Preview & outright plays:
The final pieces in the Ryder Cup jigsaw will be fitted this week. Over a dozen players still have a mathematical chance of securing one of the automatic 10 spots on the team and it will make for a tense week. Etched in the minds of many of this week's hopefuls will be Eamonn Darcy's 1985 debacle. Confident of qualifying for the team, he went fishing rather than play in the final event and missed out by ?38. Most of the hopefuls have instead played week-in, week-out for too long including a trip to Atlanta and Akron; they should be ones to oppose.
With the tension of trying to qualify an impediment to good golf, this event has thrown up some very unlikely winners. When the course was the venue once again for this event in 1997, Robert Karlsson won as a 80/1 shot; the following year Russell Claydon won as a 125/1 shot. Sanity has been resumed in the last two years with Monty and Bjorn winning, but pressure can produce some strange results. Another reason for the unlikely winners may be the course itself. It is very flat and treeless and measuring under 7000 yards for a par-72, offers little to challenge the stroke-makers. There is very little rough on this course. Given the widely-acclaimed greens, this event has invariably become a putting contest.
With this in mind, the three selections this week are Sergio Garcia, Bernhard Langer and Jose Maria Olazabal. Garcia would not be here were it not for the Ryder Cup. He knows he will get a wild card selection, but it is to provide some room for maneuver for his captain that he tees it up this week. He is not playing under pressure and on a course without rough and that needs a good short game, he should play well. He is also rested after not playing at the NEC Invitational last week and deserves the short price he attracts.
Bernhard Langer won his first tournament in four years last month at the TNT Dutch Open - his last event in Europe - and is tipped to go close to making a quick return to the winner's circle. He has won ten times in his home country and while he has never won in this event, he does have a great record on this course. He has played at Munchen Nord-Eichenried in each of the last seven stagings there and finished in the top-4 on four occasions and no worse than 15th in the other three. While there is mathematical chance he can drop out of the top-10 in the Ryder Cup standings, it is no more than that and playing without pressure, he should secure at the very least, a top-5 position.
The final selection, Jose Maria Olazabal, could make the team with a very high finish this week, but if he did, he would again be the most experienced member of the team. He should not suffer too much from the pressure this week and with few expected him to be a captain's pick, he should be able to play quite freely. He is not in great form at the moment, though he has shown glimpses of his former game over the past few months, but he is one to rise to the challenge. And this course is made for such an eventuality. No rough and a heavy emphasis on putting, Olly could not want a better setup. With William Hill offering 20/1 for him, the price at Surrey is worth a speculative punt.
Outright plays:
Sergio Garcia to win 10/1 e.w. @
Surrey
Bernhard Langer to win 14/1 e.w. available generally
Jose Maria Olazabal to win 40/1 e.w. @
Surrey
