It is grip it and rip it on the European Tour this week as the Czech Masters takes place in Prague. There is now just two weeks left to pick up points for the European Ryder Cup team so for a couple of players in particular this is a big week.
With a huge tournament taking place in America this week there is a chance for one of the lesser lights on the Tour to come up trumps. That happened to Haydn Porteous 12 months ago and he is back to defend the title.
Recent Winners
2017 – Haydn Porteous
2016 – Paul Peterson
2015 – Thomas Pieters
2014 – Jamie Donaldson
The Course
The Albatross Golf Resort hosts the tournament once again. The winning scores here have been in the mid-teens in recent times which is perfect for a good week of golf but with the track being a par 72 which measures more than 7,400 yards it rings true that the biggest hitters have some fun.
The fairways here are on the wide side and the greens are pretty large in size too which all means that the longer hitters can pin their ears back and let it fly. Generally the best putters on the week come to the fore but shorter hitters are not really the ones to be on.
The Field
Thomas Pieters is without doubt a standout player in the field this week although there are tournament winners teeing it up too in the form of Eddie Pepperell, Matt Wallace and Lucas Bjerregaard and they will be looking for a nice end to the summer.
Danny Willett and Lee Westwood set a decent standard at their best while popular players such as Andrew Johnston and Soren Kjeldsen tee it up and will fancy their chances. Haydn Porteous is the defending champion and tees it up here while Dean Burmester is a leading contender.
Market Leaders
Thomas Pieters is a 6/1 favourite to win the tournament although those taking that price could do with checking his is over the illness which saw him pull out of the pro-am on Wednesday. He wouldn’t be the first person to pull out of an event on the eve of the tournament and then go on and win it and he is clearly the standout player. As a former champion he’s a worthy favourite if fit but he’s mighty short at the end of the day.
Eddie Pepperell has been in decent touch in recent European events and he is 16/1 to follow up his Qatar win with another here in the Czech Republic. He has been striking the ball nicely recently and he is a pretty decent putter to boot but there is something in me that doesn’t feel right about taking him at 16/1.
Matt Wallace and Dean Burmester are 22/1 third favourites. Wallace has won two tournaments this year and could be the one to go and get a third here. Burmester is a huge hitter who sets up well for this course so they shouldn’t be ruled out but we’ve seen three outsiders win in the four years here so I’m not too keen on looking towards the front of the market.
The English pair of Lee Westwood and Danny Willett are next in the betting at 25/1 and on certain courses in this field I would be all over them but I don’t think either are long enough to get the job done. There is no doubt both are showing the form to win again soon although I suspect it won’t be this week.
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Main Bets
I’m backing a couple of big hitting Aussies this week. Lucas Herbert ran hot in Sweden last week and there are an awful lot of similarities between the track there and the one here. Herbert is a huge hitter sitting just outside the top 25 in the driving distance statistic and he was in the top 10 for putts per round last week so the combination of his length in his long game and a putter that looks hot should work very well here. At 33/1 with three top fives to his name this year he is my first main bet.
Prior to the Fiji International, Scott Hend had four top 20 finishes in six events and generally he comes good around this time of year. He was runner up in Switzerland last year and in the KLM Open the year before so after a bit of a break I’m expecting him to go well here. He can whizz it out there miles and if he can find some form with the putter he shouldn’t be too far away. Hend had a third round 63 in Scotland last month so he hasn’t lost his scoring power which could be huge here.
Outsiders
There are a trio of big hitters at bigger prices that I can’t ignore this week either. The first of those is Matthieu Pavon who was inside the top 10 off the tee last week and who had fewer putts per green and anyone in the field. He didn’t hit as many greens as he will have wanted but these greens are enormous so I’m expecting him to put that right this week. If he can go as well when he is on the dancefloor he shouldn’t be far away.
Nino Bertasio had a decent week in Sweden with a nice top 20 finish where he married length with touch on the greens and he should go strongly here too. Generally on long courses or on courses which play long his long game takes him to the fore. If he can putt well once again then 80/1 will look a big price on the Italian who I’m sure will have been inspired by the exploits of Francesco Molinari in recent times.
Finally I’m going to take Pedro Oriol again. I don’t really need to elaborate too much on what I wrote last week. I must admit I wasn’t going to touch him again but then he finished with a 65 which started out with a triple bogey so I’m going to pay to see if he can build on that. He was the sixth longest off the tee in a much stronger field last week and he was a fair player in all of the other major statistics. He’s still enough of a price to burn a unit on in the home he continues where he finished last week.
Tips
Back L.Herbert to win Czech Masters (e/w) for a 1/10 stake at 34.00 with Coral (1/5 1-7)
Back S.Hend to win Czech Masters (e/w) for a 1/10 stake at 41.00 with Coral (1/5 1-7)
Back N.Bertasio to win Czech Masters (e/w) for a 0.5/10 stake at 81.00 with Coral (1/5 1-7)
Back them here:
Back P.Oriol to win Czech Masters (e/w) for a 0.5/10 stake at 151.00 with Boylesports (1/5 1-6)
Back him here:
Back M.Pavon to win Czech Masters (e/w) for a 0.5/10 stake at 61.00 with Betfred (1/5 1-6)
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