The Open / Steven Rawlings / 13 July 2009 /

Steve wants to be against the short-priced Henrik Stenson but candidates are thin on the ground

At the recent US Open my most successful wager all week was on Michael Sim to be the Top Australian. The rationale being that I wanted to oppose a favourite, in Geoff Ogilvy, who I felt was just too short and I've done the same thing here too. I did look at the Top Australian market again but other than being slightly tempted by Stuart Appleby, no-one stood out.

It was a different matter in the Top Swedish market though, where at odds-on, I quite fancied opposing Henrik Stenson. Last year's third place at Royal Birkdale was by far his best effort to date. Previous to that, the best he could muster was 34th at St Andrews in 2005. Since his win at the Players' Championship he's been largely disappointing, though he did raise his game at the US Open, where he finished ninth but my first impression was I want to take him on. The only question was, with who?

On close inspection it was pretty obvious; most of the Swedes are woefully out of form or have very poor Open records, so it has to be second favourite Peter Hanson.

Since he grabbed a place in last month's US Open, with an ace in the qualifying tournament play-off at Walton Heath, he's played well on a number of occasions. He missed the cut last week but was fourth in France the week before, but more impressive was his 18th place at Bethpage, which shows he's more than capable to mix it at this level. His Open record isn't magnificent but he still represents value at anything above [7.0].

There are plenty of other nationality markets to look at and if you fancy opposing a couple of old timers, that aren't the force they once were, in Ernie Els and Retief Goosen, you could do worse than having a few bob on Richard Sterne in the Top South African market. He looks to be finally returning to form, and I was certainly tempted.

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