The first round of the British Masters sees the entire field take to Hillside Golf Club to get their tournament underway on Thursday, with everyone having the same ambition – to shoot as low as possible and put themselves in a good position to win the event.
This is a big tournament in its own right so we have a fair amount of markets priced up for the opening day, and as always it would be rude for us not to indulge ourselves in them. We’ll get going with the first round leader market.
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First Round Leader
We’ve gone through enough of these sorts of events now to know the score when assessing the first round leader market. The first thing to ascertain is the format of the opening round. This tournament is a typical European Tour event in that there are two waves of start times so now it is all about if there is a difference in the weather. The wind is expected to stay calm throughout the day so the only difference in the weather from the morning to the afternoon is the rain that will be around in the morning.
Despite that I fancy that the soft course could be best for the morning wave of players so I’m going to take a couple of decent hitters to get stuck in over the soft conditions. Nicolas Colsaerts has a decent record in links events and there is no reason why he can’t shoot something low in the opening round. He bases himself in Mauritius a lot of the time so the exposed and windy element of the day isn’t going to concern him at all. He is so long off the tee that he won’t need to smoke too many drivers so if he can dial things in with the irons he can deliver something significant in the first round.
Finnish golf is on the up at the minute after Mikko Korhonen’s win in China last week and I wonder if that will inspire Tapio Pulkkanen into delivering a decent first round effort. To be fair to the Finn, from nowhere he has shown some good form with a couple of top 15 finishes and that included a wonder 65 to start the tournament in China last week. That was good enough for a three way share of the lead and if he can hit the ground running as well here, inspired my his compatriot winning in China then he could deliver at a big price.
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Thursday 3 Balls
The other set of markets for us to go at are the group bets. The field go out in threes for the opening couple of days with the iconic trio of Tommy Fleetwood, Eddie Pepperell and Stephen Gallacher the main three ball of the opening day. They go out onto the golf course at 08.30 BST while the headline attraction in the afternoon wave of players is the group featuring Lee Westwood, Matt Wallace and Joost Luiten. They tee off at 13.30 BST.
There are plenty of other decent groups out onto the golf course in this first round but I’m going with a couple of bets from elsewhere on the card on what looks like being a pretty competitive day of golf.
Tom Lewis/Adrian Otaegui/Aaron Rai
Match tees off at 08.20 BST
The morning session group that I like the look of from a betting point of view is the one featuring Tom Lewis, Adrian Otaegui and the Hong Kong Open winner Aaron Rai with all three looking to make waves in this first round.
Rai has undergone something of a dip in form since he won in Hong Kong. That is understandable with courses not really suiting him but I’m not sure he is much of a links player either which is a concern. Otaegui is much more suited to this style of golf but I’m not convinced he is the man to come through this three ball. Tom Lewis made a name for himself as an amateur on these sort of tracks and is probably the most confident of the trio coming in here. He’ll have home crowds cheering him on and he’s my pick here.
Paul Dunne/Paul Waring/Nacho Elvira
Match tees off at 13.50 BST
The second group which catches my eye is the one involving Paul Dunne, Paul Waring and the incredibly unlucky so far this season Spaniard in Nacho Elvira. If we were basing our pick in this group on form then it would be Elvira hands down but there is so much more to consider.
The main thing to consider is the links style of this track which immediately takes Elvira out of play for me. I think this is the natural environment of Paul Dunne and as such I’m pretty happy to take him here. He has shown excellent form in links events in the past, he can handle the scrutiny on this tournament having won it at Close House and looks to have by far and away the best short game of this trio. At a decent price the Irishman is my punt here.
Tips
Back N.Colsaerts First Round Leader (e/w) for a 0.5/10 stake at 91.00 with Betfred (1/5 1-7)
Back him here:
Back T.Pulkkanen First Round Leader (e/w) for a 0.5/10 stake at 111.00 with Betfair (1/5 1-7)
WON – Back T.Lewis to beat A.Otaegui & A.Rai for a 3/10 stake at 2.70 with Betfair
Back them here:
Back P.Dunne to beat P.Waring & N.Elvira for a 3/10 stake at 2.80 with 888sport
Back him here:
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