British Masters: Campillo can cash in again

• Scrambling the stat to focus on

• Cream rises to the top at the Belfry

• In-play drama expected on Sunday

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Tournament History

The British Masters was first staged in 1946, when originally known as the Dunlop Masters.

There was no edition in 1984 and the event was lost from the schedule altogether after Gonzalo Fernandez-Castano won at this week's venue, the Belfry, in 2008 but with the help of Sky Sports, it made a successful and very welcome return to the schedule in 2015 when Ian Poulter hosted the event at Woburn.

Since then, Luke Donald, Lee Westwood (twice), Justin Rose, Tommy Fleetwood and Danny Willett (twice) have all hosted the tournament and this year's host is Sir Nick Faldo.

The British Masters has moved about in the schedule and the last two editions were staged in May.

Venue

The Belfry, Wishaw, Warwickshire, England.

Course Details

Par 72 - 7,328 yards
Stroke Index in 2022 - 72.68

The Belfry hosted this event for three years in-a-row between 2006 and 2008 and it also hosted the last four editions of the now defunct Benson & Hedges International between 2000 and 2003, as well as four editions of the Ryder Cup.

After a break of 12 years, having last hosted this event in 2008, the Belfry made a welcome return to the DP World Tour in 2020 when it hosted the one-off UK Championship - won in extra-time by Rasmus Hojgaard- and it's been the venue for the last two editions of this event.

The Belfry is a relatively flat, mostly tree-lined course, with some narrow fairways. Water is in play on seven holes - most noticeably at the short drivable par four 10^th which last year averaged 3.97.

The majority of the Poa Annua greens are fairly small and the bigger ones have tiers and undulations, placing a premium on long putting and scrambling.

Winners at the Belfry this Century

• 2000 B&H International - Jose Maria Olazabal -13
• 2001 B&H International - Henrik Stenson -13
• 2002 B&H International - Angel Cabrera -10
• 2003 B&H International - Paul Casey -11
• 2006 British Masters - Johan Edfors -11
• 2007 British Masters - Lee Westwood -15
• 2008 British Masters - Gonzalo Fernandez Castano -12 (playoff)
• 2020 UK Championship - Rasmus Hojgaard -14 (playoff)
• 2021 British Masters - Richard Bland -13 (playoff)
• 2022 British Masters - Thorbjorn Olesen -10

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Weather

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TV Coverage

Live on Sky Sports all four days, starting at 13:00 on Thursday.

Last Eight Event Winners with Exchange Prices

• 2022 - Thorbjorn Olesen -10 95.094/1
• 2021 - Richard Bland -13 220.0219/1
• 2020 - Renato Paratore -18 70.069/1
• 2019 - Marcus Kinhult -16 370.0369/1
• 2018 - Eddie Pepperell -9 42.041/1
• 2017 - Paul Dunne -20 70.069/1
• 2016 - Alex Noren -18 23.022/1
• 2015 - Matthew Fitzpatrick -15 40.039/1

What Will it Take to Win?

I couldn't find any stats for the 2001 and 2002 editions of the Benson & Hedges International but there are enough clues from the other eight events staged here this century to suggest accuracy is important on approach.

Last year's winner, Thorbjorn Olesen, won courtesy of a red-hot putter and he only ranked 60^th for Greens In Regulation but four of the placed players ranked inside the top-six for GIR and Richard Bland ranked number one for Driving Accuracy and second for GIR two years ago.

The two playoff protagonists at the UK Championship in 2020, Rasmus Hojgaard and Justin Walters, ranked tied sixth for GIR and in behind them, Martin Kaymer, who finished tied third, ranked second for GIR, with Craig Howie (T5) and Calum Hill (T9), ranking fourth and fifth for that stat. The two players tied for third in 2021, Miko Korhonen and Dave Coupland, ranked third and fifth for GIR.

Olesen ranked only 67^th for Driving Accuracy and Bland ranked only 52^nd for Driving Distance so I wouldn't get too hung up on the driving metrics.

