Paul Dunne heads three picks for David John ahead of this week's Nordea Masters on the European Tour.
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It is a good bit of planning by the European Tour to stage the Nordea Masters back at Barseback Golf & Country Club just outside Malmo.
Henrik Stenson has been an honorary member at his local course since 2007 and it finally gives the Swedish galleries a first-rate chance to hail the conquering hero following his brilliant 2016 Open Championship victory.
Stenson has tried to support this event as best he can over the years in his busy schedule and has posted a couple of runner-up finishes (one here) along with another brace inside the top five.
Having finally added a major to the CV, perhaps the time has come to at last tick this event off as well on the back of a good effort at Wentworth - a course he has never really been in love with - while it seems to fit in nicely time-wise with the build-up to the US Open.
He is fully justified in my view to be at the front of the market and slightly ahead of BMW PGA Championship winner Alex Noren.
Attempting to put the brakes on the latter is going to be tough following an eighth European Tour success that has catapulted him up to number eight in the world rankings.
He has now collected a staggering five titles since early last July and unsurprisingly told the media his faultless closing round of 62 last week was “probably my best ever”.
This has been a solid event for the home contingent as well with four winners since 2008 (Noren has won twice) and they obviously have an extremely good chance once more with such a commanding top two in the betting.
I think we would run out of superlatives if Noren somehow does it again but my preference would be Stenson for those looking at any 72-hole match-ups between the pair.
SPORTING LIFE REQUEST-A-BET - Dunne, Kapur or Siem to win outright - 28/1
I am going to roll the dice on some bigger prices further down the outright betting and start with Ireland’s Paul Dunne.
He remains very much at the forefront of any discussion on potential breakthrough winners in Europe this season and the mix of links-style holes that run along Oresund to go with the more protected tree-lined sections looks right up Dunne’s street.
With a fairly warm but breezy forecast, this will not be too dissimilar to conditions found in Morocco earlier in the year where the selection came within a whisker of his maiden victory when pipped in a play-off by Edoardo Molinari.
He is putting together a really nice season as he currently sits inside the top 30 on the Race To Dubai and I get the feeling we are only just scratching the surface when it comes to this player getting into contention on a Sunday afternoon.
His confidence will have been done no harm either having qualified for the US Open on Monday and it is becoming increasingly eye-catching how he is able to hold his form over an extended spell.
Dunne admitted earlier in the year that he feels much more the complete article compared to 2016 with all parts of his game coming together more consistently and although a generous opening 66/1 quote has been hoovered up, there is still some mileage to be had at 50s.
Marcel Siem is the next pick for this tournament having shown enough in Sicily recently to be worth a second glance at 200/1.
Siem spent a good part of last season battling a shoulder issue and took six weeks off over the summer but was back healthy again in the autumn and keen to get his career moving in the right direction once more.
His world ranking has dropped into the 400s now but he still seemingly has plenty of time on his side at 36 as he seeks to revisit the winner’s circle for the first time since the BMW Masters in China in 2014.
“I really want to get back on track and get back in the world’s top 50,” he said at the British Masters in October and although he faces a lengthy climb to rejoin the game’s elite, Siem must have some sort of opportunity given a clear run on the health front.
The German is a proven winner of good events too and his T8 at the Rocco Forte Open definitely hinted at better to come as he built on a solid past record when tackling events in Italy.
There is a similar correlation with Sweden as he has two top 10s around Barseback in 2004 and 2006 so perhaps a little bit of familiarity with a venue is what he needs at the moment while he searches for his best form.
He missed the cut at Wentworth and failed in a bid to qualify for the US Open on Monday but did not play too badly in the latter and his price looks worth taking on the back of those positive recent efforts.
There is no doubt about the form of final pick Shiv Kapur as he arrives in Europe on the back of finishing first and second in consecutive starts on the Asian Tour.
Rather like Siem, he was under the weather last year and struggled to find his best having had to undergo surgery to remove an abscess from his liver that had originally been diagnosed as a virus.
I’m no specialist in that field and it sounds pretty drastic but similar to the German, his enforced spell on the sidelines gave him the time to re-evaluate where he wanted to take his professional career.
Kapur was back to full fitness by the end of 2016 as his game undertsandably required a few starts to come around but a T12 in Malaysia in February definitely hinted he was doing the right things once more.
There is little argument as to where he is now though having won the Yeangder Heritage in Chinese Taipei at the end of April before finishing second last week in the Thailand Open.
He played both weekends in exceptional fashion thanks to rounds of 67-64 then 65-63 and pinpointed a much better effort with the putter as the final piece of the puzzle.
The links between the Asian and European Tours are growing ever stronger and Kapur still feels he can take that next step up in an event of this nature to go with a couple of victories already on the Challenge Tour.
There is always that nagging question mark over whether Kapur is simply a much better player in Asia and the Middle East but he has been around the block enough in this part of the world at 35 to know what is what and his price is very tempting considering how well he is performing.
Posted at 1530 BST on 30/05/17.
