The Punter / Steven Rawlings / 01 September 2009 / Leave a Comment

There's a decent field assembling in Switzerland and a Monday finish in the States this week, where Steve's playing the waiting game...

The Race to Dubai moves on to Switzerland this week, to the beautiful mountain course at Crans-sur-Sierre for the Omega European Masters, and at last a fairly decent field assembles in Europe.

Chubby Chandler sends out quite a few players under his management this week, including his two stable stars - Lee Westwood, who's a former winner here, and Rory McIlroy, who should have won here last year.

Westwood's playing just about as well as anyone in the world this year yet he's still struggling to win titles. I expect he'll go well again here but he's just too short given how hard he's finding it to win at present.

As for young Rory, he clearly showed an aptitude for the Swiss altitude last year and will be keen to avenge his play-off defeat to Jean Francois Lucquin, but he too looks plenty short enough.

Of the many players with solid course form I've chosen to back just one and that's Spanish veteran Miguel Angel Jimenez. Third last year, a runner-up twice and with four other top tens to his name, I fancy he'd love to add this one to his CV. Spanish greats Seve Ballesteros, Jose Maria Olazabal and Sergio Garcia have all won the event.

Sticking with the Spanish theme, I've also backed Alvaro Quiros. He missed the cut here last year in his only appearance to date, but he's found a bit of form again after a lean spell and I rate him very highly.

My third pick is another player represented by Chubby Chandler, Jeev Milkha Singh. He hasn't got sparkling course form, his 10th placed finish in 2002 his best effort in five attempts, but he'll be keen to do well in what is the first event to be co-sanctioned with the Asian Tour on European soil.

Last but not least is Daniel Vancsik, who I backed last week. He dropped away tamely over the weekend in Scotland but he's a very big price again and worth taking another chance on. Like the Spanish the Argentines also seem to do well here - hopefully Vancsik can improve that good record.

Selections:

Miguel Angel Jimenez @ [28.0]
Alvaro Quiros @ [38.0]
Jeev Milkha Singh @ [55.0]
Daniel Vancsik @ [160.0]

The second leg of the FedEx Cup takes place in Massachusetts this week with the Deutsche Bank Championship, starting on Friday and ending on Monday, which is Labor Day in the States.

Tiger Woods is a worthy favourite and is priced up fairly enough at a shade under [3.0], and although his putting has been poor lately he's almost certain to figure at the business end of the event. But he's also highly likely to trade a bit bigger too, so I'll be looking to back the great man in-running, should the right opportunity arise.

I've had three pre-event bets as well though, and first up, is Phil Mickelson...again!

He won this event two years ago, getting the better of Woods in round four. I know it's asking a lot and he's shown little since returning to tournament play three weeks ago but I can't let him go un-backed at such a big price.

My second pick is also out of form and a big price. Defending champion Vijay Singh's form figures here read 4-1-2-60-1. Woeful putting is having a detrimental effect on his form but he's simply too big at [60.0].

Finally, I've also backed Zach Johnson again. I thought he was going to figure in last week's final round shenanigans but a disappointing 75 saw him slip from 7th to 28th. He has no course form to speak of but there's not an awful lot of downside at [70.0].

Selections:

Phil Mickelson @ [38.0]
Vijay Singh @ [60.0]
Zach Johnson @ [70.0]

As the Deutsche Bank Championship doesn't finish until Monday I'll post my update on Sunday morning this week.

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