French Open. Having finished 9th at the Spanish Open two weeks earlier he obviously has a liking for national titles. On that form he should beat the big-hitting Boult who ranks outside the top-125 in driving accuracy, greens in regulation and putting

Andrew Coltart to beat Brett Rumford -111 @ Simon Bold [3 units]
Rumford was profitably opposed last week and he missed the cut by seven shots to make it two in a row. He is therefore easy to oppose on a course around which he shot 80 last year and to do so with an outright selection is a bonus

Stephen Leaney to beat Scott Gardiner -111 @ Simon Bold
Gardiner has another impressive Australasian Tour, but this is his debut on the European Tour itself. Bit of an unknown quantity therefore, but it will take more than a week to adjust to British conditions

Jarrod Moseley to beat Brett Rumford -111 @ Centrebet
Moseley has not been in particularly great form, but he has missed the cut just once in ten European Tour events this year. Against the erratic Rumford, the more consistent Moseley is the pick

Mid-point update:

Strange week as all four 72-hole plays are decided at the cut; having a Thursday morning tee-time was very important as scoring became extremely difficult yesterday afternoon. The plays finished 2-1-1, but it was a small loss as the three-unit play lost: Coltart finished one shot behind Rumford. Of the rest, Boult withdrew after an opening 86, so Hospital won his match, Leaney beat Gardiner by four and Moseley tied with Rumford. Of the outrights, Coltart missed the cut, Turner lies in 46th and O'Malley is best-placed in 3rd, two shots behind Scott.

3rd round plays:

Marc Farry to beat Marco Bernardini -120 @ Intertops [3 units]

Paul McGinley to beat Stephen Dodd -160 @ Intertops [2 units]

Costantino Rocca to beat Steve Webster -115 @ Intertops [2 units]

3rd round update: 1-1-1 and -1.60 units

Had a shocker with Marc Farry - he shot 81 to lose by twelve shots, but at least the day's losses were limited by taking Intertops' lines rather than the Euro books were the tie between Rocca and Webster would have been graded a loss. The day's win was provided by McGinley whose 70 was three shots less than Dodd's total. In the outrights, Turner event is over, but O'Malley looks a good chance for at least a place finish as he lies in 4th place, but five shots behind Scott.

4th round plays:

Paul McGinley to beat Ian Poulter -125 @ Intertops [3 units]

Costantino Rocca to beat Steve Webster +138 @ Surrey

Final update: 0-2-0 and -4.75 units for the day; 3-4-2 and -6.68 units for the week

Today's plays were rather descriptive of the matchups this week: started strongly but finished poorly   Rocca did have the early lead over Webster but finished six shots behind, while McGinley relinquished a three-shot lead on the back nine to finish one behind Poulter. With a record of 0-3 on this week's 3-unit plays, rather an unsatisfactory week, apart from the outrights, that is!

Update on outrights: 1-2 and +29.25 units

Might have given away a few units on the matchups, but O'Malley's 66 to secure a one-shot victory @ 50/1 made it a good week after all   Turner finished down in 55th position and Coltart missed the cut, but of little importance now!