General / Roger Chapman / 11 January 2008 / Leave a Comment

In his first column of the New Year, Roger Chapman makes his predictions for 2008. Rory McIlroy will make his mark but once again it looks like the year will be dominated by one man, Tiger Woods

A Happy New Year to all the readers of Betfair.com. Although this is a New Year, we are already into our 7th event of the year, the Tour having started in China last November.

My predictions for 2008: Tiger Woods will again dominate the Majors and World Championship events (surprise, surprise) I think he will win the U.S. Masters and The Open at Royal Birkdale. Europe will retain The Ryder Cup, but I do think for the future of the event the Americans have to win it otherwise I can see The Presidents Cup becoming more important to the US (they keep winning that one). Justin Rose will retain his Order of Merit crown. Will a Brit win a major? Unfortunately no, although we do have some outstanding players on the verge of doing so. Rory McIlroy will win on the European Tour.

I mentioned earlier that this weeks Johannesburg Open will be the 7th of this years schedule. Next year we will be reverting to a calendar season starting in January and finishing in December in Dubai for the Race for Dubai, where $10,000,000 will be up for grabs. I have to congratulate George O'Grady, CEO of the European Tour and his staff for an outstanding effort tin getting this deal. It really will encourage some young blood on to the Tour.

On to Johannesburg: there will be a field of 200 playing over two courses at the Royal Johannesburg and Kensington Golf Club. I personally don't agree with these extra big fields, but there we go. The cut will still be 65 and ties, so there will be a lot of players who will miss out at the weekend. One player to look out for will be James Kingston, you may well say that is easy, he's just won the South African Open at the end of last year and he did finish 8th last year shooting 72/70 over the weekend which was disappointing having opened up with a couple of 66's. Now he has won his confidence will be sky high and he will be in the shake up come Sunday afternoon. I don't think we will have a European winner this week, that's because the grass out in South Africa is so different to anywhere else you will play. Its called 'kikuyu' and the rough is so thick it is hard to get any control out of it, you almost just have to knock it up the fairway and try and scramble your par. Driving therefore is of a premium. Putting will favour the locals too. There is a lot of grain in the greens, this means that whatever way the grass tends to grow, it will affect you putt. For example, if you are putting into the grain, the tips of the grass pointing at you, it will be a slow putt but if your are down-grain, the putt will be very much quicker. Also in
Jo'burg, because you are playing at altitude, the ball will travel further. The East course measures 7500 yards and the West course 7100. You can, as a rule, play your shots by taking 10% off your yardage. People like Angel Cabrera would be hitting their drives at around 350-360 yards every time!

The weather will also be a factor this week. When I have played out there in the past you could almost set your watch by the thunder storms that come in during the afternoon - 4.30 to be precise! Its amazing, there will not be a cloud in the sky in the morning but as the temperature gets up, the clouds form and by the afternoon, rain and heavy too! The storms can be spectacular, the field staff of the European Tour will have to be vigilant, keeping an eye on the weather and when they do postpone play for a short while, then they have to try and get a hundred plus players off the course and away to safety. If you get it slightly wrong, the players will let you know about it, as happened to me in Madrid last year when I called bad light a little late for one player.

I am sure there will be a little catching up to do by the time the event reaches its climax at the weekend.

Next week the Tour moves onto Abu Dhabi for the Middle East swing where I have just looked at the entry list and there is a certain Adam Scott - who is first reserve - at the moment. Who said it was easy on the Tour?!

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