THIS WEEKS GOLF.

[wakeman]

Good morning fellow Golfing troops.

Well quite a mix for us this week, a rather unusual Ladies Tournament, One laced with mega appearance money and finally The Race To Dubai’s second offering.

Ok i will start with the Dunlop Phoenix which has attracted a good field due in main to the appearance money on offer, your’s truly will not be partaking as they could not meet my demands .

You have to respect the chances of Ernie Els and after last weeks victory in the Taiheiyo Masters, Shingo Katayama but at the odds available at present not for me thanks.

So those responsible for bringing the Yen back to my Bank Balance have been whittled down to these.

Firstly i am going in again with Henrik Stenson in the hope that his fifth in Shanghai has signalled an upturn in fortunes given his previous less than exhilarating recent ventures.

A couple from the PGA Tour complete my votes for this, firstly Brandt Snedeker who has not had a bad time of it in the States of late and hopefully striking the right notes Johnson Wagner can help my cause.

Next then the UBS Hong Kong Open which marks the Second Tournament in the Race To Dubai.

As with the Dunlop Phoenix a few you have to respect here, Firstly Miguel Angel Jimenez in his quest to record a third win in this event but i am not sure so for that basis alone it’s Room 101 this week and also despite coming up trumps in Singapore last week i will have to pass over Jeev Milkha-Singh as he is not noted for back to back victory’s when he get’s his head in front much to mine and Pete’s annoyance last week.

Having thought about it last night the four who will be entrusted with my burden this week are firstly Thongchai Jaidee who has gone close in the last three runnings of this so hopefully he can get over the line this time.

In the event that such hopes are dashed Simon Dyson is next in line to hopefully clean up .

A couple further down the market complete my quartet for this Marcus Fraser and lastly given a rather mixed bag recently but a winner of this recently Jose Manuel Lara is given a chance that a return to former glories might spark an upturn in fortunes.

Ok now to the ADT Championship for the Ladies which will take more than a bit of sorting out.

Given that there are only 32 starting you would have grounds for thinking you would come out on top, i had trouble with 36 last week so i am after all the assistance that is going.

From what i can gather all play the first Two Rounds obviously, then we have the first of two cuts with the top sixteen advancing to the Third Round but their scores from the first two rounds being scratched, the same applies for the Final round but with only the top 8 going for Gold.

Ok now that i have been around the M25 and along the way gathered Gordon Burns and the Krypton Factor’s Winners help , i am going to throw these four at you.

Three players have won this a total of Seven times between them since the Tournament started in 1996, those being Annika Sorenstam 4 times Karrie Webb twice and last year Lorena Ochoa for the first time.

As Lorena’s was achieved under what is believed to be the current format being used this year i had very little hesitation in snapping up the 4/1 available last night.

How many of the Victory’s gained under the current format by Annika and Karrie i have to be honest i have no idea but the fact that they hold more than acceptable CV’S in this has made me more than happy to side with them this week.

My final choice is none other than Paula Creamer but with her recently there will be no room for the slow starts that she has been having, it all adds to the interest of this unique tournament and if i have not sent you to sleep by now i will as always offer my usual Best Of Luck to everyone partaking.

Cheers for now.

Adrian.

[SwallowCottage]

Good luck to Adrian, Crizzy, FanciedHorseLayer and anybody else betting on the golf this week.

I’ll start with the final strokeplay event on the lpga tour for this year which has an unusual format that Adrian has explained. The ADT Championship takes place in Florida with 32 players competing for a first prize of $1 million……nice work if you can get it
As this is the final lpga event for a few weeks, I’m going to treat myself to 5 selections
I was very tempted with the 4/1 on offer about Lorena but decided not to bet on her. I rarely bet on players to win consecutive tournaments but Angela Stanford is in such good form that I cannot ignore the 12/1 on offer for her to win. Cristie Kerr is my next choice as I think that she may like the format of this event and as long as Paula Creamer can get off to a good start then she could be difficult to beat if reaching the final round and 16/1 looks decent value for a player who has won four times this year and finished 3rd in this event last year. My final two for this are Shanshan Feng and Na Yeon Choi who I have followed regularly without success during the past three months so this is their final chance………….until next year

The Dunlop Phoenix is the big event taking place in Japan this week and has been won in the past by big names such as Tom Watson and Tiger Woods. Only 2 Japanese players have won this tournament in the last 11 years so I’m going to look for a winner from outside the host nation. Ernie Els nearly won in Singapore last week and deserves to be favourite. He could outclass his opponents here but this Japanese par 70 course is a lot different to the long one in Singapore where Ernie has played well before and I think that his present odds do not offer value and are too short for my liking.
I’m not convinced that Henrik Stenson will be suited by this course but he showed a return to form when playing well in China last time out and is due a win so my money is on him at 16/1. The asian player that I think has a chance is Prayad Marksaeng who also played well in China before flopping in Singapore but he does not like that course and is worth a bet here in my opinion. An american who is more than capable of winning this on his best form is Steve Flesch who won twice on the usa tour in 2007 and this year he has managed a 5th place in the Masters and a 6th place in the final PGA major. With those performances on his CV then he should be capable of getting the job done this week. Whether he will is questionable due to his moderate end of season form but I reckon that at odds of 40/1, it’s worth the risk.

After a pit stop last week, the Race to Dubai continues with the UBS Hong Kong Open. Miguel Jimenez has won this event twice but has not played well recently and I prefer the chances of Peter Hanson who finished 5th here in 2007 and played well a fortnight ago in the HSBC Champions. My other selections are Graeme McDowell, Soren Kjeldsen ( who may be feeling more confident after his Volvo Masters victory ) and Thongchai Jaidee who has shown a liking for this course in the past.

Happy punting

Pete

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