Celtic Classic - Celtic Manor, Newport, Wales

 The "UK Swing" moves to Wales this week, where a new tourney will be held at Celtic Manor, host venue of the 2010 Ryder Cup. We'll stay here for the following week too for the Welsh Open.

The course should be a challenge, and those most likely to fare well will be those with strong GIR and scrambling stats. Winners and those on the leaderboards over recent years have shown a trend of performing well at Golf Nacional also which can often help narrow the field. This is promising as I want to stick with Alexander Bjork yet again this week and can feel extra confident knowing he has form in Paris to boot. 3rd there in 2017 and 8th in 2018. We have no tournament form from Celtic Manor since 2014 but we do know its toughened up over the years and there is this strong course correlation to Le Golf Nacional. Good Ball strikers with scrambling nuance will do well here. Alexander Bjork is finding form having finished 3rd at The Hero Open and I can't omit him from the staking plan this week @ 40/1

Marcus Armitage is added for the week. I've never really looked at Marcus before but can't help notice his form this season, especially finishing 14th and 15th the past 2 weeks. He's 7/9 this season, finished 3rd behind Louis Oosthuizen & Branden Grace at Randpark,Johannesburg and seems to be settling down after some challenging years on the personal front. He has set his goals differently too this year and one of them is to win a tourney. Lets hope he's up for it this week @ 80/1 .

Finally, Min Woo Lee is kept in the staking plan or should. I wasn't on last week in the English Championship where he finished 6th having missed the cut the previous two weeks. He is however 4/9 this season which includes a W at the Vic Open, and 3 TOP-20s. He's fair enough price @ 50/1

Selections

2 pts e/w A. Bjork @ 40/1 (1/5 - 6 places)

1 pt e/w M.Armitage @ 80/1 (1/5 - 7 places)

1 pt e/w Min Woo Lee @ 50/1 (1/5 - 6 places)

* adding Lucas Bjeregaard to staking plan @ 125/1 e/w (7 places) - 0.50 pt e/w

Lucas is overpriced - been plying his trade on the PGA Tour earlier this year - hes missed 8 cuts there from 8 starts, returns to European action this week and hopefully it gives him renewed enthusiasm.