Golf Special Report: Portugal Masters 2010- Players in the spotlight (Part 1)
The Portugal Masters is set to start tomorrow at Victoria Course at Vilamoura, Portugal. This is the fourth time the tournament has taken place over there. All the players will definitely try their best and there is no say on who will win. However, looking
at how all the contenders are going, here is the betting preview for the Portugal Masters.
It is jointly staged by The European Tour and the Portuguese Tourist Board (ITP) under an initial three year agreement. It also has gotten four players of the victorious Europe Ryder Cup team as well. Ross Fisher, Miguel Angel Jimenez, and the Molinari brothers
will all tee off tomorrow.
Edoardo Molinari is the top ranked player in the field this week. The Italian has pushed his game to a whole new level this year. In every tournament Edoardo plays in, he seems to shine. Even though he missed the cut last week at St. Andrews, he has been
in a brilliant form. Edoardo was triumphant in the Johnny Walker Championship recently and also was a runner-up at the European Masters. In the Ryder Cup, he halved his singles match against Rickie Fowler. His betting odds are 25/1.
Francesco Molinari who is the younger of the brothers has been betted at 22-1. He is also known as a ‘ball-striking machine’. Currently, he is ninth in the world rankings, 6th in driving accuracy, 6th in stroke average and rests on
19th in the Race to Dubai standings. Molinari has had nine top ten finishes this year alone. Last year, Francesco was a runner up behind Lee Westwood last year and is known to golf this course competently. It’s about time the younger Molinari strike
some birdies and earn a win.
Alvaro Quiros who is betted at 16/1 very closely missed the Ryder Cup qualification. Alvaro has however had a good season so far. He has won the Open de Espana and stocked up nine top 12 finishes. Last week, at the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship, he came
fifth place. Looking at who Quiros was up against at St. Andrews, this was a big achievement and shows that he is still on top of his game. The long-hitting Spanish player is currently 7th in stroke average, third in driving distance and is in the
11th place in Race to Dubai standings. He has won in Portugal in 2008 and Alvaro really hopes he has yet another Portugal Masters win in 2010.
Even though he missed the cut in this tournament last year, Ryder Cup player Ross Fisher is ranked at number 26 right now. In 2008, in the Portugal Masters, he finished third behind Alvaro Quiros. Being in number 13th in the Race to Dubai Standings,
Ross is really hoping to improve his position on the standings on the Algarve. When talking to the media at St. Andrews last week, he said
"My attention has switched back to The Race to Dubai now, definitely. I finished fourth last year and it would be disappointing not to finish better than that this season. I've obviously got a bit of work to do in order to achieve that but I've got some
big tournaments coming up so it's not over yet."
Last week at the Links Championship, Fisher tied at 11th and also won the Irish Open in the season. In the Ryder Cup this year, even though Fisher lost to Jeff Overton, he contributed to the team by earning two significant points. Two years ago,
he finished third at the Victoria course and is still feeling great after the Ryder Cup. The betting odds of fisher are 14/1.Miguel Angel Jimenez whose betting odds are 20/1 has won three events this season which includes the European Masters. Even though
Jimenez doesn’t have a pleasant history of the Portugal Masters, he is a way too significant player to not look at. The host course, Arnold Palmer is very near Miguel’s home as well. He also has an 11/5 shot to be a top ten finisher and is predicted to be
a 9/4 to be the top Spanish player. Hopefully the Spaniard will play up to what is expected of him.
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