The Punter / Steven Rawlings / 19 April 2011 /

YE Yang-fan Steve hopes for a repeat bid in China and there's picks aplenty in South Carolina, where course form is king...

The Race to Dubai moves north from Malaysia and on to China this week for the Volvo China Open, so it's another week of sleep deprivation for serious UK based golf punters. Personally, my days or should I say nights, of following the early action when sane people are snoozing have now long gone, so I won't be monitoring early progress.

Having the event played out throughout the night isn't the only handicap this week either, we also have to contend with yet another new venue. Now in its eighth year on the European Tour, Luxehills International Country Club is the event's sixth venue. Don't they care about us punters?

There is some form to peruse though as the course has been used three times for the Luxehills Chengdu Open, won last year by China's number one Wen-Chong Liang when it appeared on the One-Asia Tour schedule. Liang amassed a score of 21 under to tie with Hyung-Tae Kim before edging out the Korean in a play-off. There were four Koreans in the top-five in that event but none were as classy as last year's winner of this event, Y E Yang, and he's my main pick.

Although he had enough guts and class to hang on last year, Yang tired somewhat on the weekend, but it was all perfectly understandable given that last year's tournament immediately followed a demanding week at Augusta, where he'd finished 8th after being in-contention all week. He has the obvious pressure of defending this week but the extra week to recharge the batteries after the Masters won't go amiss. He's a different class to the vast majority of the field and a very fair price.

The fidgety yet immensely talented Simon Dyson must be about due another win and he has a great record in this part of the world. After getting himself into a great position last week, he didn't do himself justice over the weekend but this may be an ideal opportunity for some quick redemption.

And my final pick is Hyung-Tae Kim, who in addition to having a decent course performance to his name, could be in fair form, having finished 6th in Japan on Sunday.

Selections:

Y E Yang @ an average of [14.0]
Simon Dyson @ [30.0]
Hyung-Tae Kim @ [130.0]

In contrast to the China Open, there's plenty of course form to ponder for this week's US event. The Heritage has been staged at the magnificent Pete Dye designed Harbour Town Golf Links at Hilton Head, South Carolina since its inception in 1969.

It's a gem of a track where accuracy is crucial. The greens are the smallest on Tour and accurate iron-play and superb putting usually get the job done and if you are going to miss these tiny greens you need a good touch to get up-and-down. Scrambling is always a key stat here too.

Multiple winners are pretty common and an incredible nine players having won the title at least twice. Davis Love III has conquered all at Harbour Town five times! So backing players that have performed well here before is a perfectly sensible strategy.

My shortlist wasn't short and I've rejected plenty on account of price. I could have easily backed half a dozen or more of those priced at less than [50.0]. The likes of defending champion, Jim Furyk, former winners Aaron Baddeley and Brian Gay, and the ever-accurate Ben Crane were all considered particularly carefully but in the end I've plumped for seven players more handsomely priced, and five of them were backed last year at much shorter prices!

Zach Johnson's GIR Greens in Regulation stats aren't great this year and his 6th place finish in 2007 is far and away his best effort yet at Harbour Town but I can just see him winning this title. He putts really well on Bermuda greens and is a great scrambler and if he could just get his irons dialled in this week he'll be bang there.

Chris Kirk had an off week in windy Texas last week but that could be a slight reaction to his excellent effort at Houston. His accurate iron-game looks just the ticket and I felt [140.0] was a bit of an over-reaction to a poor week and that he was definitely worth a small investment.

Last year's pre-event picks, Heath Slocum, Boo Weekley, Stephen Ames and Carl Pettersson all contended to varying degrees and I felt they were all worth backing again at bigger prices this time around.

And finally, Ben Curtis was also a pick last year, when he didn't exactly shine, but I'm persevering with him at a monster price. He led at halfway on his debut appearance in 2004 and he has exactly the right profile.

Selections:

Zach Johnson @ [65.0]
Boo Weekley @ [120.0]
Stephen Ames @ [120.0]
Chris Kirk @ [140.0]
Heath Slocum @ [150.0]
Carl Pettersson @ an average of [160.0]
Ben Curtis @ [190.0]

I'll be back on Friday morning to kick-off the Live Golf Blog.

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