Find Me A 100 Winner / Paul Krishnamurty / 09 September 2008 /

Despite an unimpressive course record, Paul Krishnamurty reckons there could be big value in John Bickerton this week.

At odds around [120.0], John Bickerton represents the week's best three-figure value at the Mercedes Benz Championship. The Englishman started at similar odds on his last start in Holland, and held a very good chance of winning his second title of the season going into Sunday. A disappointing final round forced him out of the places into 12th, but he wasn't beaten too far and will have been reasonably happy with his week's work. That was his fourth top-25 in his last six starts, including two top-7s.

Bickerton's course record here isn't particularly impressive - prior to last year's 16th place he'd never made the top-20. However, this probably relates to the fact that the nature of the test in Cologne has changed over the years. This used to be a very low scoring course, favouring the big-hitters of which Bickerton will never be one. But since the course was toughened and the rough grown to penal lengths, the emphasis at Gut Larchenhof has been on tee to green accuracy.

Interestingly, Bickerton ranked 1st in those all-important greens in regulation stats in Holland, which should bode well for this week's test. Recent results at Gut Larchenhof confirm this statistic is more important here than most courses, with scrambling, putting average and par-5 performance also very influential in determining the result.

Very few of this field can boast more impressive figures across all these areas than Bickerton. Over the past three months, he ranks in the top-30 on the Euro Tour for each discipline, which all points to another successful week for the 38 year-old.

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