Dubai Desert Classic

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Chris Wood to beat Matteo Manassero - 7 points  @ 10-11 (General)

Winning last weeks lucrative Qatar event could have any effect on Chris Wood but he was insistant that this was a huge weight off his shoulders and he should now begin to play freely when in contention. To be fair to all concerned in the finish, all three players showed true guts to achieve their targets - Coetzee proving for once that he has the bottle to finish a job, Sergio with that brilliant back nine and final two birds, and Wood, with an incredible eagle to nab the trophy from under them. 

Looking at that event was rather like watching him play the BMW and Italian in 2010 and a couple of events since when he looked to have the event in the bag before blowing it on Payday but the way he came back after a poor start to his final round was impressive. It wasn't out of the blue either having played good class golf in Singapore and China at the end of last season and he is now expected to continue that confidence and form through to Qatar where he will crucially have a length advantage over the Italian.

Distance off the tee is almost vital here with all the top players of 2011 finishing inside the top-ten for driving distance, whilst Alvaro Quiros used his huge power to reign victorious the year before.

By no means is the Englishman one of the longest on Tour but in last years running of this event, he ran up stats of 11th in distance and 6th in accuracy whilst Mannassero managed just 67th and 46th respectively. The stats indicate that Matteo may simply try too hard off the tee and thus lose the control he has around tighter courses that play to his strengths. It does seem as though this column is always opposingthe Italian and he was opposed in Abu just a couple of weeks ago but he is a player that simply cannot compete on these courses hence his poor finishes here. On the other hand (Brian?), Wood can boast two top-20s and a top-10and he simply looks too good for this matchup round this particular course.