US Masters / Mike Norman / 30 March 2010 /

With no European Tour event to preview this week, we set "Mystical" Mike Norman the task of highlighting which of that Tour's players can shine at next week's first Major of the season - the US Masters.

It wasn't that long ago that the European Tour was dominated by the Big Three - Colin Montgomerie, Lee Westwood and Darren Clarke - and every time a Major tournament came around these guys were the Tour's best chance of success. Monty's had many runner-ups, Westwood has come close on a few occasions, and Clarke has at least won a World Golf Championship event, so the faith in these three has (probably) been fully justified.

In the last 10 years Retief Goosen, Angel Cabrera and Padraig Harrington were all plying their trade on the European Tour at the time of their first Major tournament success, proving that although the PGA Tour has more quality and depth to it, the European Tour is very capable of producing a champion at one of the four big ones.

Almost inevitably though, once a player makes a huge breakthrough on the European Tour (like winning a Major, a WGC, or finishing high on the money list) he'll pack his bags and fly across the pond to play in America - Goosen, Cabrera, Harrington, Sergio Garcia, Ian Poulter, Justin Rose, Luke Donald and Rory McIlroy to name but a few.

In a nutshell it means that the European Tour loses its star names, and when a Major tournament comes along - like next week's US Masters for example - it's desperately hoping that another of its members will make the breakthrough and put the Tour on top of the golfing world again.

Few European Tour stars have made a bigger impression this season than Charl Schwartzel, Louis Oosthuizen, and the Molinari brothers - Francesco and Edoardo.

Schwartzel and Oosthuizen of course hail from South Africa, but they're now playing their eighth year in Europe, and none of those years have been better than the one they're enduring at the moment.

Schwartzel has risen to number 27 in the world rankings following back-to-back wins earlier in the season, and then by announcing himself on the world stage by finishing a brilliant runner-up to Ernie Els at the WGC - CA Championship earlier in the month. Schwartzel is [95.0] to back in the US Masters Winner market and he'll be going to Augusta full of confidence.

I'm not so sure that Oosthuizen has looked at the form of his fellow South Africans and thought that he doesn't want to get left behind, but whatever he's done it's worked. By finishing fifth in Abu Dhabi and tied-14th at the Qatar Masters he was already having a good season, but he's stepped up massively on those performances in recent weeks. He followed a clear second place finish at the Trohpee Hassan by winning last week's Open de Andelucia in tremendous style. Like Schwartzel, he'll be going to the US Masters with his game and confidence at a peak; so ignore at your peril the [120.0] quote currently available.

Francesco Molinari hasn't quite hit the heights of Schwartzel and Oosthuizen this season, but he's still showing enough to warrant respect next week. He followed a top-15 finish at the WGC - CA Championships by recording back-to-back top-10 finishes on the European Tour recently. His short putting is a worry, but the lightning fast greens he will face in Georgia might help in that respect, so at [180.0] to back, he is definitely worth of consideration.

Brother Edoardo (available to back at [130.0]) also goes to Georgia in good form following an excellent tied-second finish at the Arnold Palmer Invitational a few days ago. The Bay Hill course is set-up very much like the one he will face at Augusta, so everything bodes well for a player who has made giant strides in the golfing world during the last six months.

Of course, it would have been very easy of me to highlight European Tour stars like Lee Westwood ([32.0]), Martin Kaymer ([50.0]), Robert Karlsson ([120.0]) and Graeme McDowell ([130.0]) ahead of next week's event, but they're all very established players, and more importantly, not in the same form as the four players I've highlighted... well, at least I don't think they are.

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