Open case
July 14th 2008 09:54
Well I said last week that Kenny Perry was the obvious favourite for the John Deere Classic and sure enough he delivered, scoring a remarkable third win in five starts (not to mention an earlier playoff loss).
Perry is determined to qualify for the American Ryder Cup team later this year and in an effort to get enough qualifying points he skipped the US Open and British Open in order to concentrate on tournaments where he believed he could perform well.
The main reason he wants to play the Ryder Cup is because it’s being held at Valhalla Golf Club in Kentucky, where Perry hails from and he wants nothing more than to play in front of his fellow Kentuckians.
The way he’s playing it’s a shame he isn’t playing the Open Championship this week because there’s no-one in world golf hitting it as well as him at the moment.
Over in Scotland, another guy who’s been hitting it really well of late is Graeme McDowell and the Northern Irishman converted his brilliant accuracy as he showed by attacking pin after pin on his way to victory at the Scottish Open.
He is actually the type of player who could thrive in the Open. He’s played well on links layouts in the past and while he’s not a long hitter, that’s not such a big deal at Birkdale which is one of the more manageable Open layouts – it requires accuracy over length.
I’m still keen on Sergio Garcia but there are plenty of other players in the right groove to challenge the favourite – among them are Robert Allenby (and remember, Aussies have a pretty good record at Royal Birkdale), Miguel Angel Jiminez and … wait for it, my roughie special, Nick O’Hern, the Aussie lefthander who's accurate tee to green game will stand him in good stead this week.
But there’s a bit more analysis to be done before the Open tees off and I’ll be back later in the week with my top five fancies.
Perry is determined to qualify for the American Ryder Cup team later this year and in an effort to get enough qualifying points he skipped the US Open and British Open in order to concentrate on tournaments where he believed he could perform well.
The main reason he wants to play the Ryder Cup is because it’s being held at Valhalla Golf Club in Kentucky, where Perry hails from and he wants nothing more than to play in front of his fellow Kentuckians.
The way he’s playing it’s a shame he isn’t playing the Open Championship this week because there’s no-one in world golf hitting it as well as him at the moment.
Over in Scotland, another guy who’s been hitting it really well of late is Graeme McDowell and the Northern Irishman converted his brilliant accuracy as he showed by attacking pin after pin on his way to victory at the Scottish Open.
He is actually the type of player who could thrive in the Open. He’s played well on links layouts in the past and while he’s not a long hitter, that’s not such a big deal at Birkdale which is one of the more manageable Open layouts – it requires accuracy over length.
I’m still keen on Sergio Garcia but there are plenty of other players in the right groove to challenge the favourite – among them are Robert Allenby (and remember, Aussies have a pretty good record at Royal Birkdale), Miguel Angel Jiminez and … wait for it, my roughie special, Nick O’Hern, the Aussie lefthander who's accurate tee to green game will stand him in good stead this week.
But there’s a bit more analysis to be done before the Open tees off and I’ll be back later in the week with my top five fancies.
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