Find Me A 100 Winner / Paul Krishnamurty / 22 January 2008 /

Dangerous Dane is a huge price at three figures...

This week's column represents my 16th attempt to find that elusive 100 winner. Martin Kaymer was one of my earliest picks, and on Sunday the brilliant young German became the third of my selections to go on and win after the week in question, though his reputation had grown in the meantime and the odds were shorter at [65.0].

Previously, Richard Finch had won at [40.0] when I'd tipped him the previous week at over [200.0] and John Bickerton won miraculously at well over [200.0] a few weeks too late. And bar a last-hole [1.04] nightmare, Ross Fisher would have made it four.

In all honesty, I didn't back any of those last-named trio, though I did at least manage to get on Kaymer at [65.0]. The lesson there is obvious - when backing outsiders, it does often pay to persist with the player even if they do let you down when they're most fancied. It's no mean feat trying to pick a winner out in one single event, but at these sort of odds one win would pay for three seasons worth of bets on the same player.

With this in mind, I shall definitely be persisting with last week's selection, Zane Scotland. Not in every tournament, because some courses are unsuited to inexperienced players but certainly in this week's Qatar Masters. Doha has proved a happy hunting ground in the past for some top youngsters - Adam Scott won here when he was just 21, for instance. Zane might have had a poor week on his seasonal debut in Abu Dhabi, but occasional poor weeks are to be expected when it comes to rookies. Its certainly too soon to write him off, so I'm going in again at [200.0].

However, I like to try and pick a different player each week, so my main selection is Soren Hansen. It's a surprise to see the Dane available in three figures, seeing as towards the end of last season he was regularly in the thick of things. In fact he's only played five tournaments since winning the Mercedes Benz Championship in Germany last September, a fitting reward for a fine late summer run. That run was arguably the best of his entire career to date, so there is a possibility Hansen can step up on what is already a pretty respectable record in Qatar. He's only missed one cut there, and four times reached the top-15.

A further reason to fancy Hansen for another good week is that scoring on the par-5s carries greater significance at Doha than most courses. He was tied 8th in that department last week in Abu Dhabi, which was a perfectly satisfactory opening effort of the year and a good preparation seeing as he saved his best round of the week until last.

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