The Punter / Steven Rawlings / 15 September 2009 /

There's no action in the States this week, so Steve's concentrating all his efforts on the Austrian Open...

With no tournament in America, there's just the one event to concentrate on this week, the Austrian Open - staged for the seventh successive year at Fontana Golf Course.

Yet again the Race to Dubai produces a far from a stellar line-up and organisers must be very disappointed. With no event next week, no American event this week, and with only Padraig Harrington, Ernie Els and Luke Donald, of the old European Tour guard, lining up at next weeks FedEx Cup finale - the Tour Championship, it's particularly disappointing to see such a poor turnout. Even defending champ, Jeev Milkha Singh, is taking the week off.

The favourite is Soren Hansen, who was in pole position halfway through round two of last weeks Mercedes-Benz Championship but he eventually finished a shot shy of the play-off - another poor in contention effort from the Dane. He has form here though, he was 8th last year and runner-up in '06, so has obvious claims but the price makes no appeal at all.

Trading at less than [20.0], Bradley Dredge makes even less appeal. The low price is due largely to his 2nd place in Switzerland two weeks ago, but he's played well there several times now, whereas he's never played Fontana.

Richard Green also trades at less than [20.0] but he's not only played here, he's won here. He was the champion in 2007, despite very nearly throwing the event away. He traded at [1.01] when he had two putts from 12 feet for the title on the 72nd hole, but remarkably he three-putted, hitting his first putt four foot past and missing the return. Thankfully for his backers, he then got the better of Jean-Francois Remesy in the play-off. He was also 4th here in 2006.

The next player in the betting is the first of my two picks - Markus Brier. He's not having the greatest of seasons - 4th in Austria in the Karnten Golf Open, a Challenge Tour event, and an 8th placed finish in the China Open his only highlights. But he's won this title three times, twice at this venue and he's shown a few glimpses of form recently. I debated whether to back him long enough to miss the bigger prices and I can't say I'm brimming with confidence but I felt I couldn't leave him out.

I quite liked Martin Erlandsson but hesitation on my part has seen the price collapse and although he finished 2nd just three weeks ago at Gleneagles and has had some decent efforts around Fontana, I simply can't take such a short price about someone yet to win on tour.

Plenty of others were considered, but my only other pick is Ignacio Garrido, who I felt, in such a weak field, was just about value. He boasts three top 11 finishes in his last four starts so is in decent enough fettle. His sole appearance here was last year, when he missed the cut, which obviously tempers my enthusiasm somewhat but at [44.0] he's worth a few bob.

Selections:

Markus Brier @ [23.0]
Ignacio Garrido @ [44.0]

I'll post an update at the halfway stage, either on Friday night or Saturday morning.

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