Golf Events / Tareq Quiroz / 26 August 2009 / Leave a Comment

Soren Hansen deserves his position as market leader for the Johnnie Walker, says Tareq Quiroz, and will be backing him.

The beauty of golf is you just don't know what's going to happen next. Each week we finish with a different story and often a reminder that this game is far from predictable. Just ask Sergio Garcia and Peter Lawrie what they think about throwing away winning positions on the back nine last week. I know there are a lot of punters out there who would have a few words to say to them if given the chance. It's a black mark next to their name but we move on to this week. The Barclays event in the US is star studded but it is the Johnnie Walker Championshipevent on the European Tour where I am focusing this week.

The Course
There are many great courses in Scotland and this week's venue is no exception. Gleneagles has played host to many great events down the years. The Johnnie Walker event will suffer a little this week due to it clashing with the start of the FedEx play-offs but that just gives a few others the chance to play this great track. It will play at just over 7,300 yards and at times it can be said to favour the longer hitters. The key to the round will be how you play 16 and 18. Those two par fives in the last three holes are both easily reachable and we will see many an average round turn into a good one on just those two holes.

The Favourite
With a slight lack of quality near the top of the market it is left to the Dane Soren Hansen to take an unlikely market leader spot. It seems to me that if anything Soren is actually getting better at this stage of his career. He has had a recent purple patch where he finished top 10 at both the US Open and the Open Championship. He was also far from disgraced at the USPGA and comes into this event as the man to beat. When you couple his recent form with the fact that he has finished 2nd, 3rd and 10th in this event the last three years you can see why he is the jolly. My obvious concern is that for a man who plays so well so often why is it that he only has two tour wins to his name. As it stands that is the only negative I have for him and seeing as we have so many positives I feel he must be supported this week. At current odds of [13.0] I think that he represents good value in a field that he could waltz away from.

The Next Best Bets
Oliver Wilson is the stand out next best player and Simon Dyson will be buoyant after last week's win. Whilst they both have chances I wouldn't want to be on either this week. One guy who caught my attention last week was the young Swede Alexander Noren. He secured a top 10 by holing his approach shot at the last and it is things like that that give a player a boost going into the next week. Big things were expected of Noren before the start of the season and it is fair to say that he has been something of a disappointment. He definitely deserves another chance though as I am sure he will come good and win multiple tour events over the next few years. He is a big hitter and this course may well be right up his street. In this field at odds of [48.0] he is a must for the staking plan.

The Massive Outsider
You will find plenty of big names at three figure odds this week but can you really justify following them? Monty and David Howell are so out of touch that although a couple of years ago they would have been the two market leaders they are now just making up the numbers. I believe you are much better off with someone like Jeppe Huldahl. This young Norwegian shocked everyone when he won the Wales Open early this season. He followed it up with a third in the SAS Masters and is clearly one of those players who will pop up from time to time. This is just the kind of place I would expect him perform and when you get odds of [150.0] for a player who has won in the last few months it has to be worth a punt.

Interesting Info
Last year's winner Marc Warren was only the seventh Scottish golfer to have won on home soil and he will be hoping to defend his title this week. In 2008 Gregory Havret became the first player to win wire to wire in this event but my feeling is that this is the type of course where that is entirely possible again this year. In 2000 Paul Lawrie became the first player ever on the European Tour to start his round with a hole-in-one after starting his round on the par three 10th. He is just one of a whole host of Scots hoping to win at this famous venue this week.

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