Italian Open Each-Way Tips: 33/1 Hill trending in the right direction

• The Scot Calum Hill is ready for a second career win

• Nacho Elvira might land a second of the year

• Sean Crocker can finish the job off this week

Back in October, in the week after Rome had hosted the Ryder Cup, a trip I had extended into a holiday, I made my final journey from Florence to Bologna.

Coincidentally, the 2024 Tour de France's first two stages will make the same journey. But while I did it on a high speed direct train between the two cities, the cyclists are going via the Adriatic coast and therefore will hurtle past the new venue for this week's Italian Open.

News of this sporting clash caused some consternation among players and caddies earlier in the year because it meant accommodation was rather more scarce than normal.

Punters were also a little miffed by the move away from Marco Simone GC because that track suited strong drivers and therefore allowed us to quickly put together a short list of likely picks.

It's also sad that even though the course is in Milano it is the seaside town of Milano Marittima not the northern city of Milano and the golf course of the same name which is a tight, tree-lined track (which therefore also gave us a quick heads-up on who might win).

Instead, Adriatic Golf Club Cervia, situated just north of the resort of Rimini, is a completely new host.

The property is protected from sea breezes by a pine forest and there are three nines with the club confirming by email that the tournament will be played on the yellow and red nines (entertainingly myself and Steve Rawlings emailed them independently of one another).

The Red nine came first in 1986, designed by veteran Italian architect Marco Croze, and the holes sneak around the edge of, and sometimes through, the pine forest.

A second nine (Blue) was added by Croze a year later but it has been overlooked in favour of Yellow which came in 2004 via a "Scottish links inspired" collaboration between Baldovino Dassu and Alvise Rossi Fioravanti.

To be honest, we're playing a little blind this week.

Dassu, by the way, was a decent player, winning this event and also the British Masters in 1976, and the honours board has a wonderful list of winners that takes in the likes of Percy Allis, Flory Van Donck, Henry Cotton, Peter Thomson, Tony Jacklin, Billy Casper and Brian Barnes.

It was also once won by Hassan Hassanein who was Egypt's greatest golfer. He landed the trophy in 1949 and proved his quality by adding French Open triumph in 1951.

He also made the cut in each of the four Opens he played in the 1950s (and made his debut at this year's host Royal Troon). You think Middle Eastern golf started with Emirates GC in Dubai? Think again.

Anyway, enough of that. Time to address this year's Italian Open.

Main Bet: Calum Hill 1pt each-way @ 33/134.00

I mentioned that Steve and myself had both been badgering the club for information in the last few weeks and we're also agreed that the recent Scandinavian Mixed might be a decent pointer for this week.

The two are both new builds with pretensions to being linksy (and last week's venue in the Netherlands was much along similar lines).

The Swedish venue, however, also mixed linksiness with holes among the trees and Scotland's Calum Hill was tied second behind Linn Grant that week.

In his debut season on the Challenge Tour he won at Galgorm Castle. That's in the trees and, although it has no linksy notions, good links performers do thrive there.

He's also been fourth at Fairmont St Andrews, a new links in a blustery spot, and tenth at Le Golf National, which has linksy vibes.

Most of all, however, Hill is just really running into form right now.

A winner on the DP World Tour in 2021 (at the London GC), injury disrupted his progress, but he has made 13 cuts in his 14 starts this season.

More importantly, that second place in Sweden was a third top 20 in a row and, having been solid tee-to-green, he has now found something with his putter.

Next Best: Nacho Elvira 1pt each-way @ 50/151.00

The Spaniard Nacho Elvira was seventh in the Scandinavian Mixed after a slow start, just two appearances after winning the Soudal Open in Belgium.

Earlier in the year he was second in Kenya, and he was third in Doha and second in Denmark last year.

That's a lot of near-misses and his second DP World Tour win had been coming - he has eight second and third places on the circuit which suggests to me that he can win again and soon if his form over the last year is anything to go by.

He was outside the top 80 after 18 holes in Sweden before scoring as well as anyone thereafter. A solid start on Thursday and he can challenge again.

His price might have slipped to 50s sooner than it ought to have.

Final Bet: Sean Crocker 1pt each-way @ 66/167.00

The American Sean Crocker landed his first top 10 on the DP World Tour in 2017 at Royal Pines in Queensland which was a test much like this week - in a warm resort town, just off the coast, fast running and sometimes among the trees.

A year later he finished top 10 there again.

He recorded a top 10 at Fairmont St Andrews in 2020 (already discussed) and he won there two years later.

He spent the first two rounds of the European Open in the top 10 and the first three rounds of last week's KLM Open in the same higher reaches.

He's bubbling towards a genuine tilt at a title.

Now read Steve Rawlings on the Italian Open.

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