European Masters Each-Way Tips: 50/1 Jorge Campillo can hit the heights

• Spain's Jorge Campillo is in form with an improving course record

• Erik Van Rooyen is already a winner at altitude

• Sweden's Alexander Bjork will welcome a return to Europe

We're back in Crans and that means many things: love for the course's position, high up in the Alps; love for the little town, which nestles around the final green; love for the views of the mountains, particularly the snow that caps them; love for the connections with Europe's golden era in the 1980s, especially Seve; and love for the Argentinean restaurant, which we're always told does a good steak.

There is, however, another story.

In The Secret Tour Caddy, a book released earlier this year, the author writes that the week, "appears to be more a holy pilgrimage than a golf tournament such is the reverence with which people hold (it)."

"I can't stand the place," he adds, going on to list the difficulty getting there (players get courtesy first class train tickets and courtesy cars up the mountain; caddies pay their way and complete the route on a gear-crunching bus), the eye-watering cost of living in Switzerland, and "the Mickey Mouse" golf course.

Even if you disagree with the mystery bagman, it's good to know that there is an alternate point of view and (sorry TSC) quite fun to think that someone is out there chuntering away while everyone is gushing.

One man who won't be in Crans is last week's winner Niklas Norgaard who is taking a few days off after his final round drama near The Belfry's 15th green which, in five astonishing minutes, made up for the clunking lack of jeopardy on the other side of the Atlantic.

Leading by four strokes, with his ball in greenside rough at the par-5 15th and his nearest rival likely to only make par, Norgaard decelerated on his first chip, nearly shanked his second and flumped his third. The latter was even a double hit but such disasters, fortunately, no longer count.

He emerged with a double bogey-7 and his caddie Kasper Broch Estrup later told me that every shot was high tariff due to the lie. "It was the most stress I have ever experienced on a golf course," he said. "It peaked right there."

Soren Kjeldsen later laughed that Norgaard's fellow Danes had assembled around the TV in the bar and responded with various displays of agonised contortion as their friend attempted to find the putting surface.

He was, however, made of strong stuff. He thrashed the longest and straightest drive of the day from the very next tee box, made birdie at 17 and won by two.

Ninety minutes afterwards, I packed my laptop and, as I left the hotel, passed a room in which Norgaard sat alone, on the phone, with a lovely look upon his face. There was the joy and relief of a winner, as you would expect. But it was also the look of a man freed from the stress of the day ("I nearly threw up on my breakfast") and a decade chasing a main tour win while making only gradual improvements that would often have felt non-existent.

I thought of Sebastian Soderberg, the Swede who is a former winner at Crans and returns to action this week for the first time since he endured his own final round agony in June's Scandinavian Mixed. Alas, his was one which didn't have a happy ending.

A second win in Crans would be lovely - and he has always liked playing in thin air - but the following three are head, rather than heart, selections.

Main Bet: Jorge Campillo 1pt each-way @ 50/1

Jorge (or George to the Belfry first tee announcer) Campillo played very nicely last week.

He was one shot back of the first and second round lead, and ended the tournament in a share of sixth. It was only a Saturday 75 that mucked up his hopes of a fourth DP World Tour title.

It ought to have been no great surprise either because his recent DPWT form is very good.

He was fifth in Qatar back in February, T12th in Sweden in June, T26th in the PGA Tour co-sanctioned Scottish Open and making the cut in the Open ranks as a fine effort for him on the links and in a major.

In between he has not been out of action but plying his trade on the PGA Tour and he did challenge for a win when fourth in the Myrtle Beach Classic.

He's had good results at altitude, notably winning last year's Kenya Open in Nairobi and finishing second at the Tshwane Open in Pretoria.

More notably, he had early difficulties at Crans with a best of T41st and five missed cuts in his first seven starts.

But he was one shot off the 54 hole lead in 2021, fourth in 2022 and he also carded three 67s when T40th last year.

Next Best: Erik Van Rooyen 1pt each-way @ 22/1

The South African Erik Van Rooyen is based in the States these days and he's not in bad form.

Like Campillo was shared fourth in the Myrtle Beach Classic and was then sixth in the RM Classic in June, had a 64 when T39th in the Scottish Open, was T17th in the Olympics and spent most of the week in the top 20 when T33rd in the St Jude Championship.

He was also a second time winner on the PGA Tour last November - and his first, in 2021, was at high altitude in California.

He's no stranger to thin air, spending a lot of time in Johannesburg, and he has neat course form.

He carded a first round 66 on his Crans debut to sit two shots off the lead before finishing T33rd in 2018. He opened with a 65 a week after his first DP World Tour success (in Sweden) in 2019 ahead of finishing T12th. And he was eighth last year.

Final Bet: Alexander Bjork 1pt each-way @ 66/1

In five completed starts at Crans the Swede Alexander Bjork has always finished top 30 and four of them were top 20s.

On debut in 2017 he was third heading into the final round before slipping back while last year he carded 65-64-68-66 to sit second on the leaderboard after 36, 54 and 72 holes.

Like Campillo he earned a PGA Tour card last year but he didn't have much of a time of it.

His return to Europe saw him finish T12th in the Scandinavian Mixed (when third with 18 holes to play) before he struggled back among the PGA Tour stars in the Scottish Open and Open.

Links golf has never suggested itself a great fit for him. This week, and this environment, is much better.

Now read Steve Rawlings on the European Masters

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