Find Me a 100 Winner: Fast starting Frenchman can reward again

As highlighted in the Tour Championship preview, the FedEx Cup finale is now a handicapped event, so it looks like one to swerve.

All three editions in this awful format have been won by someone trading at a single-figure price and the last two editions went the way of the man leading the standings before the week began.

Sepp Straka, who begins the week trailing by six strokes, looks fractionally over-priced at around 260.0259/1, but I'm going to concentrate all my efforts on the Omega European Masters, were I've picked out three players with previous form around the magnificent mountain layout of Crans-sur-Sierre...

Wu the way to go

Matt Cooper lays out a great case for China's Ashun Wu in his each-way column and I can't disagree with any of it.

The 37-year-old is in search of his fifth DP World Tour title and his second this year, having won the Kenya Open back in March, and with course form figures reading 9-6-MC, he's over-priced at 130.0129/1.

He's yet to start well at Crans, sitting 42nd, 61st and 100th after round one in each of his first three visits so if he can get off to a fast start on Thursday we could be in business.

Back 2u Ashun Wu @ 130.0129/1
Place order to lay 8u @ 10.09/1 & 10u @ 2.35/4

Fast starting Frenchman can reward again

Ashun Wu may have been slow out of the blocks at Crans but another 37-year-old - Frenchman, Mike Lorenzo-Vera - hasn't, and he's bidding to end round one in front for the third time.

Lorenzo-Vera is clearly looking forward to the week and that's not surprising given he has form figures around the fiddly mountain track that read 14-19-12-30-3-6-MC.

He's yet to win on the DP World Tour but he's had a couple of very near misses and if he's ever to get off the mark this looks as good a place as any.

The Frenchman looks a sporting price at 130.0129/1 on the exchange and at 100/1 with seven places on the Sportsbook in the outright markets and he also looks a great each-way play at 80/1 in the First Round Leader market where there are six places on offer.

Lorenzo-Vera ended the opening day tied for the lead in both 2016 and 2019 before going on to finish 12th and sixth. And he finished third here in 2018 having sat tied for 18th after round one.

0.5u Mike Lorenzo-Vera @ 130.0129/1 (Exchange)
1u each-way Mike Lorenzo-Vera @ 100/1 (Sportsbook)
1u each-way Mike Lorenzo-Vera FRL @ 80/1 (Sportsbook)

McGowan at home in the mountains

As highlighted in the preview, course form holds up nicely at Crans so I'm happy to finish with a really speculative pick in the shape of 40-year-old Englishman, Ross McGowan, who has form figures here reading 7-3-44-MC-4.

Dogged by inconsistency and injury, McGowan's form fell off a cliff after he won the Madrid Masters in 2009, which explains why he didn't play in this event until last year following his missed cut ten years earlier.

He lost his card in 2011 and after a couple of unsuccessful DP World Tour campaigns, in 2016 and 2018, after he'd qualified via Q School, he returned to the DP World Tour to win the Italian Open in 2021 following his third success on the Challenge Tour in 2019, fully 12 years after his second!

McGowan is the personification of a journeyman but three Challenge Tour wins, a Sunshine Tour success (in 2014) and two DP World Tour wins show he's capable when presented with a chance to win and he's a huge price here given it's somewhere he clearly loves.

Back 0.5 u Ross McGowan @ 480.0479/1
Back 1 u Ross McGowan @ 40.039/1 Top 10 Finish
Place order to lay 10u @ 10.09/1 & 10u @ 2.35/4

*You can follow me on Twitter @SteveThePunter