General / Editor / 09 June 2007 /

There is a wide-open look to the BA-CA Golf Open in Vienna at the halfway stage with the top six players in the field covered by only two shots and some 17 players within five shots of current leader Richard Green.

Green's position at the top of the leaderboard gives punters a quandary as the Australian left-hander has a penchant for finishing in the top four without winning

His last victory on the European Tour, his only one so far, came all the way back in the 1997 Dubai Desert Classic, when he needed a play-off to beat Greg Norman and Ian Woosnam, but since that win he has been one of the most frustrating players for punters to follow, along with his fellow Aussie southpaw Nick O'Hern.

But his consistency this season is enough to see him head of the winner market at 3.25, although there are plenty of layers who may believe this could well be another near miss.

However, it is hard to ignore his claims in a field shorn of a number of its stars - Colin Montgomerie, Darren Clarke and defending champion Markus Brier all missed the cut - and with a number of winless professionals not that far behind, who have yet to prove they can handle the pressure of winning at this slightly lower-grade European level.

Green's season has not been overly busy so far, with only eight tournaments played, but he has finished in the top 10 in both of his last events, the Irish Open and PGA Championship at Wentworth when, in a change from his usual form, he was far stronger at the weekend after only narrowly making the cut. He is the leader in the 'Top 10 Finish' market at 1.11 and the 1.47 favourite to end up in the top five, with punters aware he has two other top four finishes from the events played outside Europe and has not missed a cut.

The improvement in results seems down to his improved driving accuracy - rated fifth on tour - and this beautiful Fontana track suits him down to the ground. Remember also that he holds a share of the course record here and finished fourth last year thanks to a 63, which came in the final round.

His closest rival in the market, and the one player in the top 10 with extensive winning form, is Spain's Miguel Angel Jimenez, available at 4.4 to bring to an end a run of events without a win that stretches back just over two years.

Jimenez has spent long spells in poor form since then, dropping down the world rankings enough to mean that he has to qualify for tournaments like the US Open - he misses next week's event at Oakmont after making a mess of the qualifying event at Walton Heath last Monday.

Although he is again winless in 2007, there have been enough signs to suggest that a win is just around the corner and with the class of opposition on hand here some may feel it could be this weekend.

The 43-year-old has five top 10's to his name this season, and is available at 1.25 to add another here. His most impressive performance came at Wentworth, where he played consistently well to finish tied for fifth, two shots ahead of Green, while he finished three shots behind Green in a share of sixth at Fontana in 2006. He is available at 1.62 to end this tournament inside the top five.

Second-placed Martin Erlandsson is currently trading at 9.8 to win, but his claims are less obvious than the 'big two' after a season with just one top 20 finish, albeit in his last event at Celtic Manor.

However, he has overcome a dreadful worldwide section of the tour to at least make five of his last six cuts and he would have finished much higher than 50th here last season but for a shocking 79 in the third round - a level-par 71, for example, would have put him into the tie for 13th.

The horses for courses adage certainly applies to another of this weekend's possibles, Sweden's Steven Jeppesen. He had his best finish at Fontana last season, picking up nearly £20,000 for a T8 and much like Erlandsson he suffered for a bad Saturday, when his 75 was seven shots worse than any of his other three rounds. He can be backed at 17 for small stakes to win and 3 for a place in the top 5.

Pelle Edberg is the other player at nine-under, but it is no real surprise to see him available at bigger prices (27.5 outright, 3.65 top five) as he comes into this event on the back of three missed cuts.

But more disturbing for his followers would be the way he finished Friday's round when he had every chance of taking a lead before a bogey at the 17th and a hard-fought par at the last, when hacking his way out of deep rough twice. His 50 per cent (14 for 28 in fairways hit) driving accuracy will be his undoing if it continues over the weekend.

Of the bigger-priced players Frenchman Gregory Havret could be under consideration by some punters for a place as he, like the two Swedes, was another to suffer from a third-round nightmare in 2006.

Havret finished 11th here last season and has the talent to win if he could improve his mental state. Because of his temperament he is stuck on one win and that came way back in 2001 when he landed the Italian Open.

He is currently available at 65 but that could begin to look on the large side if he continues consistently hitting greens in regulation - he has only missed two so far through 36 holes and missed putts are the only reason he is not leading at halfway.

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