It's strange as I was looking over the previous years page for this event (which was in fact one of the firs things tipped up by this site) and even though Bunsen is sunning himself somewhere far far away I am left holding the fort and looking forward to a very open....erm Open.
The course itself thrives on being a links course and therefore windy.......however if like me you have had trouble sleeping in the evening thanks to top 20 degree evening temperatures you can't of failed to notice that currently we are in a heatwave.......that means no wind........that means hard ground and the big hitters hitting post 300 yard drives and the course playing much shorter then normal. So in my reckoning the winner is going to be a big hitter who plays links courses well.......well I'm going to have Mr Love III as he is a fantastic links player.....but who of the big hitters? Woods is not in the best of form and being paired with Faldo could work 2 ways in that he may rile him enough to produce one of the rounds of his life or irke him enough to sulk round in 75........I'm also a big believer in that you are sometimes only as good as your partner, if your playing partner is hacking round in 80 then it's very rare for someone else to be shooting sub 65's and so I don't rate Faldo's chances and therefore think that he may be the albatross around Mr Woods neck for the first two rounds.
I'm not going to comment on the supposed feud between the 2 but if you are going to bitch about a player on TV when you still play the game then your more stupid then I gave you credit for.......saying that Nick's comments weren't that bad and if your going to take offence at a throw away line then you need to lighten up but the week in Liverpool must be very very dull if this is what the papers think the BIG story is.........grow up kids and get on with the game.
Back to Woods though and I'm not sure he is up to the game even though he has the length to do very well.......it just depends on whether he has the line off the tea. Odds of 1.65 to finish Top 10 are VERY tempting to get stuck into and lay but you never know with the El Tigre and he could romp away with this. I am going to take this bet just because I think he is going to struggle with poor opening 3 ball partners to keep pace and shoot sub 65's when your partners are stuggling to hit sub 70's.......I'll lay it now and then maybe back it back at the weekend when he gets paired with some better players.
Anyway I'm still short of a few tips to be honest.....I'm pretty sure that the lowest score is going to be sub 65 so seeing odds of 5 for this is very tempting so I'm tempted to steal half a point and lay this even though the odds aren't great I'm pretty sure that we may see a record Open round this week and a 62 along the way so this is a safe bet.
I'm also tempted to take on Freddy "Boom-Boom" Couples this weekend........he withdrew from the Scottish Open last week complaining of a bad back and has not played much recently..........I'm not sure he is up to this weekend and @ odds of 1.6 to make it to the weekend rounds I'm happy to take this on. The only other tip I'm having is that of Padraig Harrington to be there or there abouts this weekend......he has the length and the knowledge of links courses and I fancy him to go well this weekend.
Day 2
I couldn't resist having a couple of 3 ball bets today after getting swept along with the excitement this morning so here are my tips for the first day
Day 1
CalvStar
