EUROPEAN Tour golf specialist Vince Blissett (@Vince_RFC) moves onto Germany this week with his European Open views.
European Open | 27th-30th July 2017 | Sky Sports
The Open turned out pretty well in the end with some nice profit banked. Unfortunately, when Jordan Spieth plays like he did over the last five holes, nobody else is going to get a look in.
Anyway, that’s last week and we’re back on the European Tour grind looking for a winner as the action moves on to Hamburg for the Porsche European Open.
Green Eagle Golf Club is the host and it’s a bit of an unknown, so finding a winner isn’t made any easier. There are a few things we do know though.
Firstly, the course hosted a Challenge Tour event back in 2010, which doesn’t actually help much. The other is the length of the course – it’s a monster.
Officially the course length is 7,836 yards, which according to the tournament website, makes it the longest course used on Tour and among the 10 longest in the world. However, the European Tour has the yardage down as 7,582, so it may be that the tees have been moved up.
That’s still very long though and with plenty of rain around the area this week, it’s fairly safe to say the bigger hitters are at an advantage. The problem there being that I’m not a fan of the really big hitters in the field, so I’m looking for slightly different routes.
Jimmy Walker (33/1 Stan James)
A few Americans have made the trip for a rare appearance on the European Tour and it’s one of them who’s my main pick in the form of Jimmy Walker at 33/1.
The reigning USPGA Champion is making his debut on mainland European soil which is slightly off-putting but at his best he could easily win this.
He has the power to drive it 300+ yards and is in fairly good form, which is good enough for me. A 54th in The Open last week but before that three top-20’s from six starts on the PGA Tour.
At 33/1 and almost x3 the price of market leader Patrick Reed, Jimmy looks a good price all things considered.
Anthony Wall (50/1 Bet365)
Anthony Wall had two good showings at the Irish and Scottish Opens in better fields than this with 20th and fourth places respectively.
The 42 year-old from London was one I looked for straight away when the markets were released and 50/1 looks a good price.
Nothing stands out in particular looking at his stats from those two tournaments except all aspects of his game are in very good shape.
Whether he can pick up a first win outside of a matchplay event since 2000 is questionable but for someone in the best form they’ve been in for quite a while, the price is worth backing.
Scott Jamieson (80/1 Bet365)
Scott Jamieson at 80/1 is the final pick.
Inconsistent would be a good word to describe him. His last 11 starts have seen four missed cuts, six top-22s and one other. As a result his seasonal stats are average, as you’d probably expect.
One thing he does rank highly in is par-five scoring, sitting 21st on Tour this season. With there being five par-5’s to navigate, picking up shots on them could prove crucial.
When I was looking Scott up I noticed he’d finished 12th around here back in 2010 so that may be a bonus. He’s good at all aspects of the game just can’t do it all at the same time enough – well, hopefully he can this week.
Best Bets
European Open – Jimmy Walker (33/1 each-way Stan James)
European Open – Anthony Wall (50/1 each-way Bet365)
European Open – Scott Jamieson (80/1 each-way Bet365)
