Golf: Dunhill Links Championship

The European Tour takes on a slightly different twist this week at the Dunhill Links Championship as 168 professionals are each paired with a celebrity amateur partner for the duration of the tournament, which is played over 3 very different and very challenging Scottish courses.

The list of confirmed celebrities that are taking part includes cricket legend and handy golfer Ian Botham, former Manchester United football star Bobby Charlton, Liverpool legend Kenny Dalglish, film star Dennis Hopper, and Olympic rowing heroes Matthew Pinsent and Steve Redgrave.

The teams of two each play one round at St Andrews, Carnoustie and Kingsbarns before the top 60 professionals and top 20 teams play one final round at St Andrews on the Sunday. Despite their being a more relaxed feel to this event, the action is always fiercely competitive amongst professionals and amateurs alike and with the small matter of the European Order of Merit to be decided soon it will be all to play for this week especially for the professionals when the competitive action kicks off on Thursday morning. Paul Casey heads the European Order of Merit list at the moment fresh on the back of his £1m win at the HSBC World Matchplay Championship two weeks ago. He is narrowly ahead of long-time Order of Merit leader David Howell. Casey's recent good form and momentum going into the final few weeks of the season has seen his odds plummet to as low as 1 / 2 with UK Betting and Coral and although he has shown that he means business over recent weeks, he is still not totally unsurpassable and in fact he made a rather poor showing in European Golf's very latest tournament last week – The WGC in Hertfordshire. David Howell lies just £80,000 behind him (small potatoes by golf terms) and is more than capable of a win and a performance or two in the final stages of the season. Howell is still available at 5/2 with bluesq, which I feel is good value for the man who has lead the charge nearly all season. Howell is the most fancied of the two here this week; he is available at a best priced 20/1 with Stan James, whilst Casey is out at 33/1 with Paddy Power. This could be largely due to Casey's poor showing at the WGC in Hertfordshire last week and Howell's respectable top 16 finish in the same event.

Last years victorious team were Colin Montgomerie and actor Michael Douglas, they are paired together again this year and both will be looking for a repeat of the result from 12 months ago. The experienced Scot is priced at 33/1 with Bet365, which offers good value for someone playing on home soil, who will have the backing of the crowd and who won here last year. Montgomerie will also have half an eye on the Order of Merit title too as he is currently lying in 6th and with just three events left its possible he could manage a late challenge for the title he has won so many times before – if you agree then UK Betting are offering 66/1 against a late charge to victory by Monty.

Victorious Ryder Cup captain Ian Woosnam will be hanging up the manager's suit this week as he will be appearing as a competitor in what is a very strong line up, its unlikely 'Woosie' will struggle the scorers this week and he is priced accordingly at 300/1 across the board . As well as the entire European Ryder Cup team, there will also be appearances from major world golf stars such as Vijay Singh, Retief Goosen and Ernie Els, who no doubt will all be challenging for the £475,000 first prize. Els is the favourite for victory here this week at a quite short price of 7/1 with Bluesq. Ernie is a golfing legend with a phenomenal record and it would be of course foolish to discount him but with so much quality in the field it may be prudent to ignore the 7/1 on offer as it provides nowhere near the value required in my opinion. Fierce competitor Vijay Singh of Fiji is better value at 20/1 with sporting odds and you can guarantee he will be there or thereabouts come Sunday.

Good luck whoever you choose.

Ed note: Make your golf bets at Mansion Sportsbook and pay 0% commission on the exchange

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