The Punter / Steven Rawlings / 08 September 2009 /

It's German car week in the golf world, as Steve looks to drive up profits with a pair of Spaniards, a Swede and his old mate Zach...

Before I start with this week's action I should wrap up last week's Deutsche Bank Championship, where there wasn't any good news. I only had one further bet on Monday, a very small interest in Jason Dufner at [3.4].

It was an unfathomable puzzle going into the last round but I thought one of the front four of Steve Stricker, Padraig Harrington, Retief Goosen, or Sean O'Hair would probably win, but I didn't fancy any strongly. I nearly backed O'Hair and was soon glad I hadn't.

I backed Dufner as he played the par five last hole, once he'd found the fairway and was odds on to make a birdie, which I thought would be good enough for at least a play-off.

He did make birdie, unlike my halfway pick Dustin Johnson, who at one point looked like he may just do me a massive favour, but as it transpired Stricker was mentally superb, birdied the last two and beat Dufner and Scot Verplank by a shot and Johnson, Harrington, and Angel Cabrera by two shots.

On to this week and it's clearly German car week in the world of Golf and I'll start with the Race to Dubai's event in Cologne, the Mercedes-Benz Championship.

There's plenty of course form to assess as the Golf Club Gut Lärchenhof was also used for the old German Masters.

Somewhat bizarrely I find myself drawn to Lee Westwood. He didn't play here last year as he was suffering with tonsillitis but two years ago he opened up with a first round 61 before slumping to 6th place. I think he'll go well this week but as always, given his propensity to give up golden opportunities, he's just too short.

My first pick is Peter Hedblom, who is currently in the form of his life and comes here after a play-off defeat in Holland and a win in Scotland. Back-to-back wins are rare, but so are wins the week after a disappointing play-off loss and he's already done that. He impressed me at Gleneagles and I see no reason for him to be as big as he is.

I'm taking a chance on Gonzalo Fernandez-Castano too, who hasn't played since his 32nd place finish at the US PGA, but there's a very good reason for that. There's now a Gonzo junior and I'm a big fan of the 'Nappy Factor', especially when it's a first born son.

Last up is another Spaniard, Alvaro Quiros. His performance last week in Switzerland was deplorable but maybe his patience wore thin on the fiddly track. I'm not exactly bursting with confidence about his chances this week but I couldn't resist the price.

Selections:

Peter Hedblom @ [55.0]
Gonzalo Fernandez-Castano @ [55.0]
Alvaro Quiros @ [65.0]

Across the pond it's the BMW Championship, formally the Western Open, and the event returns to Cog Hill after a break of a year.

After Tiger Woods won here in 2007 with a total of 22 under par, the course underwent considerable changes, orchestrated by 'Open Doctor' Rees Jones.
The course has basically been toughened up, length has been added, bunkers have been deepened and all 18 greens completely changed.

Jones has made changes to six courses subsequently used for the US Open and the course owners clearly have ambitions for Cog Hill to become a major venue in the future. You won't see 22 under winning this time around.

I've gone through the field several times and besides my almost obligatory wager on Zach Johnson, I'm waiting until the events in full flow.

Tiger Woods has obvious claims, especially as his putter finally stated working on Monday, and the price looks fair enough but there's every chance he'll trade bigger.

I very nearly backed second favourite Steve Stricker, who ticks all the boxes. He's in blinding form, is a course winner and has a great US Open record; so he shouldn't be inconvenienced by the changes and I wouldn't be too concerned about whether he could go back-to-back either - after all, both Vijay Singh and Camilo Villegas won back-to-back FedEx Play-off events last year. As did Tiger in '07, so he'd hardly be setting a precedent.

Both Padraig Harrington and Retief Goosen should go well but, yet again, both let their supporters down last week at the business end.

Stephen Ames, Stuart Cink, and even Anthony Kim were all considered and then there's Phil Mickelson, who, like Woods, finally found his putting touch on Monday, but the bottom line is nobody jumps out at me. Maybe it's because it's such a strong field?

Selection:

Zach Johnson @ [70.0]

I'll post an update on Saturday morning, by which time both events will have taken shape and I'll hopefully have had a proper bet in the States.

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