Played on the long and demanding Wentworth course and in less than ideal British weather, this is even more of a slog than the WGC Matchplay in February. With the format of four seeds and eight unseeded players, the benefit of being seeded and thus not playing until the quarter-finals are enormous. In the last six years, all the winners have been seeded and only two of those twelve finalists were unseeded. This week's seeds are Colin Montgomerie (1), Ernie Els (2), Lee Westwood (3) and Vijay Singh (4).
This is rather too much of an obstacle for an upset to occur, in fact under normal conditions in May when the course hosts the Volvo PGA Championship, it is an event that produces very high quality winners. The winner will come from these four players, which is unfortunate as I would have liked to back Thomas Bjorn @ 16/1 with Victor Chandler e/w at 1/3 odds for the first two places. But he will have played close to 36 holes before facing Lee Westwood in the semi-final. With the weather forecast typically gloomy, even the Great Dane will not be able to raise his game and physique for such a battle.
The two seeds to oppose are Ernie Els and Vijay Singh. Els has a superb record in this event, but that ended in 1998 when he lost his first match and he did so again last year. Having not played for over a month, he looks a vulnerable opponent for Thomas Bjorn should he beat Retief Goosen on Thursday. If not, then Westwood will surely account for him. The second to oppose is Vijay who was very disappointing in Germany last week, not just in his game but in his whole demeanor. Whether he can raise his game to defeat Clarke or Faldo on Friday is questionable, but he certainly did not look a winner last week.
The sole outright play this week is on Colin Montgomerie 5/1 @ DAS. He has won two of the last three Volvo PGA Championships on this course and won this event in style last year. Last week, I predicted his problems were more motivation than technique and it was proved correct even though he was denied a chance to win on Sunday. With him proclaiming that he was 'hitting the ball better than I have done for months' at the weekend, and remember this is Monty, when he is talking up his game, we take notice, it doesn't happen too often! He lives near to the course if another indication of how much he likes Wentworth is needed. The final should be between Monty and Westwood, the 'dream final' for us Brits, and everything is stacked in Monty's favor this week.
This is rather too much of an obstacle for an upset to occur, in fact under normal conditions in May when the course hosts the Volvo PGA Championship, it is an event that produces very high quality winners. The winner will come from these four players, which is unfortunate as I would have liked to back Thomas Bjorn @ 16/1 with Victor Chandler e/w at 1/3 odds for the first two places. But he will have played close to 36 holes before facing Lee Westwood in the semi-final. With the weather forecast typically gloomy, even the Great Dane will not be able to raise his game and physique for such a battle.
The two seeds to oppose are Ernie Els and Vijay Singh. Els has a superb record in this event, but that ended in 1998 when he lost his first match and he did so again last year. Having not played for over a month, he looks a vulnerable opponent for Thomas Bjorn should he beat Retief Goosen on Thursday. If not, then Westwood will surely account for him. The second to oppose is Vijay who was very disappointing in Germany last week, not just in his game but in his whole demeanor. Whether he can raise his game to defeat Clarke or Faldo on Friday is questionable, but he certainly did not look a winner last week.
The sole outright play this week is on Colin Montgomerie 5/1 @ DAS. He has won two of the last three Volvo PGA Championships on this course and won this event in style last year. Last week, I predicted his problems were more motivation than technique and it was proved correct even though he was denied a chance to win on Sunday. With him proclaiming that he was 'hitting the ball better than I have done for months' at the weekend, and remember this is Monty, when he is talking up his game, we take notice, it doesn't happen too often! He lives near to the course if another indication of how much he likes Wentworth is needed. The final should be between Monty and Westwood, the 'dream final' for us Brits, and everything is stacked in Monty's favor this week.