Like Olesen last year, who holed some ridiculous putts late on, Hojgaard putted particularly well here in 2020, ranking first for Putting Average, but the top-six all did. The worst any of the top-five and ties ranked for PA was 14^th but it was a very different story in 2021.

Bland ranked 48^th and the next four on the leaderboard ranked only 35^th, 9^th, 19^th and 28^th. Dean Burmester, who finished tied sixth, ranked number one but only three of the top-15 ranked inside the top-10 for PA.

Olesen ranked second for Strokes Gained Putting and seventh for Putting Average and the 2021 edition looks like a bit of a one-off given Bland is the only winner here to rank any worse than 11^th for PA but the key stat to concentrate on could be Scrambling.

The first two home ranked fourth and ninth last year and Richie Ramsay, who finished tied for third, ranked first. The first three home in 2021 ranked first, second and fourth for Scrambling and Lee Westwood and Gonzalo Fernandez Castano won here ranking first and fourth for that stat.

Is There an Identikit Winner?

As many as seven different Englishmen have won this title this century but in the last four years we've seen a Dane, an Italian and a Swede take the title and since England's Peter Baker won at Woburn 30 years ago, we've seen winners from all over the world. And the event wasn't played at all between 2008 and 2015.

In addition to the winners from the aforementioned Denmark, Italy and Sweden, there have been victories for players from New Zealand, Australia, the USA, France, Spain, Ireland, Wales and Scotland.

Behind the English, the Swedes have the best recent record though and but for Olesen's ludicrous finish last year (see the In-Play Tactics section below), Sebastian Soderberg would have been the fourth Swede to take the title in 11 years. Alex Bjork was also second behind Eddie Pepperell at Walton Heath in 2018.

Class Acts Shine at the Belfry?

Richard Bland is by some distance the biggest outsider to win here this century and most Belfry winners are straight out of the top drawer.

Having been matched at a high of 300.0299/1 before the off, and playing in his 478^th DP World Tour event, Bland was winning his first tournament at the age of 48 but aside from him, looking at the list of Belfry winners, the first thing to notice is what a stellar list it is.

Olesen has won again since, at the Thailand Classic in February, and he's now won seven times on the DP World Tour.

The three B&H winners have all won major championships and both Lee Westwood and Paul Casey were once considered players that really should have won one.

Gonzalo Fernandez-Castano hasn't won a major, in fact the closest he ever came was tenth in the 2013 US Open, but like Olesen, he's won seven times on the DP World Tour and Johan Edfors was very much the man to beat back in 2006. He's only won three DP World Tour events but all three were between March and July in 2006, so he was in great form when he won here.

Course Winner's Position and Price Pre-Round 4

• 2022 - Thorbjorn Olesen - led by three 2.447/5
• 2021 - Richard Bland - tied 12^th, trailing by three 110.0109/1
• 2020 - Rasmus Hojgaard - tied fourth, trailing by five 18.017/1

In-Play Tactics

Olesen was tied for the lead after round one, he sat second at halfway and he was three strokes clear with a round to go.

Richard Bland sat third after round one in 2021 (trailing by two) and he was tied for the lead at halfway but he was still trading at 110.0109/1 before round four, having slipped to three adrift and tied 12^th and a fairly slow start can definitely be overcome at the Belfry.

Having gone off at around 22.021/1, Hojgaard was matched at a high of 200.0199/1 in-running in 2020 after an opening 73 had seen him trail by nine and he was still seven back at halfway and five adrift through 54 holes. His seven-under-par 65 in round four was his best of the week and the joint-best of the day.

Jose Maria Olazabal started slowly here in 2000, with an opening round of 75 that saw him sit tied for 25^th and six off the lead, Paul Casey and Lee Westwood both trailed by five after round one when they won here and Fernandez-Castano was four adrift and tied for 24^th after the opening round in 2008.

Casey was tied for the lead after three rounds in 2006 and Henrik Stenson won wire-to-wire but six of the last eight course winners came from behind, trailing by two, three (x3), four and five strokes, so it can't be described as frontrunners course.

