As a replacement to The Ballantines Championship,
until 2015, The Laguna National GC in Singapore will stage the inaugural “The
Championship” this week on it’s Masters Course. It will be the first European
Tour event to be played here since the Singapore Masters was held between 2002
–2007. Local favourite, Mardan Mamat has a fantastic record on the Masters
layout, having won the aforementioned Masters title in 2006 and the Singapore
Mercedes Benz Open in 2009, but he may have a tough challenge from his Asian
& European Tour counterparts this
week.
The 7200 yard, par-72 course, has in the past,
produced winning scores in around 275/276. Good tee to green players again
should contend this week. Hopefully, it may ignite Peter Lawrie’s season as the
Dubliner has had two TOP10s here back in 2007 & 2005 and a return to a
course that he should have fond memories of, may help him get back on track.
It’s the same story too, for England’s Nick Dougherty, who on his last three
visits finished 4-2-1.
Spaniard Rafa Cabrera-Bello produced another TOP10
in China and will play Laguna for the second time. You can ignore his missed
cut in Malaysia, as he has produced some solid results in his previous 4 events
– 3 TOP5s. That closing 67 in Shenzhen will have him full of confidence for a
course that should really suit his game. He can be backed @ 18/1 this week, a price I was expecting and whilst a lot of punters may feel this is too short, given the quality of the field here, I think its a price worth taking, despite the small number of wins on his CV.
Of those, Frenchman, Gregory Bourdy has been playing very consistently for
awhile now. The French have shown in the past that they can take inspiration
from their fellow countryman winning on tour, and Alex Levy’s win may just
inpsire Bourdy to kick on from his five TOP20 finishes from his last six
starts. Anders Hansen hasn't been in great form this season until that closing 63 in Shazhen catapulted him up the leaderboard and it's worth noting he has course form at Laguna. That round and final result should put him in good form for this but at 45/1, I'll opt for Bourdy at 28/1 instead being the more consistent this season.
I was happy to collect two place returns in China through Tommy Fleetwood & Francesco Molinari last week, and therefore am a bit relunctant to leave the former out this week. I also wanted a bit more than 33/1 for Andy Sullivan who has been very solid of late, but in a tricky event this week,my staking plan is finalized as per below.
Good luck if you follow!
Staking Plan (8 pts/units)
1 pt e/w S.Dyson @ 40/1
1.5 pts e/w G.Bourdy @ 28/1
2 pts win R. Cabera-Bello @ 18/1
0.25 pts win P.Marksaeng @ 125/1
TOP10
0.75 pts P.Marksaeng @ 10/1
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