Australian Open

[Ian]

Craig Parry is Value - never thought I'd be typing those words ever - but 28/1 at Victor Chandler is simply too big, has been in good nick over the last few months - boosted by his WGC win and can claim a 3rd place round Victoria in the 99 PGA.
Big priced outsider is Andre Stolz - has a good record in Aus and has been putting some practice in in the small events in the last few months - he won the Victorian Open and finished 6th and 2nd in the other 2 events he played in he is 100/1 at Bet365 which is more than fair.

 

[milpalm]

I agree on Stolz. Missed the 100/1 so I had to settle for 80/1 with Betinternet.

 

[boris]

guys like Alker and Fowler at big odds will go well here, in the 50-80/1 range. The visitors will really struggle to adapt to this course, rock-hard, windswept and greens like lightning.

 

[DOGS THAT BARK]

Pampling might warrant a look in those conditions Boris.Not bad on fast US greens (28th in putting ave) and being a local boy won't hurt.

 

[Ian]

DTB
You got there before me - Pampling at 66/1 Stan James is my final bet - seems a big price for a good Aussie player who has been playing well in the US all year.

 

[Stanley]

Outright plays (1.5 units):

Peter O'Malley to win 33/1 e.w. @ Ladbrokes
O'Malley just doesn't win often enough to be a serious contender for this title, but at this price he is a viable alternative to Allenby who is just too short at 10/1. In fact, O'Malley did win his last Australasian Tour event, the Clearwater Classic, in March, but he can normally be counted upon to be consistent rather than a title-winner. Having flown from Australia just to compete in the Volvo Masters where he finished 4th, he should have confidence in his game and it will be suited to the short, but demanding Victoria course.

Geoff Ogilvy to win 40/1 e.w. @ Bet365, BetInternet, Victor Chandler and Paddy Power
Basically, Ogilvy is a member of Victoria Golf Club. With the exception of the 1999 Victoria Open which was played on this course, his finishes in that event have been 12th, 4th and 17th. The 1999 Australian PGA Championship was played here and he finished 7th. Now that he has two years of playing on the PGA Tour behind him and with recent finishes of 6th in the Canadian Open and 4th in the Michelob Championship, he will be relishing the prospect of having a considerable local advantage for this prestigious event.

Rod Pampling to win 66/1 e.w. @ Stan James
Was far an automatic choice until this price was found - he is widely available at half these odds. He does have good course form with top-10 finishes in the 1997 and 1998 Victorian Opens and finished 17th in the 1999 PGA Championship as well. Allied with a strong finish to the PGA Tour season - 4th in the Tampa Bay Classic and top-30 finishes in six of his last seven events - he could repeat his top-5 finish in this event last year at the Grand.

 

[boris]

apparently Appleby went around in 60 in practice... yet to confirm.

 

[boris]

62 actually

From http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2002/11/19/1037697663082.html

It's too late if your game is not ready
November 20 2002
By Peter Thomson



It was a quiet day yesterday at Victoria Golf Club. No leaves stirred. Nor did any hearts, except perhaps of the amateur partners of the top professionals as they joined in partnership for a friendly stableford competition. Few people journeyed to watch and the giant scoreboard was not working. You had to hunt for the results in the depth of the new clubhouse, where scorecards were handed in.

Clearly, the pros' hearts were not in it. Eight of the list of 30 who will tee off tomorrow did not return a card. But that is pro-am practice.

The real players try out their latest drivers or putters in the hope of finding something new and magic, and the score does not matter too much. They usually go back to the old ones in the final practice run today, anyway. Even so, the mini-sensation of the day was the posting of an eight-under-par 62, from none other than defending champion Stuart Appleby, looking unusually relaxed and happy all round. What a way to start the week!

Western Australian and once winner of the Perth Heineken Classic, Jarrod Moseley, turned in a 68 and South Island Kiwi, Greg Turner, a 69. But the rest were lost souls. Peter O'Malley went up to 77 and 1998 winner Greg Chalmers did not return a card, as did Nick O'Hern and some other stars.

What to make of it all? Not much, except that Appleby should be sleeping easy until at least tomorrow night, and the rest might be going over the system looking for answers.

Poor Richard Beem, the United States PGA champion fresh off the trans-Pacific plane, wondered what to say when asked about the course. He had not seen it yet and, in any case, what was different about it anyway? He will know today.

Truthfully, the field did not play "full back" on the tees, but that counts for little, too. The wind, if any, makes up for that little subtraction of length. The professionals handle that in their stride.

What mattered most was getting into a comfortable confidence on the greens. Robert Allenby spent a deal of afternoon time on the brown-looking practice putting green, under the steady eye of his coach Steve Bann, plus the servitude of his caddie, rolling the three balls back.

