Well I’m back from my little trip back home to Ireland and all in all it was a great trip. I nipped to Royal Troon for the British Amateur, went to Carton House for a two day golf trip with the lads and of course was at the Irish Open at Royal Portrush. The negative of the trip was it lashed it down pretty much the whole time I was there. My local club (Ballycastle Golf Club) got closed for a day because it was flooded (see pic below). Fast forawrd one week and in London the rain still hasn’t stopped, it’s nearly Arc building time! For anyone who follows amateur golf the North Of Ireland Championship started this week at Portrush, two stroke play rounds to qualify for the match play stage, one at Royal Portrush and the other at GMAC’s home club Rathmore. My mate (Jango) is the only Ballycastle man playing this week and shot he 73, 74 and is currently sweating on qualification as I write this. The low round today (63) and new course record at Royal Portrush came from Dermot McElroy, he played in the Irish Open, so got plenty of practise! I'd say keep an eye out for him in the future, he’s going to be top notch!
The 1st Green at Ballycastle Golf Club
The Scottish Open @ Castle Stewart
Anyways, less of my jibber jabber *finishes Snickers* on to the Scottish Open at Castle Stuart. If you roll back to this time last year we had similar weather and subsequently the Scottish Open was reduced to 54 holes and was won by Luuuuuuke Donald. As I am sure you know, 54 holes is all the course form we have for the Scottish Open at Castle Stuart as that was the tournaments first appearance there after its long affiliation with Loch Lommand finished in 2010. But I’m still using last year’s results to influence my judgement this week. I have two selections and they have a similarity, neither have actually won on the European Tour yet *waits for silence* but both placed 3rd here last year and both have a little form on the links, so here goes…
First up is Lorenzo Gagli. I followed this guy around Royal Portrush for a little and two things became very clear, one he drives the ball in the rough a lot (58% Driving Accuracy) and two, he tends to get back out of it ok! Unfortunately after a nice start in the Irish Open he shot a 76 on the Saturday, however most of the poor scores came on Saturday afternoon so maybe give him a bye ball for that. He was 8th in the Irish Open in ’11 and T-3rd here (Castle Stuart) last year, so he seems to like the cold and the wet! On a serious note he seems to like links golf and although he hasn’t had any Top 10’s this year (six last year), I think he’s worth some each-way money at 125/1.
Lorenzo Gagli
My second selection is George Coetzee. He was bang there last week in France but had a poor round (76) on Sunday and finished down the field. He has had a few chances to get his first win, but hasn’t got over the line yet. Coetzee had a solid start to the year with four Top 10s before May (Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Korea & China) but hasn’t picked one up since; his highlight of late was probably his closing 66 at Wentworth in the European Tour’s flagship event. But he’s another guy that plays well on Links courses, T-3rd here last year and was also 3rd in the Alfred Dunhill Links as well. Some people might say (queue the tweet) that 50/1 is a poor price considering three time winner Brandon Grace is the same price but I like Coetzee’s chances this week so a 50/1 winner will have to do *giggles*. South Africans have a 25% strike rate in the Scottish Open since 2000 so that’s a good omen!
George Coetzee
My Selections:
Lorenzo Gagli 125/1 each way with SportingBet
George Coetzee 50/1 each way with Bet365
John Deere Classic @ TPC Deere Run
Welcome to The Steve Stricker Show! It’s been talked about all week that Steve Stricker is going for four wins in a row at TPC Deere Run and is bidding to join the elite to win the same tourney four times in succession. Young Tom Morris, Hagen, Sarazen and Tiger (twice) have all done it and if Stricker wins the birdie fest this week he can pull a seat up to the table.
To be honest it’s pretty tough not to pick the tourney fav, when you see that Donald is a similar price in Scotland you can’t help but feel the bookies are giving the punters a chance with Stricker. Granted he hasn’t been setting the world alight since his win in Hawaii but if this were anyone else inside the Top 5 in the world you’d be looking at 4/1 tops! He came into this tourney off the back of the US Open the past three years but played the Greenbrier (T-22) last week, if he finds his putting boots (72nd in Strokes gained through Putting) we might all look a little naïve for not filling our boots with the 8s on offer yesterday!
Steve Stricker (last year at TPC Deere Run)
I think like last year it’s going to take a low number to get the W this week, it should be a birdie blitz, which points me to Carl Pettersson. Bet everyone thought I was going to say Brendan de Jong! Haha. Pettersson is having a hugely inconsistent season, which as resulted in a win, two runner-ups finishes and six missed cuts. But this is a guy that can go low, shoots 65 and 66s for fun when he gets that big broom handle putter working well. It’s plain to see when looking at his stats that accuracy is his problem but when he gets the ball on the green he picks up shots on the field (12th in Strokes gained through Putting). Let’s hope he drives it straight (like frozen rope, a JF special) and gives himself plenty of look ins, if he does it could be win number two of the season at tasty odds!
Carl Pettersson (at The Heritage)
My Selections:
Steve Stricker @ 7/1 Outright (General)
Carl Pettersson @ 40/1 each way (General)
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