27th June 2012
Irish Open Betting: Chris Wood can use his links golf pedigree to claim first European Tour title in Northern Ireland
The Irish Open is this week’s European Tour offering and for the first time the event goes north of the border into Northern Ireland for one of the most eagerly awaited tournaments in the history of the European Tour. With the four recent Irish major winners on show this week the crowds will flock to the course where Simon Dyson will be defending his title. Dyson is 33/1 with Bet365 to defend his title.
Royal Portrush Golf Club is the venue for the tournament this week. This is the place where Graeme McDowell, Darren Clarke and Rory McIlroy all learned their trade. It is a links course which provides excellent preparation for next month’s British Open which is why a decent field has been assembled this week. The course plays to a par of 72 and measures 7143 yards. The course is open and undulated and requires lots of imagination.
Whenever Rory McIlroy is in the field in a tournament these days he is generally the favourite for the event and that is no different this week. Given his recent form he offers little value at 7/1 though. Graeme McDowell went so close to winning a second US Open two weeks ago and he is 10/1 to bounce back from that and win here while Padraig Harrington is a 12/1 shot but I’m going to look away from the Irish trio at some better value.
The player I like this week is Chris Wood. Wood came close to winning his first title on the European Tour last week but could only finish 3rd in the BMW International Open however he finished the final round really well despite falling out of contention midway through the round and that bodes well this week. We know he has the game, the imagination and the skills to master links golf. He finished 5th in The Open as an amateur in 2008 and then third the year after so that shows us that he has the game for links golf and having seen Danny Willett win his first tour title last week, Chris Wood could well be in the winners enclosure for the first time this week.
Back C.Wood to win Irish Open (e/w) for a 1/10 stake at 36.00 with Blue Square (1/4 1-6)
- Register at Blue Square
Author: 'Arry Allsports
