In terms of match betting Thursday could be one of the best days of the golfing year as 32 matches go out in the first round of the Paul Lawrie Matchplay in Aberdeen.
The 64 men have been paired in two sessions of play with 18 hole matches taking place in accordance with the first round draw. 32 men will progress and 32 men will head home from what is likely to be a dramatic day at the Murcar Links Golf Course.
The matches begin at 8am as Julien Quesne takes on Tom Lewis in an even looking battle and concludes with a 3.05pm international clash between Felipe Aguilar and Fabrizio Zanotti. In between all that there are some excellent groups for the crowds to have a watch of.
Among the best matches in the opening day are Matthew Fitzpatrick vs Bradley Dredge, Marcus Fraser vs Robert Karlsson, James Morrison vs Pelle Edberg and David Howell vs Daniel Brooks but in terms of betting I’m going to look elsewhere for my action.
My first bet comes in the morning session when Raphael Jacquelin takes on Seve Benson in the 9.45am tee time. Jacquelin is going along very nicely at the minute and in the last two regular European Tour events he has been in the final group in Scotland and Switzerland on Sunday. His short game has been very catching on the eye and he hasn’t been wayward off the tee very often.
Seve Benson is still establishing himself at the higher level of the European Tour but he has had a couple of decent results across the year so far. He doesn’t strike me as the cleanest ball striker in the world at the moment though and that could go against him. All parts of Jacquelin’s game looks to be in good order currently and I like him in this match.
Arguably the match of the day is the all-European clash between Gregory Bourdy and Nicolas Colsaerts. Colsaerts has a good matchplay record having won the Volvo World Matchplay Championship in 2012 and finishing third in it the year before. He made the quarter finals in 2013 so he’s someone who enjoys matchplay and isn’t to be taken lightly.
I’m not sure this course suits Colsaerts as much as it does Bourdy. The Frenchman isn’t the longest hitter in the world but he is mighty accurate and he can hole some putts as we saw both in Austria and the early stages in France in recent weeks. Colsaerts tends to look to overpower courses but he’ll struggle to overpower this one. The Belgian hasn’t been consistent with the short stick either so I’m happy to take Bourdy at odds against here.
My final bet on the opening day comes in the Kiradech Aphibarnrat vs Wade Ormsby match which tees off at 2.15pm. Usually in these first rounds there is a big name who bites the dust and Aphibarnrat is a candidate for that here. The Thai player has had some matchplay experience in events like the Royal Trophy but I think he’s better on more open courses so he could well be there for the taking in this match.
Wade Ormsby is one of the straighter hitters on the European Tour and he performed well on some tight tracks earlier in the year. His form since then appears to have deserted him but few of the courses will have favoured him like this one has the potential to do. We know he’ll play the course from the fairways so if he can flush some iron shots he could take care of the more erratic Thai opposing him.
Back R.Jacquelin to beat S.Benson for a 4/10 stake at 1.73 with Betfred
Back G.Bourdy to beat N.Colsaerts for a 4/10 stake at 2.10 with BetVictor
Back W.Ormsby to beat K.Aphibarnrat for a 3/10 stake at 2.38 with BetVictor
Current 2015 blog golf record: +3.51pts
