The European Tour has been back in action for a couple of weeks but there is a feeling it really returns on Wednesday when the Betfred British Masters kicks off a six-week ‘UK Swing’ which sees golf touring the UK on some of the most famous courses the British Isles have to offer.
It is Close House which gets the honour of staging the first of those six events to kick the tour back into full life after lockdown, as Lee Westwood hosts the competition on the Durham track. Marcus Kinhult will attempt to defend the title he won at Hillside last year.
Recent Winners
2019 – Marcus Kinhult
2018 – Eddie Pepperell
2017 – Paul Dunne
2016 – Alex Noren
2015 – Matthew Fitzpatrick
The Course
Close House is the first course to stage the British Masters twice since it returned in 2015. It first hosted the event in 2017 when the insanely good short game of Paul Dunne came out on top. The course remains a par 71 and stretches to 6,872 so it isn’t overly long. There is a good piece in the programme on the tournament site where Lee Westwood, the man who knows this course better than anyone, explains what is needed to score on the course.
He suggests that although you can overpower the course with the driver that accuracy and plotting your way around the course is what is required. The course is full of undulations both on the greens and the fairways and with the rough and trees in play and no crowds to trample anything down it probably makes sense to play this track from the fairways rather than the rough and the bunkers. I do think a good short game will be required this week so I’m looking for decent ball strikers who can get up and down a lot. As for the weather rain isn’t far away all week and the winds could make life interesting on Saturday.
The Field
I think it is fair to say that the field is not as strong as many would have hoped it would be after the new schedule and UK swing was announced but it should be remembered that there is the first major of the year in the USA in two weeks so players who want to play in that will need to meet the quarantine requirements. Nevertheless though Lee Westwood hosts the tournament and he sets a decent standard it must be said.
He is joined by fellow British leading lights such as Eddie Pepperell, Jordan Smith, Ross Fisher, Andy Sullivan and the recent Austrian Open winner Marc Warren while the continent of Europe is well represented by the likes of the defending champion Marcus Kinhult, Thomas Detry, Adri Arnaus, Pablo Larrazabal and Mikko Korhonen among others. Ryan Fox and Justin Harding bring a bit of international flavour to the field as well.
Market Leaders
It is the tournament host Lee Westwood who is the 9/1 favourite to win his own event. If these were normal times I would immediately wipe him off the shortlist because all the media and sponsors duties he would have to do would be too much on his time, however with minimal media on site this week and no crowds or anything to entertain, those issues are not as much of a concern. Westwood knows this course as well as anyone and the 9/1 is perfectly fair but he hasn’t had a competitive rep in months so I’m still reluctant to get involved even though he would make sense to be the most likely winner.
Thomas Detry will tee off as a second favourite to win the tournament at 14/1. He is still looking for his first win at this level and until that arrives I don’t think I can back him. He may well have the game to cope with this course but even then he looks a little short when you stack his price up alongside some of the others in the field. The positive is that he played one of the events in Austria but he didn’t win it and this feels like a stronger test. He isn’t for me.
Eddie Pepperell is the third favourite to win the tournament he won back in 2018. He is a big feeling 28/1 on the best outright prices and if we look at it objectively, if he plays like he did at Walton Heath a couple of years ago he is a leading contender here. There is an interview with him in the programme I mentioned above though and it sounds like he is using this week to see where his game is at rather than have the confidence and belief that he is going to win it. I respect Pepperell at 28/1 but I’ll leave him for this week.
The defending champion Marcus Kinhult and exciting English player Jordan Smith are both 33/1 to win the tournament. This is a different course to the one Kinhult won on last year. That was more a links track that probably suited his game more. Smith has the length to get after this course but whether he has the touch to get the job done is more of a concern. Smith missed the cut here three years ago which puts me off backing him here. It is 35/1 bar.
Main Bets
I’ll go with a couple of main bets and while I respect the game of Adri Arnaus and am aware of Richie Ramsay’s credentials in British conditions but I’m passing them over in favour of my first main bet that is Mikko Korhonen. The Finn played here in 2017 and opened up with a 64 before fading slightly into tie for 20th position. Since that week though he has won twice on the European Tour and picked up a series of good results and has seemingly improved out of trace. Korhonen sits in the top 20 in strokes gained from tee to green and inside the top 30 for strokes gained around the green. Those are all statistics that should have him right in the mix here.
Pablo Larrazabal is already a winner on the European Tour this season and I fancy he could go well here too. He won his first event of the campaign out in South Africa so we don’t need to worry about him performing off the back of a long break. This course should suit him nicely as well because there is enough room off the tee for him and then he can get to work with the irons and a short game that has him sixth in strokes gained around the greens. We know the Spaniard is a good putter and he was in the top 10 of this tournament last year. This is a weaker field than the one he finished T26 in here three years ago and with plenty going for him I’ll take Pablo here.
Outsiders
Soren Kjeldsen has probably seen the peak of his career disappear into the sunset but he can still contend on these strong traditional tracks and if he is going to have a big week you would think the best chance of it would be when few people have been competitive for a while and when form doesn’t really count a great deal for anyone. The one thing we know about Kjeldsen is he is only really going to contend on smaller tracks where accuracy is at a premium these days and he has exactly that sort of test here. I’ll pay to see if he has one last big week in him here.
I’m still getting over the fact that Steven Brown denied me a huge price winner in the Portugal Masters last season but he can make up for that with a big week here on a course which has the same designer as his home course at Wentworth. That won’t mean Brown will win the event but he’ll know how to play this course and someone who has always been a good putter should always be on the list. We saw in Portugal last year that his long game is much improved and with no massive pressure off the tee on this course the track could well play right into his capabilities. At 125/1 he looks a huge price.
Speaking of huge prices, Graeme Storm placed for me here three years ago at 100/1 and the local lad goes off 3 times that here. That is down to the fact that he has been off the tour for ages because of injury but he has been able to recover during lockdown and you know he’ll be itching to get going here. It probably isn’t a good thing that he won’t have a local crowd cheering him on but he’ll know the course inside out being from this part of the world. Often when players have had a serious injury it readdresses their expectations and they realise how lucky they are to play the game. That often gives them a freedom and I’ll pay to see if Storm has that here.
Tips
Back P.Larrazabal to win British Masters (e/w) for a 1/10 stake at 46.00 with Betfair (1/5 1-7)
Back S.Kjeldsen to win British Masters (e/w) for a 0.5/10 stake at 71.00 with Betfair (1/5 1-7)
Back S.Brown to win British Masters (e/w) for a 0.5/10 stake at 126.00 with Betfair (1/5 1-7)
Back G.Storm to win British Masters (e/w) for a 0.5/10 stake at 301.00 with Betfair (1/5 1-7)
Back them here:
Back M.Korhonen to win British Masters (e/w) for a 1/10 stake at 34.00 with Betfred (1/5 1-10)
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