The effort to share information means it is best not to assume that everyone looking to wager is aware of the condition of the greens at Gut Kaden:
"The severe attack of Fusarium patch disease which affected all the greens last October, is still very much in evidence and will not grow out by the tournament," Garland (European Tour's Director of Tour Openerations, David Garland) told the European Tour's official website.
"The outbreak was immediately followed by a very cold winter and spring with temperatures still around freezing as recently as mid-April. Growth is still very slow due to the weather experienced in continental Hamburg over the last number of weeks."
But despite the outbreak, Garland insisted that serious measures will be taken to minimalise the interference of the disease.
"The course set up has been softened to compensate for the weak greens and to have a level of consistency in the roughs. The selection of pin positions during the week will be located in the areas of green least affected by disease."
"Please be assured that The European Tour, Gut Kaden Golf Club and the Tournament Promoter continue to take all necessary actions to ensure that the conditions for the tournament will be the best they possibly can be, but will not be to the expected standard . . ."
And the latest I've heard . . . Bernhard Langer after rain wrought further havoc with greens affected by Fusarium patch disease. "We are playing on grass and we are dealing with nature," he advised his colleagues. Later, John Paramor, the chief referee, decided that the players could not deal with nature unassisted. For the first time they would be allowed to move a ball which came to rest within "an easily identifiable patch".
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OUTRIGHTS:
Paul Casey(22/1) for 0.60* e.w. @ Bet365
Two wins and five top tens in his last seven European Tour events. Quoting Peter McEvoy: "When he's good, he'll be very good." I'll have to buy into the proposition that young Casey is not cut from the usual cloth in order to buck convention and ask him to sustain the momentum of a smashing victory for four full rounds the following week when you are usually unable to catch it lasting beyond the first round.
Brian Davis(50/1) for 0.60* e.w. @ 5dimes
Giving Davis the nod over a couple of lefties, Nick O'Hern and Richard Green. While all three players are showing signs of good form, Davis seems the most capable, but more importantly, he has the angles of answering his DQ from last year (I don't know the reason for the DQ, and although it dawned on me late last night that an answer was likely available by soliciting input from the forum crew, my time constraints make it too late for that now), and the foundation of a career moment of playing well at the St. Leon-Rot Deutsche Bank venue in 1999 while paired with Woods in the final round.
Paul Lawrie(33/1) for 0.60* e.w. @ Bet365
I do prefer Lawrie on heaving terrain over the flatish character (I believe) of this venue. Nevertheless, Lawrie is on good form and unsatiated by victory as of yet this year, so a big event in Europe with less than ideal weather or course conditions seems worth another spin of the wheel after a profitable play last week.
Jean Van De Velde(125/1) for 0.60* e.w. @ 5dimes
Needless to say, any mere trifle is often enough for me to take a swing for the fences. A player slowed by injury but with his mind on his game and on a course that may suit could easily launch a dozen cliches. There are ample precedents for occasions in which competitive rust is not a crippling condition. While the condition of the greens produced initial skepticism, the better thought is that Van De Velde might be my first choice to putt across a gravel parking lot. Simply put, when presented with a rich vein of angles, I don't know when I would stop beating myself up if Van De Velde made headlines this week and I was not leading the cheers. Go well my friend - I'll keep a candle burning - God Bless and God Damn.
GL
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