The European flagship event is the BMW Championships, being held this week at Wentworth Golf Club near London. As per the "normal 2020", the event is staged much later in the year than usual, but provides us with the European's best lineup since February. Race to Dubai "leader", Patrick Reed makes his way over to compete having done so last year when finishing 4th on debut. He heads the market of Tommy Fleetwood, who looks to improve on his 3rd-2nd finishes in his past two European events, @ 11/1
Wentworth is not everyone's cup of tea, just ask Padraig Harrington, but it has shown over the years that experience here is key to a good week. That Reed should finish 4th last year at first attempt sayss something about his calibre and he can't be ignored, despite finishing 5 shots behind fellow Masters winner, Danny Willett. This is a ball strikers course and time again we've seen course specialists do well here and Simon Khan stamps that more than anyone else when quite a substantial percentage of his careers earnings have been from this event alone. I put up Shane Lowry for the US Open last month but he hated every minute of it and did well to hang in there and improve his position over the weekend before heading back to Ireland for a well deserved break. He should be fully rested now and raring to go on one of his , if not his favourite course this week. The Irishman should have won in 2014 only to see Rory McIlroy get over his split from Caroline Wozniacki that week by pipping him on Sunday. Shano's form here though over the years is fantastic! (11-15-6-mc-6-2-12-68-4-65 ) and I am expecting a bold showing this week to finally cap it off with a win.
I haven't backed Justin Rose in quite a while, perhaps thinking Rose was content with life since he bagged his Olympic gold medal and went chasing corporate dollars, but having ditched the honma clubs six months ago, he looks like he's piquing for another win. He too has decent form here ; 8-12-38-25-50-2-mc-10-mc-2 and I also like the stat highlighted by Justin Ray following Sergio Garcia's win last week below and think Rose may be motivated to keep his winning streak going and he is not without a big chance here this week @ 18/1 or 24.00 on the exchange outright.
"Garcia has now won at least one official event worldwide every year since 2011. Only two other players have an active streak of 10 years or more with a victory: Yuta Ikeda (2009-2019, 11 straight) and Justin Rose (2010-19, 10 straight). Neither Ikeda nor Rose have won yet in 2020."
Rose has been quiet throughout 2020, and so has many in fairness but he hasn't been exactly non-competitive either. 9th at Harding Park can be seen as a positive as too can his T-25 at The Northern Trust, 3rd @ Charles Schwab and T-14th at RBC Heritage. I think JR will be motivated hugely here to keep that yearly win streak going
Finally, Marc Warren continues to show form and he's had decent results at Wentworth over the years too with 7 TOP-30s in his last 11 visits including being runner-up in 2013 to Matteo Mannasero having lost in a playoff along with aforementioned Simon Khan. A win last February in Qatar was followed up last week with a 4th place in Scotland so he can be confident his game is in order for a go here and @ 150/1 - 8 places he's well well worth a punt as to is the 11/2 (6.50) in the TOP-20 market.
Selections:
1.50 pt e/w Shane Lowry @ 25/1 - 7 places
1.50 pts e/w J. Rose @ 18/1 - 8 places
0.25 pts e/w M. Warren @ 150/1 - 8 places
2.5 pts TOP-20 M. Warren @ 11/2
