Betting tips / Steven Rawlings / 14 December 2011 / Leave a comment Bet Now View Market

For Steven Rawlings. it will be a week for the outsiders at the Australian Masters and the inaugural Thailand Golf Championship.

All the big golfing action is away from Europe and the USA this week, with tournaments in Thailand and Australia

World number one, Luke Donald, has travelled straight from Dubai to Oz for the Australian Masters, and despite the withdrawal of Rory McIlroy, some big names will be attempting to win the inaugural Thailand Golf Championship.

I'll start DownUnder.

There's no strength in depth to the field lining up tomorrow evening (UK time) at Melbourne's Victoria Golf Club and I wouldn't be in the least bit surprised if Luke doesn't pick up from where he left off on Sunday morning. That said it would hardly be a shock if he's not on his game either.

In finishing third at last week's Dubai World Championship, Luke completed an historic double. He's the first man to top the money lists on both the European and US PGA Tours in the same year and there could well be a reaction. I wouldn't want to put anyone off him but I'm happy to let him go un-backed at just [5.3].

I've backed Geoff Ogilvy in each and every Aussie event this winter and he's pitching up on his home course this week so I'm probably tempting fate by leaving him out but that's what I'm doing.

He was very poor last time out at the Australian PGA Championship, shooting rounds of 75 and 80 on the weekend to finish way down the field in 63rd. He complained of fatigue then and could be much fresher this time around but considering he's played the course in competition six times since 1997 without finishing better than 4th I'm quite prepared to leave him out.

Third best is Geoff's recent sparring partner Robert Allenby. His form here is good, he's finished no worse than 8th in six outings and given he finished runner-up at the Australian PGA Championship last time out he could well be a factor. However, that performance came out of the blue and he could just as easily return to the poor form he was in prior to that.

The next three in the betting all look limited. John Senden always struggles to get his head in front. Greg Chalmers is attempting to win his third event in-a-row, otherwise known DownUnder as the Triple Crown, which is surely too much to ask? And Ian Poulter putted deplorably last week and has never played here before. I've scanned much further down the list for my sole selection.

Gavin Coles has course form to call upon; on his last two outings here he finished 3rd in the Australian Open in 2002 and 5th in the Australian PGA Championship three years earlier. He hasn't played in Australia yet this year and comes here after quite a break - his last appearance anywhere was in the Nationwide Tours final event at the end of October where he finished right down in 47th place. But prior to that, he won the Jacksonville Open the week before and that performance really caught my eye. I successfully backed Garth Mulroy at the recent Alfred Dunhill Championship, partly because he'd previously won on the Nationwide Tour this year. Here's hoping Gavin can perform as well as Garth!

Selection:
Gavin Coles @ an average of [95.0]

Lee Westwood, Sergio Garcia and Charl Schwartzel all trade at single-figure prices for the inaugural Thailand Golf Championship at the Amata Spring Country Club, Bangkok and all are readily dismissed on account of price. All three were in action in Dubai last week, where Schwartzel fared best, and all three have more than enough class to take this title with ease, but how fresh and enthusiastic will they be?

I can't see any value there, and again, I've gone scouting for value at much bigger prices.

First up is a young player who is already a favourite of mine - Kiradech Aphibarnrat. The young Thai has been a selection on more than the odd occasion and he's come close to bagging me a decent win a couple of times - maybe this time he can reward my faith in full. He's got too much game to remain confined to the Asian Tour for much longer and he's more than capable of winning this, the Tours brand new finale.

My only other selection is Japan's Tetsuji Hiratsuka, who has a very nice bank of form already in Thailand. He won there twice last year and he's also finished second and third. Not a bad record from just eight starts!

Most of the field will be playing the Amata Spring Country Club for the first time but Tetsuji won't. He finished second here in the International qualifier for the Open Championship last year, firing a 64 in the second round. Other than that, the venue has only ever been used for the biannual Royal Trophy - on five occasions from 2006.

Hiratsuka finished sixth last time out at the Nippon Series JT Cup and he has a number of placed efforts and a win in Japan to his name already this year.

Selections:
Kiradech Aphibarnrat @ [55.0]
Tetsuji Hiratsuka @ [55.0]