Golf Events / Editor / 15 May 2007 / Leave a Comment

European number one Padraig Harrington will lead the home challenge at this week's Irish Open and as he bids to become the first Irish winner of the tournament for 25 years.

It seems incredible to think that, with all the golfing talent that Ireland has produced during that time, no one has managed to match John O'Leary's achievement at Portmarnock way back in 1982.

This week's event will be the first time that Ireland has played host to a major tournament since the unforgettable emotional scenes at the 'K' Club last September, when Europe won the Ryder Cup for a record third successive time.

Harrington and his compatriots Darren Clarke and Paul McGinley were all members of the victorious winning team and they will be hoping that returning to the Emerald Isle will help inspire them to their first triumphs of the year.

Harrington, despite a quiet start to 2007 by his own high standards, is the market leader to win in County Limerick this week where he is trading at 9.2 to triumph, with Clarke and McGinley available at longer odds of 65 and 75 respectively.

Lee Westwood, winner in Spain last week, is well-fancied to carry on his good form and can be backed at 14 to win, with defending champion Thomas Bjorn available at 22, ahead of Frenchman Raphael Jacquelin (27), the duo of Nick Dougherty and Graeme McDowell (both 32) and Spaniard Miguel Angel Jimenez (36).

This week will be the first time that the event has been staged at Adare Manor and the field will encounter a course measuring 7,453 yards - the longest in Irish Open history and the fifth longest on the European Tour this season.

Harrington has enjoyed plenty of good starts to tournaments in 2007, both in Europe and America, only to fail to carry through his challenge into the weekend and he is aware of the need to find greater consistency if he is to achieve his dream of winning for the first time on home soil.

Last year's Order of Merit winner, trading at 2.9 to come in the top five this week, has finished runner-up four times at the event since the turn of the Millennium, but has never quite managed to claim the winner's spot yet.

It is a trend he will be anxious to reverse this week, especially as victory would move him up from his present 12th place in the Order of Merit and into the top ten and leave him ideally placed to mount a challenge to defend his crown, where he can currently be backed at 14.5.

Westwood must have been beginning to wonder if he would ever win again but he returned to the winner's enclosure after a gap of more than three-and-a-half years in Spain last week and will be full of confidence for this week.

After much experimenting, the Englishman - 4.3 to come in the top five and 2.14 to finish in the top ten - has finally found a putter he is comfortable with and his scores have come tumbling down as a result.

Bjorn enters the tournament as defending champion and also received a confidence boost last week after finishing sixth in Andalusia - only his second top ten finish this year.

Ireland is clearly a country that brings out the best in the hugely talented but erratic Dane.

Aside from his victory last year when he overcame a nine-shot deficit after the first round to beat Paul Casey on the 72nd hole, Bjorn has managed six top-five finishes in 13 appearances in the country this decade. He is trading at 5.8 to register a seventh this week.

Jacquelin is one of the most improved players on tour and five top-ten places have helped him to seventh place in this year's Order of Merit.

The Frenchman looks comfortable with his game and it would be no surprise to see him challenging again in Ireland, where he can be backed at 7.2 to come in the first five and is trading at 1.86 to beat Bjorn in the tournament match-betting against the Dane's odds of 1.57.

Bradley Dredge finished joint-fifth in the event in 2006 and is a player that could come into the final equation, especially at attractive odds of 42 to win and 9 to come in the first five, while the trio of Simon Dyson, Richard Green and Markus Brier (all 46 to win) will also have their supporters.

Dougherty, 8.2 to finish in the first five, must still be wondering how he failed to win the Italian Open a fortnight ago after leading by three shots with nine holes to go and will be anxious to make amends.

And it may also pay to keep an eye out for Richard Sterne, Fredrik Andersson Hed and Phillip Archer.

Sterne (50 to win) leads the 2007 European Tour statistics for strokes per round with 69.71 while Andersson Hed, who hasn't finished outside the top six the last three weeks, and Archer tied for second behind Westwood last week and are trading at appealing odds of 75 to win.