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HSBC Champions Betting: Joint jolly makes appeal as the world's best converge on Shanghai

Golf Events RSS / / 05 November 2008 /

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It's goodbye to the 2008 season and hello 2009, with the HSBC Champions tournament kicking off a big year for European golf. Tareq Quiroz previews the betting where a certain Spaniard is fancied to go well.

The final ever Volvo Masters was played out in frustratingly poor conditions last week but there is no doubt that the event will be sorely missed on the European Tour schedule. Valderamma has this tremendous ability to produce thrilling golf tournaments and last week did not let us down.

The Dane Soren Kjeldsen was in sparkling form and thoroughly deserved his win. However, the main talking point of the week was who was going to take the final ever Order of Merit. Robert Karlsson was a worthy winner and he will be hoping to take that form forward and try and be the first ever Race to Dubai victor. All that starts this week in Shanghai where everyone wants to get off to a flyer with a win in the HSBC Champions event.

The Course
This will be the fourth year that this event has taken place and it is only really now that we are beginning to get a feel for what is required to win this tournament. The Sheshan International GC plays host to this fine competition and I am sure we are in for an exciting finale. At 7,199 yards this par 72 track is fairly standard in length but noticeably all of its par three holes are long and tough. It has been raining heavily in Shanghai for the past few weeks and you must expect a soft course with receptive greens. This will undoubtedly make the course play easier than it has done in recent years and I fully expect some really low scores this week.

The Favourite
The battle for favouritism this week is as tight as you would expect from such a quality field. Last year's winner Phil Mickelson opened up as jolly, but there has been strong support for Sergio Garcia in recent days that's seen him join the American at the top of the market. In ordinary circumstances I would have Mickelson as favourite as this course really suits his game and the soft conditions will mean he can go pin shooting all day long. However, he hasn't been seen out for over a month and knowing Phil he won't have been doing too much practicing. At odds of [11.0] I will have to bypass him this week.

Sergio on the other hand has been in sparkling form for the last few weeks and will go to Shanghai full of confidence. Do not take much notice of his dismal effort here last season as he was struggling for form at the time. He is hitting the ball beautifully at the moment and if he can get the putter going this week he has to be supported. The current odds of [11.0] may well look very big if he gets off to a flyer on Thursday.

The Next Best Bets
Two years ago we had a shock winner in Yong-Eun Yang. The South Korean surprised everyone by beating a top class field including Tiger Woods to claim the title. I feel this was more of an anomaly than a trend and as such will rule out a huge amount of this select field. I don't see more than 20 players having any sort of chance of victory this week but rest assured there is still some value to be had. Darren Clarke is a man who catches my eye this week. He was in good form at Valderamma last week and but for one or two lapses in concentration he may have challenged for the title. Clarke has always played events in Asia and this experience will stand him in good stead this week. I expect a good year from Clarkey and it may well start right here in Shanghai. Get on him at current odds of [55.0].

The Massive Outsider
It is not easy to find too many big priced runners with much of a chance this week but there are certainly a couple of options. There is one player I have tipped up in this category a couple of times this year and he makes the frame again this week. That man is David Howell. He won this event in 2006 and it is a course that sets up well for him. I am positive that he is close to his best and back on a course where he won you may well see a bit of the old magic this week. At current odds of [90.0] you can't go too far wrong.

Interesting Info
This event is one of just three European Tour events played in China throughout a season. Watch out for Darren Clarke who won the last one in Shanghai. All three Winners thus far have come from the final group on the final day so don't expect someone to come out of the pack in the final round on this birdie blitz course.

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