The Punter / Steven Rawlings / 08 October 2008 /

Low scores are expected on both sides of the Atlantic so our golf bettor has made his selections accordingly...

It's going to be all about birdies this week and there's even the possibility of a 59 at either venue. Both tracks have seen rounds of 60 in recent years.

The European Tour event is the Madrid Masters; it's a brand new event at an old venue. The Club de Campo hosted the vastly differently named Madrid Open between 2001 and 2005 so there's plenty of course form to examine, albeit a bit dated.

It's a pretty weak looking field and I very nearly backed favourite Martin Kaymer but he hasn't played here before and I'm also a bit worried about how he'll react to last week's draining near miss.

So for relatively small stakes I've ended up backing a mixture of outsiders for various reasons and will look to get properly involved as the event progresses.

Of my magnificent seven, or should that be modest seven, the two I'm most hopeful about are Alvaro Quiros (pictured), who tops the driving distance stats and could eat this place up and Marcel Siem, who's had a couple of decent finishes already this year.

Selections:

Jose Manuel Lara @ [50.0]
Paul Broadhurst @ [80.0]
Marcel Siem @ [120.0]
Alvaro Quiros @ [170.0]
Edoardo Molinari @ [410.0]
David Griffiths @ [430.0]
Ivo Giner @ [1000.0]

I have a very different view of the Valero Texas Open where I had no hesitation about backing favourite Justin Leonard who's been in decent enough form ever since he won this event last year. That was the third of three wins at his home state event and he has also been runner-up a couple of times, and all from just ten starts. That's a very decent record and impossible to ignore. He's already notched up one win this year, landing the Stanford St. Jude Championship and he enjoyed a brilliant Ryder Cup. His price, now below [10.0] may look short but I'd have gladly taken [8.0].

Another player who seems to love the lone star state is Hawaiian Dean Wilson. His worst effort in four attempts here is 7th, again a record that can't be ignored.

I've also backed Heath Slocum, who likes these low scoring birdie fests and also has a decent bank of form here.

Finally, given that this event has a history of producing very big priced winners I've also included Frank Lickliter II who seemed to get it his own way here two years ago when finishing tied 5th. He was also tied 7th back in 2003 and looks plenty big enough at [250.0].

Selections:

Justin Leonard @ [10.5]
Dean Wilson @ [34.0]
Heath Slocum @ [50.0]
Frank Lickliter II @ [250.0]

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