What a life it must be playing golf on the European Tour. Playing at the home of golf one week, then the autumn warmth of Madrid the next. Just a short trip west this week to the Algarve and it’s the Portugal Masters.
There’s €3m in prize money on offer and it’s brought out the big guns as Robert Karlsson bids to win a third consecutive European Tour title. The giant Swede is 8/1 favourite to add the Portugal masters to his wins in Scotland and Germany.
It’s a quality line up and plenty have claims, none more so than Lee Westwood who at 10/1 is sure to be in the reckoning on yet another Sunday. Westwood has yest to win on the European Tour this season but has had 12 top ten finishes and four runners up spots to his name.
Looking further down the field Steve Webster’s name catches the eye. Winner here last October in the tournament’s inaugural year the Englishmen finished 13th last week in Madrid so is in decent nick and a 40/1 shot at totesport.
It’s at this time of year that not only are the top players battling it out to win the Order of Merit, but plenty more at the other end of the scale are looking to keep there card for next year.
We’ve picked out two to keep an eye out this week at big prices in the betting. Robert Rock carded a heroic last round of 64 finishing fourth in Madrid last week to give him every chance of making the top 125 at the end of the month. Another good show in Portugal and the 110/1 could represent some value.
Two other men to look out for at big prices are Patrik Sjoland and and Jose Felipe Lima at 150/1 and 125/1 respectively. The Swede Sjoland got a late entry into this tournament and is right on the cusp of keeping his card so will be looking to grab the opportunity this week. Lima is another needing a big finish and can be forgiven his poor showing last week in Madrid. On home turf he may just have a squeak at a top ten finish.
