The Punter / Steven Rawlings / 28 July 2009 /

Steve wants to know where all the European names have gone. While in the States Tiger Woods returns to action, but is our man backing the world number one?

The elation of Ricardo Gonzalez's miraculous win on Sunday was soon forgotten on Monday when Anthony Kim, who I'd had a decent bet on, finished tied third after a poor final round at the Canadian Open.

Kim was tied for the lead with eventual runner-up Retief Goosen and Jason Dufner after round three, but that was thanks to a couple of eagles that helped mask plenty of errors and his poor driving eventually took it's toll in the final round.

It wasn't all bad news though, I frantically traded the play-off, where both Goosen and the winner, Nathan Green, traded at very short odds and I managed to make a decent enough profit on the event in the end.

On to this week, and if it was hard to get motivated for last weeks SAS masters, it's almost impossible to do so about this weeks event on the Race to Dubai.
The Moravia Silesia Open in the Czech Republic, has so few names in the field I'm almost tempted to call it the Mary Celeste Open, it really is a poor do. To make matters worse the event is staged at the Prosper Golf Resort, a venue that's never been used before so there's no course form to help either.

Despite my negativity I've picked out a few big priced players to have on my side before kick-off, a few old favourites and two players, in Jeppe Huldahl and Nathan Smith, who fared well last week.

Selections:

Jeppe Huldahl @ [80.0]
Daniel Vancsik @ [150.0]
Paul Broadhurst @ [160.0]
John Bickerton @ [160.0]
Nathan Smith @ [220.0]

World number one Tiger Woods tees it up at Warwick Hills for what will be the last ever Buick Open, but other than Woods it's not the strongest of fields.

Tiger has a great record here, including a couple of W's but I can't go backing him at less than [3.0], especially after his poor showing at Turnberry. Several other players also have a decent record here and would love to get across the line first in the last staging - Jim Furyk's record here is exemplary but he just can't be trusted anymore.

One player who has some sneaky course form is Brian Gay. A Warwick Hills regular, he was 7th last year after five unspectacular efforts, but prior to that, he was runner-up behind Woods in '02 and 6th in '01. He's a different player nowadays and already twice a winner this season. Although I missed the bigger prices, I was happy with [36.0].

My second pick hasn't a great record here, 36th last year is his best effort in three goes, but Nick Watney looked a decent price for a player that's already won one Buick title this year, having been successful at the Buick Invitational back in February.

Runner-up in the last two years, Woody Austin, has also been backed. I really felt for him last year when Kenny Perry denied him late on, when he didn't do an awful lot wrong. He's a bit in and out is ole Woody and the price isn't spectacular but he clearly likes it here.

And finally, I've had my usual 'just in case' bet on Ben Crane.

Selections:

Brian Gay @ [34.0]
Nick Watney @ [44.0]
Woody Austin @ [44.0]
Ben Crane @ [160.0]

I'm off on holiday on Friday so I won't post an update on Saturday, or a review on Monday, but I'll let you know how the week pans out in next week's preview.

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