Preview & outright plays:
The European Tour hosts the weakest event of the week as it returns for a second year to Brazil. At least last year, Padraig Harrington made the trip and won in Sao Paolo before flying north for the Masters. This year, as a consequence of his successes last year, like Eduardo Romero and Angel Cabrera, he plays in the TPC this year instead. Just one Ryder Cup player, Andrew Coltart, makes the trip, but having not played the course before and not being in the bets of form is best left alone.
The course is fairly short and demands accuracy throughout. However, with a much weaker European Tour contingent this year, it may be one in which the South Americans perform much better than this year and principally because of the local conditions. First, the course has Kikuyu rough which makes it very difficult to control the ball. Experience of this grass would have been gained in South Africa, but rarely elsewhere on the European Tour global trail. Second is the very hot and sticky playing conditions. There should be some unknown names on the leaderboard this week!
The three selections are Craig Hainline, Angel Franco and Angel Romero. While the above would be good reason to avoid Hainline who did not play here last year, he does come off a top-10 finish at the Madeira Island Open in only his 2nd start of the year. While others may be feeling the strain of traveling across five different continents on Tour, he can draw confidence from last week and has shown in his appearances at the Malaysian Open (2nd and 11th the last two years) that he is comfortable playing in hot, sticky weather.
Perhaps in an event like this, the other outright plays are left in the hands of a couple of Angels! Romero and Franco, that is. Franco has played on a number of Tours, including the Buy.com Tour on which he finished 33th last week at the Monterray Open. He has an excellent record on the Tour de las Americas, winning the TPG-Movilnet Classic last October and finishing in the top-2 on two other occasions. He may be more of a big hitter than is required this week, but the local conditions should suit him and he could well use his international experience to upstage a few of the Europeans.
Romero is less well-traveled, but topped the money list on the Tour de las Americas, winning the Tour Championship and finishing in the top-3 on two other occasions, including the Brazilian Open. This arrival of the European Tour journeymen makes this event of much higher caliber than any on the Americas Tour, but the inauguration of that Tour at the end of last year will have aided the South American golfers enormously in gaining competitive experience so that this year, unlike last year, they will not be as fazed by their European Tour counterparts.
Outright plays:
Craig Hainline to win 50/1 e.w. @
Victor Chandler
Angel Franco to win 100/1 e.w. @
Surrey
Angel Romero to win 125/1 e.w. @
Surrey
