Wednesday 25 September 2024

Open de Espana 2024 - Club de Campo Villa de Madrid, Madrid, Spain

Shocking effort last week where for the 3rd time this year I was feeling quite bullish about Frederic Lacroix before the off! However its 3/3 missed cuts when selecting the Frenchman. Will be hard to consider in 2 weeks time on home soil given poor form. He's abandoned ! All 4 missed the cut last week

Jon Rahm wants to eclipse Seve with 4  National titles and goes off as the strong favourite here but there is a niggling injury to consider and having opted not to play the Pro-Am today and being on standby for his wife's pending baby delivery, he will have some side distractions to consider. So he's worth taking on this week but, as always, beware the injured golfer!

Matt Wallace on the other hand is totally focused on acquiring Ryder Cup points; 12-1-8 on his last 3 starts back on the DP Tour augurs well on a course that he plays for the first time but a course that should suit given his form at Crans Sur Sierre which often correlates nicely with Campo Villa de Madrid. This Ryder Cup motivation will drive him on and having won 2 starts ago, he will know he can compete again this week and take every opportunity to collate more RC points. 

I'll chance Alex Fitzpatrick here also given his solid form all year and his perceived liking for this type of track; 20th on debut last year and showing solid form in Switzerland too with returns of 6-5 the last 2 starts, he's a decent price @40s with the 8 places on offer and is of interest.

Renato Paratore has slipped back the past 18 months or so but has shown he likes this course with 13-9 finishes on his last 2 visits , throw in mc-13-29-7 at Crans, this is a course that he could find something again. There may be too much emphasis on Crans form being taken into account however and his missed cut last month is a red flag but @ 250/1 for 10 places I'm gonna have some small interest in the trust that the course can inspire him again.

I do like Julien Guerrier a lot for the week though. He's 66/1 - 8 places having finished 6-3-9 on his last visits. Whilst form of late hasn't been exactly eye catching he does have 5/19 TOP-20s this season and he did produce the 6th place finish here without any form at all coming into the week. Here's hoping he just loves the course

There has to be a Spaniard on the staking plan surely? I'll chance Nacho Elvira @ 200/1 - 8 places. Missed cut each time here the pas3 years, what could possibly go wrong here this week?


Selections


2 pts e/w M. Wallace @ 20/1 - 8 places
2 pts e/w A. Fitzpatrick @ 40/1 - 8 places
.75 pts e/w R. Paratore @ 250/1 - 10 places
1 pt e/w J. Guerrier @ 66/1 - 8 places
.5 pts e/w N. Elvira @ 200/1 - 8 places


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