In an event such as the Open de France 2007 where it is hard to find a favourite, recent winners Anders Hansen and Richard Green and Richard Sterne, have much to recommend them as not all Ryder Cup men past and present are firing at the moment, and that includes Colin Montgomerie, Miguel Angel Jimenez, Ian Poulter and Thomas Bjorn.
Also on parade are former US Open champion Michael Campbell who is finding life hard-going, Nick Dougherty who played so well at Oakmont but might be running out of gas, and a bunch of Frenchmen hoping, like Jean-Francois Remesy did in 2004-05, to keep their national Open at home.
Point-Spreads.com believes that Hansen and Green look the best bets provided the Dane can keep his game going. He survived four days at the US Open, then made the frame in Munich, and he has plenty of good French form – sixth last year, eighth in '05 and third in '02. And winning the big one at Wentworth was a great confidence-builder.
It is a course that rewards accuracy over power, which is why Aussie lefty Green, seventh last year when second in greens-in-regulation, and his compatriot Peter O'Malley (7-4-6-3 the last four years but a serial loser) have done so well in past years.
Also expected to figure prominently is Bradley Dredge, who was censured in some quarters for refusing to attempt to qualify for the US Open at Walton Heath.
But the Welshman is his own man and his programme has so far produced two near-misses – a brilliant last-day surge took him into an Irish Open shootout with Padraig Harrington which he messed up big-time, and then he got caught by Sterne for his own Open at Celtic Manor, a defeat that hit him hard.
He has rested since so will be raring to go in a tournament where he has shown up well before – twice eighth, in 2003 and 2005, and 17th last year.
BetUS.com has posted golf betting odds to win the Open de France 2007:
Jose Maria Olazabal: +1600
Lee Westwood: +1600
Richard Green: +1400
Anders Hansen: +1800
Ian Poulter: +2000
Bradley Dredge: +1800
Richard Sterne: +1800
Nick Dougherty: +2500
Miguel Angel Jimenez: +2500
Raphael Jacquelin: +3000
Graeme McDowell: +3000
Colin Montgomerie: +3500
Michael Campbell: +3500
Andres Romero: +3500
Alastair Forsyth: +4000
Alejandro Canizares: +4000
Thomas Björn: +5000
Jean-Francois Remesy: +4000
Jeev Mikha Singh: +4000
Martin Kaymer: +4000
Simon Khan: +4000
Jyoti Randhawa: +4000
Ricardo Gonzalez: +4000
Peter O'Malley: +4000
Thomas Levet: +4000
Francesco Molinari: +5000
Paul Broadhurst: +5000
Soren Kjeldsen: +5000
David Lynn: +5000
Simon Dyson: +5000
Thongchai Jaidee: +6500
Liang Wen-chong: +6500
Soren Hansen: +6500
Jose-Filipe Lima: +6500
Graeme Storm: +7000
Martin Erlandsson: +7000
Oliver Wilson: +7000
Markus Brier: +7000
Stephen Gallacher: +7000
Jarmo Sandelin: +7000
Tom Whitehouse: +7000
Anthony Wall: +9000
Carl Suneson: +9000
Robert-J Derksen: +9000
Gonzalo F-Castano: +9000
John Bickerton: +9000
Emanuele Canonica: +9000
Gary Murphy: +9000
Maarten Lafeber: +9000
