Golf Events / Tareq Quiroz / 25 March 2009 /

A home player has caught the eye of Tareq Quiroz in the betting ahead of this week's European Tour event.

April is just around the corner and you can just sense the jockeying for position as the year's first major approaches. We have Harrington saying he is still building his game up for it, and on the other side we have Mickelson who some may fear has peaked too soon. Meanwhile, we are left wondering whether or not Tiger will be back to his best at Augusta in two weeks time. There will be a pretty good indicator to that at this week's PGA Tour event but it is over to Spain for the Open de Andalucía where my punting eyes are this week.

The Course
It is not easy to keep up to date with all the tournament changes on the European Tour and it certainly doesn't help one's punting. This week we head off to Seville where the Real Club de Golf de Sevilla plays host to the Open de Andalucía. This particular course has not hosted this event before but we can glean some course form as it was the host for last year's Spanish Open. Pre-tournament rain last year meant the course played soft and quite easy but current weather suggests that we will have a much faster and harder course this week. My feeling is that it will suit accuracy over power so take that into consideration when making your picks.

The Favourite
It is going to be a close call for favouritism but it appears as though the edge is going to go to Soren Hansen. It is not often I would say it about him but I think he just about merits that position. He is a man in decent form who came third at this venue last season so he has to be considered. The main problem with backing Soren is that he is hardly a prolific winner. Sure, you can often trade out of your position for a profit but going on to win is another thing. He recorded a superb ten top 10 finishes last year but as usual he failed to seal the deal. At current odds of [19.0] he is a fair price but not one that will be in my staking plan.

The Next Best Bets
Miguel Angel Jimenez has to have chances based on his recent European Tour form but my only doubts about him are that he is the promoter of the event and may be sidetracked by all of his off course duties. I can safely say that I have never had a good word to say about Anthony Wall, but he does deserve a positive mention this week. He has had three top seven finishes in his last five tournaments and noticeably he topped both the driving accuracy and greens in reg stats last week. Should he repeat that form this week he must go close at odds of around [34.0].

Wall however is just edged out from my top pick this week by Spaniard Jose Manuel Lara. He is the type of player who always plays well in his home country and comes here after a more than respectable 11th last week. Unlike Wall he has won in the last couple of years and for me represents decent value at current odds of [55.0].

The Massive Outsider
There are plenty to choose from this week with really solid credentials. Steve Webster strikes me as being too big at [100.0] for a player that was second on his last start. I will certainly have a small investment there. Now that the tour is on mainland Europe don't be surprised to see many of the tours leading lights start to hit form. I am still monitoring David Howell and at [120.0] he is still best watched. Another outsider I do quite like though is Hennie Otto. He was a winner on tour last year and I would not be surprised to see him add to that this year. He has a good game when on song and at odds of [190.0] he is worth a saver this week.

Interesting Info
The first winner of this event was in fact Vijay Singh back in 1992. Last year's winner Thomas Levet is the leading all-time winner of European Tour events for France with four wins. Over a quarter of Jimenez's tour wins have been on his home soil of Spain so although he will have a busy week he is certainly one to watch.

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