Golf Events / Editor / 28 March 2007 /

European Order of Merit winner Padraig Harrington will be just one of those competing this week at the Shell Houston Open who will be seeking a morale-boosting performance to take forward into next week's US Masters.

The event at the Redstone Golf Club offers one final chance for players to boost their confidence ahead of the first Grand Slam of the year and there are many similarities between this week's course and Augusta.

By his own high standards, Harrington has enjoyed only an average start to his 2007 season after claiming the title of Europe's number one player last year.

But the Irishman is renowned for the amount of time he spends working on his game both on and off the course and he will be looking for positive signs that he can take forward to next week.

Harrington is a narrow favourite to win in Houston and is currently trading at 18, one point ahead of Australian and world number five Adam Scott.

Korean star KJ Cho is available to back to win at 21, while defending champion Stuart Appleby and David Toms are trading at 25 and 28 respectively, followed by Lucas Glover (28) and Steve Stricker (34).

In many respects, this week's tournament venue is the ideal location for the final event before the world's attention switches to the US Masters.

At 7,457 yards, Redstone's Tournament course - which was re-designed by Toms and Rees Jones - is 12 yards longer than Augusta next week while there are other similarities that make it the ideal warm-up event.

With the rough one-and-a-half inches long - the same as next week - the areas around the greens having been shaved and greens expected to be running at 12 on the stimpmeter, the onus will be on hitting greens in regulation, a good short game and putting.

That is exactly what Appleby excelled at last year as he romped to a six-shot victory the first time the tournament was held at Redstone.

The Australian, trading at 6 to place in the first five this week and 3.55 to finish as his country's top player, was second in the standings for greens in regulation hit while he ranked 11th in the putting stats.

Harrington struggled at this event last year, finishing a lowly 32nd in the field, and he has only shown glimpses of the form that made him Europe's number one golfer in 2006 so far.

But the genial Irishman, who can be backed at 4.8 to come in the top five, produced a good, solid performance to tie for 19th place at last week's WGC-CA Championship and is fancied to do well in Houston.

Scott is very much in the same boat as Harrington, after an outstanding career-best year in 2006 that saw him climb to third in the world rankings.

Scott, the 2.96 favourite to finish as the top Australian this week, closed out last week with a final round 80 and he looks to have plenty to do before he returns to his best. It could also be worth siding with Harrington with the duo paired up in the tournament matchbets.

Toms may well have helped re-design this week's course, but it did not help him much last year when he missed the cut.

He will be hoping for better things this week but he has struggled to produce his top form so far in 2007 and the likes of Choi, Stricker, Glover and Vaughn Taylor could provide more attractive betting alternatives.

Choi, who tied sixth in this event last year, finished alongside Harrington last week and feels comfortable playing courses set up like Augusta , where he finished third in 2004.

Stricker, 8 to place in the first five this week, did even better than Choi here last year when finishing third behind Appleby and has two top-10 finishes to his name in 2007 while Glover has been the model of consistency this year.

Taylor, though, has the potential to beat them all and is in form after finishing third in a high-quality field at the Arnold Palmer Invitational a fortnight ago.

The American is trading at 42 to win and 9 to place in the first five which look attractive odds, while he could also be a good bet at 1.91 to beat Glover in the tournament match-betting.

Arron Oberholser, available at the same odds as Taylor, may be a surprise package this week after making a full recovery from a back injury while it will be fascinating to see how double US Masters champion Jose Maria Olazabal fares.

Olazabal, who can be backed at 55 to win, is a master around the greens and a good showing in Houston could be a signal of more to come at Augusta next week, where he finished joint third last year. The Spaniard is available at 8 to emerge as top European this week behind Harrington (3.65)

Swedish Ryder Cup star Robert Karlsson looks to be coming into form at the right time after a good finish last week and is trading at 60 to win and 13 to come in the top five.

Rocco Mediate (85), Boo Weekley (80), Tim Clark (90) and Sean O'Hair (100) are all available at long prices and could do well, which could also apply to Australian John Senden (44 to win and 8.6 to come in the top five).

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