Few found the cup, which might have had the imperfection of wear, but the stats were not good. Allenby in his youth was a demon on the green. Somehow, age does not bring any special wisdom to putting.

Yet this championship will not be a putting competition. There is much more to do than that. Getting on to the fairway with the drive is one thing, and then getting on to the putting surface is the next. Putting is not going to save you if you do not get the real job done.

By 4.30pm, even the practice range on the course next door - Cheltenham Municipal - was empty. Enough was enough, it seemed. If you have not got it all together today, it is too late.

 

[Stanley]

Matchup plays (1.5 units unless stated):

Peter Lonard to beat Aaron Baddeley -115 @ Five Dimes
Opposing Baddeley to has been playing well on the Buy.com Tour, but has had a very poor record in Australia over the past two years: since he won the Greg Norman International in February 2001, he has failed to finish in the top-10 in any of his subsequent seven events and has missed the cut in his last two ANZ Tour events. He also has a poor record on this course - 66th, missed cut and 11th - and so is a false price. Lonard has an excellent record on this course, beating Baddeley on the three times they have competed together, and comes off victory with Rich Beem in the Hyundai Team Matches last week.

Craig Parry to beat Aaron Baddeley -110 @ BetInternet and BlueSq
Parry can boast a top-3 finish in the 1999 Australian PGA Championship on this course, top-15 finishes in all six ANZ Tour events that he has played in the past year and a top-5 finish on the PGA Tour in his last start. Too consistent to be beaten by Baddeley.

Adam Scott to beat Aaron Baddeley +100 @ Victor Chandler
While Scott cannot claim to have any course experience, he does come into this event off three top-10 finishes in his last four European Tour events. In form and with a good price, this is worthy of completing the Baddeley treble.

Stephen Leaney to beat Rich Beem -139 @ Centrebet
Setting up the Beem treble as he will struggle on his first taste of Australian golf. His attacking play off the tee will not be suited to the hard, fast conditions at Victoria and particularly on the greens. He missed the cut on his visit to the European Tour and similar result is expected this week despite last week's victory in California with Peter Lonard. Outside that victory last week, he had failed to secure a single top-25 finish since his purple patch in August. Local player Leaney has been struggling since he won the German Masters, but did win a local event at the weekend and has an extremely good record on this course.

Peter O'Malley to beat Rich Beem -133 @ Five Dimes [3 units]
Siding with an outright selection against a rock-solid go-against.

Peter Lonard to beat Rich Beem -110 @ BetInternet [4.5 units]
A stated above, Lonard has good form on this course and comes off a victory last week. Can only see Beem struggling this week.

Craig Parry to beat Stephen Leaney -120 @ SkyBet
Great record on this course as a local player, but Leaney is rather a player is great when he's good, but when he's bad ... His last ten starts have yielded a victory and one other top-10 finish, but no other top-20 finishes and two missed cuts. Just siding with the more consistent Parry who finished 3rd here in 1999.

Andre Stolz to beat Shane Tait -140 @ Five Dimes
Tait may have an extremely impressive record on this course - three top-10 finishes in 1998-99 - but Stolz can also claim to have matched him on one of his two visits. The last time Victoria was used was three years ago, so maybe more current form is more important and in this regard Stolz has dominated Tait. In the past year, Stolz has beaten Tait without reply and in his last four ANZ Tour events he has finished 1st, 1st, 6th, 2nd!

 

[bettingmad]

Re-load!!!!!!!!!
First round scrapped and will be played again.... 18 Fri, 18 Sat 36 Sunday.

 

[Clive]

Any link to the scores that were shot?

 

[steved]

I do not think they started...

 

[Stanley]

I can't find a link to the scores at the time of the suspension, but I do have the following leaderboard in my web cache from the last time I looked. It is about one hour before the suspension, if this helps.

Round 1 - Individual Leaderboard
Updated 11:06am Melbourne ( 01:06 GMT )

