Scottish Open

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Chris Wood to beat Kevin Stadler - 10 points (maximum bet) @ 91-100 (Betway) 

Richard Green to beat Alvaro Quiros - 5 points @ 10-11 (Spreadex)

Kevin Stadler's Euro Tour record reads six m/c/51/58 before last weeks 2nd in France and whilst that was encouraging, I am tempted to see his opening three rounds as freak rounds rather than an indication that he was that much better than a host of course specialists and Major winners. His play, to be fair, was superb throughout but he was injured through the final round and without that crisp iron play and exceptional putting, he ended up bringing half-a-dozen players into the game when there were none for 54 holes. I am almost ignoring that run and can't see where Stadler has form that suggests windy, Links play will be his bag and he will surely be smarting from last week's loss (for that is what it was) in a few ways.

I have no idea what price he would have been this week but for the effort in France but it surely would not have been level with Chris Wood, a player who has always had a liking for Links. 5th at Birkdale as an amateur and 3rd at Turnberry gives him a huge edge but efforts at the Dunhill Links (all courses), Gleneagles, Wales and the win at Qatar all indicate he will be shown at his best this week. Current form is huge too having had a real chance to win in windy Spain before a one-hole mini-collapse did for him, whilst a furtrher two recent top-10s indicate he is in fine form and has been for a while. Aberdeen looks the perfect set-up for Wood and he can use this as a springboard to next weeks main event. For now, he should have very little trouble in disposing of Stadler. 

I was always going to want to be against Quiros in anything that involves a short, tight and narrow track and if it has a windy Links feel to it, all the better.

The Spaniard is in rotten form and whilst he was suffering with illness in Germany, his effort at the tough French Open saw his second missed-cut in a row. His method of winning requires taking advantage of his huge driving, something that needs to be left in the bag this week, and none of his form in any of the British Opens (Welsh, Irish, Scottish or indeed the big one) suggests that a week here on the Aberdeen coast is going to result in anything productive. Okay, there are snippets of form at the KLM and a couple of Irish top-10s but they weren't in conditions he will face here, recent efforts at those are poor whilst St Andrews will always help this big hitter shoot low and he douesn't have an advantage on the trickier of the trio used at that particular event.

Aussie Green would have been a bigger bet had it not been for that m/c last week in France. With plenty of previous top-10s at the venue, it was thought he may have liked the emphasis in tidy play but that may have been an anomaly after a steady run of form figures that included losing a play-off to Miguel Angel Jimenez at windy, tricky Spain. Form in Scotland is hardly breathtaking but does include a couple of top-30s at the Alfred Dunhill Links and Scottish Opens whilst he has enough top-30s in the KLM to think he can finish higher than his unqualified oppo on a true Links test. Two top-10s and the same amount of top-20s in Wales plus Irish Open form in 2010/2011 reads 5/2 and he only need to return to a semblence of that to win this bet easily.