The Punter / Steven Rawlings / 17 December 2008 / Leave a comment

It's the final golf betting week of the year so Steve has made a bumper crop of selection from tournaments across the world.

This is it then, the last golf betting week of 2008, with nothing after that for two whole weeks. What on earth will I do with myself? And not even a new Elliott's Golf Form book to wile away the long evenings with, I do miss that publication.

If I'm honest I'm quite looking forward to the break and besides, there's plenty of racing to keep me occupied.

Anyway, here's hoping for one last hoorah, starting with the South African Open, staged for the second year running at the Jack Nicklaus-designed Pearl Valley Golf Estate. The tournament has plenty of history being the second oldest event in the world but there's not much history of overseas winners. It's been won by a native in ten of the last 11 years so I've concentrated my studies on the home-grown boys.

Whilst he performed poorly here last year, Ernie Els has a superb event record, winning four times and finishing in the top three eight times from 14 starts. He looked in fair form when runner-up in Singapore a few weeks back and even though I think his best days are behind him, he has to be backed at [11.0].

A read of his diary this week on www.ernieels.com, where he talks of opening his new bar, launching his new wine and even his holiday business tell you that golf isn't his sole interest anymore, but even so I'm pretty sure a fifth title will be the main focus when he tees it up on Thursday.

Richard Sterne finished alongside the Big Easy in a tie for 16th in last years wind-battered war of attrition but after last week's win I fancy he could improve on that considerably. Back-to-back winners aren't the most common phenomena in golf but he did waste at least five shots on the 18th hole last week and is in great form again. Last week's win also came on the back of a sixth-place finish in Hong Kong. He now has a prolific profile with four European Tour wins and this title on his CV wouldn't look out of place.

Garth Mulroy shot a third round 64 last year on his way to finishing in a tie for third, he seems plenty short in the betting now but I was happy enough with the [50.0] I took on Monday.

Finally, I have again backed Chris Wood and Marc Cayeux. I know they're not South African, so I've strayed from the home grown theory, but both did OK last week and are big enough prices to be given another chance here.

Selections:

Ernie Els @ [11.0]
Richard Sterne @ [23.0]
Garth Mulroy @ [50.0]
Chris Wood @ [90.0]
Marc Cayeux @ [310.0]

The South African Open is far from the only decent event this week, in California the Chevron World Challenge has a small but very select field but I've struggled to get much of an angle in.

Kenny Perry is the form horse but he looks plenty short enough. As do Camilo Villegas and Anthony Kim, given it's their first look at the course.

On first inspection Vijay Singh looked a reasonable price but he hasn't got a great record here. The player with the best event form is Jim Furyk, but again he's short enough at around [9.0].

So after wandering around lost for ages I finally had a wager on Boo Weekley at [23.0]. Like Villegas, Kim and also Hunter Mahan, Weekley is making his event debut this week but unlike the other three I think that's in the price. Boo comes here a week after partnering JB Holmes to a second place finish behind Perry and Hoch in the Merrill Lynch Shootout, so he at least has some recent form of sorts.

Selection:

Boo Weekley @ [28.0]

It's also the Volvo Masters of Asia this week, the last event of the Asian Tour this season. It's quite likely that either Thongchai Jaidee or Jeev Milkha Singh or both will be bang there on Sunday morning live on Setanta Golf and I'll be keeping a close eye on the pair. But for now I've just had a very modest bet on Thaworn Wiratchant. He's in fair form and looked just a smidgen big at an average of [27.0].

Selection:

Thaworn Wiratchant @ [27.0]

As always, I'll post an update as things progress over the weekend.