Position Player Country Total Hole Today Rounds Total
1 2 3 4
1 ALKER, Steven Even 10 Even
1 GREEN, Nathan Even 10 Even
1 McKENZIE, David Even 7 Even
1 McKECHNIE, Leigh Even 2 Even
1 CARMICHAEL, Craig Even 2 Even
1 ALLEN, Mark Even 1 Even
1 BALL, Richard Even 1 Even
1 JOHNSON, Richard Even 1 Even
1 ALLAN, Steve Even 1 Even
10 WEBSTER, Andrew +1 F +1 71 71
10 CONRAN, Steven +1 F +1 71 71
10 LONARD, Peter +1 11 +1
10 D'ALTERA, Heath (a) +1 3 +1
10 HOOPER, Justin +1 3 +1
10 HAZELDEN, Matthew +1 2 +1
10 JONES, Craig +1 2 +1
10 HEND, Scott +1 2 +1
10 PADDISON, Gareth +1 2 +1
10 SHEARER, Bob +1 1 +1
10 GROOM, Adam +1 1 +1
21 LYLE, Jarrod (a) +2 F +2 72 72
21 DOWNES, Chris +2 F +2 72 72
21 O'MALLEY, Peter +2 10 +2
21 CAIN, Marcus +2 9 +2
21 COLLINS, Steve +2 8 +2
21 BOUVIER, Stuart +2 7 +2
21 WALKER, Ian (a) +2 4 +2
28 MARTIN, Andy (a) +3 F +3 73 73
28 PERKS, Craig +3 15 +3
28 MOSELEY, Jarrod +3 15 +3
28 NILSSON, Jens +3 15 +3
28 APPLEBY, Stuart +3 14 +3
28 PARRY, Craig +3 11 +3
28 NORGREN, Marcus +3 9 +3
28 DODD, Grant +3 7 +3
28 DE WIT, Tommy +3 6 +3
28 SIMPSON, Gary +3 5 +3
28 BAKER, Mal +3 3 +3
28 TAIT, Shane +3 3 +3
28 KING, Jason +3 3 +3
41 HARDING, David (a) +4 F +4 74 74
41 CRAWFORD, Adam +4 F +4 74 74
41 GRADY, Wayne +4 15 +4
41 LONG, Michael +4 13 +4
41 GOGGIN, Mathew +4 11 +4
41 ECOB, Matthew +4 10 +4
41 WRIGHT, Michael +4 9 +4
41 NORRIS, Jason +4 8 +4
41 COOPER, Justin +4 7 +4
41 GATEHOUSE, Nathan +4 6 +4
41 ELLIOTT, Tim +4 5 +4
41 PATTERSON, Alan +4 4 +4
41 CHANT, Brendan +4 3 +4
54 TSCHUDIN, Andrew +5 F +5 75 75
54 PAINTER, Anthony +5 16 +5
54 LAMB, Brad +5 16 +5
54 COLES, Gavin +5 13 +5
54 BADDELEY, Aaron +5 10 +5
54 SPENCER, Darren +5 7 +5
54 ABBOTT, Jon (a) +5 6 +5
54 CAMPBELL, John (a) +5 5 +5
54 RUDEL, Westley +5 4 +5
63 KERRY, Neil +6 F +6 76 76
63 PEARCE, Mahal +6 F +6 76 76
63 BUCKLE, Andrew +6 8 +6
66 MARANTZ, Paul +7 F +7 77 77
66 BYRNES, Aaron +7 F +7 77 77
66 LAYCOCK, Scott +7 14 +7
66 HOWELL, Charles III +7 10 +7
66 MIFUNE, Yuki (a) +7 8 +7
71 FRASER, Adam +8 8 +8
72 WOODBINE, Kyle +9 F +9 79 79
72 LEE, Richard +9 16 +9
72 WHITTAL, Jared (a) +9 7 +9
75 TURNER, Greg +10 15 +10
75 SMITH, Wayne +10 13 +10
75 BRAZEL, Sam +10 8 +10
78 ROSTRON, Wayne +11 F +11 81 81
78 HALLER, Ryan +11 F +11 81 81
78 NITTIES, James (a) +11 15 +11
81 BARNES, Kurt (a) +13 14 +13

 

[Stanley]

The event will now be 54 holes.

Officials were concerned about the state of the greens if 36 holes were played on them on one day, particularly when temperatures are forecast to be in the mid-30s, and about the health risk to players and people at the course if they were under those weather conditions for so long.

=====

"Australian Golf Union officials enforced a suspension when players complained that their balls would not stay on the putting surface. After Richard Ball putted past the hole three times, and the ball rolled back 20 feet, his playing group refused to continue."

This does sound farcical ... I can see this appearing on the "what happened next?" section on A Question of Sport

 

[Clive]

wow.. a massacre!

 

[steved]

they must have binned off the scores that Stan posted, Howell got to +10, then finishes round 1 on -5...
probably rules saying this is allowed, but if the players you backed were +1 and not even started when play suspended you have to pass comment...

 

[Stanley]

Yes, the first round scores were annulled.

Beem -4

I think I preferred yesterday's scores

 

[steved]

me too!

 

[boris]

after backing Alker, I wholeheartedly agree!

 

[Ian]

I am the dissentor - go POPEYE!