Nordea Masters 2017 - Barseback GC

Alex Noren heads home for this week's Nordea Masters at the Barseback GC in Sweden having swooped last Sunday with a 62 to win the BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth and in doing so complete his 5th victory inside 17 starts. He will tee it up hoping to win this title for the 3rd time, an event that has seen numerous multiple winners over the years, and if he is to complete the hat-trick he will do so on yet another different course than his previous victories. Winner in 2015 at the PGA National and in 2011 at Bro Hof, Noren's bid at Barseback will be the first bid of any player since the event was last played here in 2009 when formally known as the SAS Masters. His attempt back then is best forgotten as he missed the cut shooting 80 in round two. It's probably also worth noting that despite the hot form of late, Noren has struggled in all of his last 4 follow up tournaments following a win. I suspect that might change this week, being on home soil chasing the hat-trick.

Barseback Masters Course sits along the sea, although not a links course, the back nine can often resemble one. Results from 2009 and 2006 do suggest however, that those with solid links form will contend here. Accuracy is key in approaching the greens. On paper this does look like a Stenson v Noren contest but try as he might over the years, the Open Champion is yet to win this event. Barseback wasn't kind to him in the previous two hostings either so at short odds, I'm keen to look further down the field.


Bradley Dredge is a nice price this week @ 95.00 He's 5/7 events this season having missed the cut in both Shenzhen & Sicily with a patchy performance last week at Wentworth where he slipped own the leaderboard on Sunday with a closing 75. Barseback should be more his cup of tea though and if he finds the greens and brings his superb putting game, he could be a solid investment this week.

George Coetzee will tee it up on the 10th on Thursday morning alongside Bradley Dredge & Mikko Ilonen (former Nordea Masters winner). The South African @ 60.00 is well worth a punt this week. Following a return from injury last year, big George is now 7/12 this season with 5 of those being TOP20 but it's the 4 TOP10 returns that catches the eye despite a MC last week. He ranks inside the TOP50 for "Putting Average" and the course setup should suit here for his debut.

Finally I'm drawn towards both Alexander Bjork and Jeunghun Wang too. The Swede is in great form following graduation from the Challenge Tour. The 26 year old finished T-14th at Wentworth where his short game proved key. He's certainly in a progressive run of late and could be inspired in front of his home crowd this week or indeed in front of his investors from TradeinSports. I'll be investing in a good showing this week @ 110.00 outright as well as the 5.00 for a TOP20.

At a similar price, Wang is of interest this week despite being the complete opposite to Bjork in terms of recent form. However, he is the type of player to produce the goods any given week and he can add to his Europeantour title tally here to go with wind-affected courses demanding accuracy that he succeeded on in Mauritius, Morocco and Qatar. He's always overpriced and I like them here should he find his game.

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Selections:

0.50 pts B.Dredge WIN @ 95.00
0.50 pts G. Coetzee WIN @ 60.00
0.25 pts A.Bjork WIN @ 110.00
0.25 pts J.Wang WIN @ 110.00

2.00 pts TOP20 B.Dredge @ 4.50
2.00 pts TOP10 G. Coetzee @ 6.00
2.00 pts TOP20 A.Bjork @ 5.00
2.00 pts TOP20 J.Wang @ 5.00