There's a strong likelihood that we get an off the pace winner but even if we don't, we can expect plenty of drama on the Betfair Exchange this Sunday if the last three events here are any sort of gauge...

The UK Championship produced a dramatic finale in 2020 with Martin Kaymer trading at a low of 1.341/3 and Walters touching even money before both were beaten and Guido Migliozzi traded at a low of 1.251/4 in regulation play in 2021, before three-putting the 17^th hole and even though the winner began round four with a commanding lead, we witnessed all sorts of shenanigans last year.

In search of his first win in four years, Olesen struggled badly in round four and having been matched at a low of 1.75/7, the Dane drifted all the way out to 44.043/1 as it looked like he'd thrown the event away.

Rickie Ramsay was matched at a low of 1.42/5 before he double-bogeyed the 72^nd hole and Sebastian Soderberg was matched at just 1.061/18 as he sat in the clubhouse on -9.

But incredibly, having finished round three with an eagle at 17 and a birdie at 18, for the second day in-a-row, Olesen finished his round in style, eagling 17 from 30 feet to tie Soderberg, before birdying the last from 36 feet to pass him!

Eagle-Birdie finish @Thorbjornolesen made two consecutive putts of 30ft and 36ft to win for the first time in four years.

#BetfredBritishMasters pic.twitter.com/Vj7BrU6ZGb

-- DP World Tour (@DPWorldTour) May 8, 2022

This is clearly a great track for Sunday trading and taking on the leaders.

Market Leaders

Justin Rose heads the market and rightly so.

The 2002 British Masters winner has missed three cuts on the PGA Tour this year but he's enjoying a fine season in the States.

The 42-year-old Englishman gave himself too much to do at the US Open two weeks ago when he shot 76 in round one and he missed two cuts in-a-row after winning the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am in February but in addition to his victory in California, there have been top-ten finishes at the Players Championship, the US PGA Championship and the Canadian Open so he brings a very high level of form to the table.

Rose played in the B&H International at the Belfry for three years in-a-row at the start of the century and he put up poor form figures reading MC-MC-44 but the course is quite different now and Rose is a very different player too so we can probably ignore form that's over 20 years old.

Australia's Min Woo Lee pitches up at the Belfry in even better form than Rose having finished fifth at the US Open and ninth at the Travelers Championship on Sunday and with an 11^th place finish at the UK Championship here in 2020 and a tied 21^st in this event two years ago, he has better course numbers than Rose too.

Lee has already won a couple of times on the DP World Tour, at the Vic Open three years ago and the Scottish Open in 2021 and if he holds his form he's bound to figure.

Adrian Meronk has struggled a little in the States recently, finishing 40^th in the US PGA Championship before missing cuts at the Canadian Open and the US Open but his third in Germany on Sunday was his third top-five finish in-a-row on the DP World Tour and although he missed the cut in this event last year, he was third here back in 2021.

The classy Pole was an impressive winner of the Italian Open in May and he's a very strong candidate.

Selections

Jorge Campillo has missed his last two cuts at the Belfry, but he was seventh here at the UK Championship in 2020 and he looks worth chancing at 55.054/1.

The Spaniard signed off last week's BMW with an eye-catching bogey-free six-under-par 66 to climb up into a tie for 14^th and that was two strokes better than anyone else in the field could muster.

He's already a winner this season at another tree-lined venue, Muthaiga Golf Club (Kenya Open), and with great Greens In Regulation and Scrambling figures, Campillo will contend this week if he can roll a few more putts in.

After his brilliant success with Thriston Lawrence in the BMW International Open last week in Germany, I'm more than happy to follow Matt Cooper in with Richie Ramsay here.

As Matt highlights, the Scotsman is in great nick, he traded at odds-on last year , and he has a great record in England. He's also man that came out on top when I looked at the most relevant stats.

Looking at the stats for the last eight weeks, Ramsay ranks number one for Greens In Regulation and he's inside the top-20 in the field for Scrambling.

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*You can follow me on Twitter @SteveThePunter