Well its a funny old week again, I had been planning to go to Wentworth for a couple of days and then to the Curragh to watch the racing on Sunday but as soon as Sheff Utd made it/fell into the play offs I have had that top of the list. I am taking my 4 year old boy to his first football match coz it might be 10 years before we get a game as big as this again and I don't want to regret making the decision not to take him this time.
If you do happen to see me walking down Wembley way with a big red Sheff Utd 'brother lee love' foam hand on , complete with pointy finger I am doing it in the name of fatherhood!
Euro tour.
As Paul Casey said 'If you bought an old stately home you wouldn't refurbish it in modern decor and alter the whole feel of it just to make it more modern', well that's exactly what Ernie Els and the owner have done to Wentworth. Every year since the refit Els has talked about how many changes they have made and how he thinks the players will like it and every year most of them hate it.
So I find it hard to be as enthusiastic as I normally am when a big event comes around tho I have got involved as I think there might be a weather angle later in the week.
The forecast is for average winds all thru the day on Thursday, but Friday afternoon will have the strongest winds of the first two days so it looks like a late start Thursday/early Friday will be an advantage over the first two days. Saturday is set to be windy too, with a drop off in speeds on Sunday.
Ive set out to lay a specific set of players, mainly the bigger names that are out on Friday afternoon. There is probably going to be a big help to the players that are out very early on Friday morning and its no surprise to me that others seem to have the same idea with plenty of the fancied runners out early Friday shortening in the market. With the middle part of the draw being soft as the big players get the TV draws in the am and pm it looks to me to be a nice advantage if the forecast is correct. The link is a good one for seeing the current forecast.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/weather/26345262nd round tee times
http://www.europeantour.com/europeantour/season=2012/tournamentid=2012034/teetimes/index.htmlSo I am mainly laying this week, tho utside the ones shorter in the market I did like the fact that Victor Dubuisson,who could be the sexiest golfer in the field this week ( if you like that sort of thing) is out in the first group on Friday morning and has current Euro tour form figures of 11,4, 3 in his last three starts. This is a step up in class for sure and I don't really have any evidence that he is someone to be with under pressure but at 140 he got a dart.
Scrolling down the list I was surprised to find good old Michael Hoey lurking at around 400 which just seemed too big for a guy that has won three times in the last calendar year, he might be inspired by winning this very week last year in Madeira. He isn't in much form and doesn't have an early Friday morning tee time in the 2nd round but his wins do seem to come out of the blue with his form figures between his wins last year being
1st 31, 54, 66, 97, 157, 114,34,95,52,48,76,1st.
It's been noted that the anomaly in his winning events is that he seems to win when other Irish players have had good results, an inspiration by comparison angle that seems to have some depth to it. He may be inspired again by G Mac going close last weekend or just the fact that he is playing in the same events as his Irish heroes this week and in his victory in the Dunhill links last year he managed to beat off Mcdowell, and Mcilroy into second and third place which again might show how they inspire him to play well.
At 400 I had to have a bet tho he is has no real course form. His weakness is his putting at times but the greens here could turn out to be pretty poor and if the greens are poor maybe nobody will be holing much.. He also loves a bit of wind which will help him at the weekend if he does start ok. Dart thown!
Author