In only its’ second year at the London Golf Club, The European Open is probably not the best tournament to use course history as a guide to picking your winner, but that said last years winner Ross Fisher might just be an exception to this rule.  Second last week to another man in great from, Paul Casey, Fisher has the game and the head to repeat last years victory (maybe not so emphatically as 7 shots again) and will no doubt be many pundits fancy this week and looks certain to start as a strong favourite.  That said, he is well worth a punt at anywhere near the 10/1 mark as if he were more renowned you would probably be looking at him going off around the 5/1 mark.

With the obvious pick now out of the way we can have a look at trying to find a bigger priced winner.  With three second places already this year and an eleventh place last week (which included a second round 77), talented Spaniard Gonzalo Fdez-Castano is well worth an e/w bet at anywhere around the 40/1 mark.  Despite a T59 finish here last year, his first round 4-under par 68 shows that he can score on this course if he puts his mind to it, and his 4 previous wins on the European Tour show that he can also handle the pressure associated with going well in a tournament.  With so many of the big names over in the US this week (including man of the moment Paul Casey) and so few of the ‘big names’ currently playing well I think he offers a great each-way bet and if he gets off to a good start I expect him to be there or thereabouts.

In the spirit of all good things coming in 3’s I am going to throw in Soren Hansen around the 40/1 mark again.  Although I usually like to throw in a big-priced player as my final selection, no-one really jumps out at me, so I shall so with the stats, and a T21 last week and T5 here last year is good enough for Hansen to get the nod over the rest.  That said I may still have something small on Paul McGinley at bigger odds as he can play here and it’s always nice to have the added interest of backing a home player.

This entry was posted on Monday, May 25th, 2009 at 3:39 pm and is filed under Golf, Hacketts bet tips, Sports Talk. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.