Ras al Khaimah Championship Each-Way Tips: Romain can rule

Main Bet: Romain Langasque 1.5pt each-way @ 22/1

I spent a considerable percentage of my youth with my nose firmly stuck between the pages of old Wisden Cricketer's Almanacks, bewitched by scorecards of the past, giddy in the act of turning a series of names and numbers into stories I found far more captivating than, if I'm being entirely honest, teenage life.

The older version of me is not a great deal different: the diversionary daydreaming remains a constant; the names and numbers, however, tend to be provided by golf not cricket, and databases rather than musty old books.

Similar thoughts and emotions are in play, though. I love coming across forgotten names, old-timers who have drifted from the game, others who have risen through the ranks. I adore being astounded that two players from contrasting eras found themselves playing a random event at distinctly different stages of their careers.

This is not a therapist's couch you have accidentally found yourself on with me. Instead, this week's Ras al Khaimah Championship has prompted a glance through old leaderboards with tales to tell.

The tournament is new to the DP World Tour, but the course - Al Hamra in the UAE - is not. It hosted the Challenge Tour three times between 2016 and 2018, the last of them being that year's Grand Final which boasted a decent winner and runner-up in the form of Adri Arnaus and Victor Perez.

Two years earlier the first visit there created a top 20 full of players whose careers have veered in all sorts of directions ever since.

Jose-Filipe Lima was in second and he continues to plug on, seemingly forever trapped in a circle of being too good for the second tier and not good enough for the first. The fondly-remembered Johan Edfors was third; the Swede now has a paddleboard business.

James Heath (sixth) is intriguing. He tried for years to make it, very nearly won on the European Tour in 2018, and yet has made only another seven starts since. Charlie Ford (T11th) has retired from the tour to coach.

On the flipside, the winner that week, Jordan Smith, has added a victory on the main tour, as have fellow top 20 finishers David Law, Ryan Fox and Aaron Rai (the latter even played in the final group at Torrey Pines last Sunday).

There were another pair of now-European Tour winners in the top 20 that week and both make this week's team.

First up is Frenchman Romain Langasque who held a one shot halfway lead that week before finishing tied sixth, and he was tied fourth on his only other visit two years later.

The 26-year-old, who made his winning breakthrough at this level 18 months ago, has started the year in neat fashion with T12th at the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship and T18th last week in the Dubai Desert Classic.

His record everywhere in the UAE is also very solid: 12 starts, 11 top 40s, six top 20s. In this weakened field, and on a course he's thrived on, he makes great appeal.

That last point is a clincher because there's an echo of how he loved Karen Country Club in the Kenya Open on the Challenge Tour, and maintained the form when the event moved up to the main tour.

Next Best: Joachim B. Hansen 1pt each-way @ 28/1

I'm a little surprised Dane Joachim B. Hansen is not a lower price this week because since he finished fourth at the Open de Espana in late 2019 his golf has definitely moved up a notch.

That result boosted his card retention exercise and he soon completed the job with second at the Open de France, a week when he should have won, but it was the old JB back then: an absolute deluge of birdies, plus all sorts of bogey and double bogey counts.

Two lucrative top 10s in the end-of-year events added to his confidence and bank balance, and a year later he contended when seventh at Wentworth before winning the Joburg Open.

Late last year he made it two wins at this level with a fine display in the Dubai Championship and now he returns to a course he has enjoyed in the past.

He didn't play in that 2016 event, but a year later he was tied seventh and a year after that tied sixth after 54 holes before finishing T13th.

There was good JB and bad JB last week in Dubai: he shared the first round lead and was tied fifth at halfway; he carded 81-75 at the weekend.

If he can shake off that weekend malaise this field shouldn't faze him.

Final bet: 0.5pt each-way Marcus Kinhult @ 150/1

First things first: note not only the big price, but also the smaller stake.

Because whichever way I paint it, I'm suggesting a man who hasn't made the places, or indeed found a top 20, since October 2020.

But I do really like Marcus Kinhult at this price and on this course.

Six years ago he was not only tied fourth in this event, but had led the field by two strokes through 54 holes, eventually carding 68-67-65-72. He returned a year later with 73-71-65-70 to land T19th.

He's also enjoyed plenty of other good returns in the Middle East: second at Al Mouj in Oman on the second tier, T19th on the first tier at the same venue, T22nd, T16th and T32nd at Jumeirah, T18th at Royal Greens, seventh at Education City, and third at Doha.

The latter is a course designed by the Harradine Group, as this one is, too.

The form is a concern. He did close out the year with his best round and result: a 64 for T24th in the Dubai Championship. And he did open this year with a nice 68 to be T12th after round one in Abu Dhabi, but finished T75th and missed the cut last week.

But the price is big enough to accommodate that concern and he did win the British Masters off four missed cuts and a round of 80.