The Punter / Steven Rawlings / 21 March 2012 /

With so little course form to go on, Steve looks to last week for the bulk of his five selections at this week's Race To Dubai event...

Tournament
Although the Trophee Hassan II has been in existence since 1971, it has only been a European Tour event since 2010. Previously a limited field invitation only jolly, with an illustrious list of winners, it's now a very different event and given this year's venue was only used for the first time twelve months ago, results prior to 2010 are largely irrelevant.

Last year it was played as a pro-am over two courses - this year it will be played as a conventional event for pros only over just one course.

Venue
Golf du Palais Royal, Agadir, Morocco.

Course Details
Par 72, 6,844 yards, stroke average in 2011 - 71.93

In addition to last year's event, the Golf du Palais Royal also hosted the Moroccan Open six times in the 1990's. It's an undulating Robert Trent Jones design with small greens, surrounded by deep bunkering. It's a tricky track, close to the Atlantic Ocean, and it's made decidedly more difficult when the wind blows, as its forecast to do this week.

All the players speak highly of the venue and Rhys Davies has described it as a 'hidden gem', before adding that it was a "special privilege to play there."

Useful Sites
Course Site
Event Site
Weather

TV Coverage
Live on Sky all four days, starting at 11.30am on Thursday and Friday, 1.00pm on Saturday and 2.00pn on Sunday.

First Two Winners
2011 - David Horsey -13 (playoff)
2010 - Rhys Davies -25

Market Leaders
In a very open looking heat, the Italian pair of Francesco Molinari and Matteo Manassero head the market, with Jaco Van Zyl and Robert Rock the only other players trading under [30.0].

Selections
I'm going to keep a very close eye on Alex Noren this week and if he drifts much more before the off I may yet get him onside. He has a touch of class about him and he's a tremendous wind player but he's not been in great form of late so it might be wiser to wait and see how he starts.

None of those at the head of the market inspire me to part with any cash and I can't pretend to be overly confident about those I have backed. Results have been very hard on backers so far on the Race to Dubai this season and given how little we have to go on this week, I'm taking it easy, but I have managed to back five for starters.

First up is Rhys Davies, who is clearly very comfortable in Morocco and who really should be looking to make it a hat-trick of wins in this event. He traded at just [1.10] before three-putting the first playoff hole from 15 feet last year and although he played poorly last week there were definitely encouraging signs in India on his penultimate outing. A top-ten finish at the Avantha Masters, where he ranked first for Driving Distance, and second for both Driving Accuracy and Greens In Regulations, could have been far better if a few more putts had dropped.

With so little to go, all my other four picks were in-contention at last week's Open de Andalucía, and I'll start with the winner...

I couldn't see quite why Julien Quesne was such a big price again this week. I know achieving back-to-back wins is notoriously difficult but we have in fact seen it happened on the European Tour three times in the last seven months. Thomas Bjorn followed up his Johnnie Walker Championship success with victory at the European Masters, Sergio Garcia doubled up in his homeland with victories at both the Castello Masters and the Andalucía Masters in October, and Branden Grace did the same thing in his native South Africa in January at the Joburg Open and the Volvo Golf Champions. Having been very impressed with the Frenchman's poise under pressure on Sunday, I thought [85.0] was more than fair about him doubling up too.

South Africa's Hennie Otto played well last week, he can handle windy conditions and two South Africans, Van Zyl and George Coetzee, finished in the first four last year. I'm not sure whether that has any significance whatsoever but I felt [70.0] was fair.

As well as being impressed by the winner last week I was also surprised at how well the eventual third, Eduardo De La Riva, stuck at his task. Quesne may have held his nerve once he hit the front from off the pace on Sunday but the Spaniard's dogged performance from the front almost all week long was at least as equally impressive. He had trailed only Manassero after round one before leading thereafter and he didn't do an awful lot wrong on Sunday. He hit over 90% of the greens last week and was ranked 15th for Total Putting. If he takes that game to Morocco he'll be in the mix again for sure.

And finally, Michael Hoey was bang there last week until a horrid triple-bogey on the 6th hole on Saturday stopped him in his tracks. He drifted down the leaderboard after that but he's a fine wind exponent and a multiple European Tour winner - including twice last season. He finished inside the top-20 at this event last year and he's a winner in Morocco already having won the Moroccan Classic on the Challenge Tour in 2008. [85.0] was simply too big.

Trophee Hassan II Selections:
Rhys Davies @ [60.0]
Hennie Otto @ [70.0]
Julien Quesne @ [85.0]
Michael Hoey @ [85.0]
Eduardo De La Riva @ [130.0]

I'll be back on Friday with the In-Play Blog.

'.$sign_up['title'].'

'; } } ?>

:

:

:

?

: