The Punter / Steven Rawlings / 03 September 2008 /

The scenery will more than compensate for the lack of big names at this weekend's Omega European Masters, says The Punter.

It's one of my favourite events on the European Tour this week. The Omega European Masters is played at the stunning Crans-sur-Sierre course high up in the beautiful Swiss Alps and even if your picks are struggling it's still a joy to view the scenery.

The tournament has had some very prestigious winners over the years but this year's renewal has a pretty weak field, with Miguel Angel Jimenez favourite at around [13.0]. Jimenez has a decent record here but is coming off a break. He has missed the cut here the last two years so is just about passed over.

Second favourite Bradley Dredge was one of the most impressive winners of any event when he trounced the field two years ago and he also finished a very decent third last year. His fragility in contention is enough of a factor for me to pass him over too.

Francesco Molinari is a player who I've backed regularly this year and has form here but he's just too short for me at around [28.0].

The shortest priced pick this week is veteran Eduardo Romero at [50.0]; he has a fantastic record here and will be bidding to make it a hat-trick of wins in the event. He's also in terrific form on the senior's circuit; it's exactly a month to the day since he was crowned US Senior Open Champion.

Marc Warren's defence last week was frankly pathetic but that can often happen and I'm prepared to gloss over that and have backed him at [65.0] in the hope that he can bounce back and build on his fourth place finish here back in 2006.

Daniel Vancsik, in common with Dredge, has won the Madeira Island Open, an event staged at a similar venue to this and I have a fancy he could go well here like many Argentines have in the past.

I'm no more than vaguely hopeful of success from any of my other picks, all out of form but very well priced if they should rekindle the magic this week.

Selections:

Eduardo Romero @ [50.0]
Marc Warren @ [65.0]
Richard Sterne @ [70.0]
Paul Broadhurst @ [80.0]
Gonzalo Fernandez-Castano @ [130.0]
Daniel Vancsik @ [180.0]
Sven Struver @ [630.0]

In the US it's the third FedExCup Playoff event, the BMW Championship, formally the Western Open. The name was changed last year, this year they've changed the venue. Cheers, most helpful.

For years hosted at Cog Hill the event moves to the Bellerive Country Club, used for the 1992 PGA Championship and again in 2004 for the U.S. Senior Open. Both not exactly tremendous form lines I'm sure you'd agree.

So with no course form perhaps the only course of action is to consider players in decent current form. So that would be Vijay Singh then. No doubt he owes me nothing after collecting thanks to his victories during the last two weeks but the value hunter in me can't allow me to plough in at around [7.2] after backing him at more than twice that last week. Obviously I'll be monitoring him closely with my finger lingering over the back button but for now, given it's such a small field, I've backed some big outsiders.

My shortest priced pick is KJ Choi at [46.0]. The Korean is just sneaking into a bit of form and could be value.

A couple of my selections, Trahan and Austin, will be smarting after being overlooked by Paul Azinger and will hopefully play inspired by the rejection.

After that it's a few other big priced players, most notable of which is possibly Jay Williamson who could be at a huge advantage this week, being a St Louis resident and a member of the Bellerive Country Club. It would be quite a story if he could finally get his maiden win in such a big event in his home town.

Selections:

K.J. Choi @ [46.0]
Ben Crane @ [150.0]
Trevor Immelman @ [160.0]
Stephen Ames @ [200.0]
D.J. Trahan @ [230.0]
Woody Austin @ [250.0]
Jay Williamson @ [260.0]
Bart Bryant @ [300.0]

As always I'll post an update at the halfway stage on Saturday morning.

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