When you're steering a golf tour through a pandemic and scheduling the event which takes place immediately after the Open Championship, you do what you have to. As such, we must accept that the Wales Open, which is what this tournament is, must be called the Cazoo Open, and thank the online car retailer for their support.
Perhaps by threatening to make him listen to an actual kazoo and in the absence of a high-profile golfer to play host, the sponsors have managed to add Gareth Bale to the billing. Bale, recently returned from international duty at the Euros, 'likes nothing more than to work on his golf handicap' according to the internet, and will presumably take part in the pro-am and what have you before the serious business begins.
All of this is good news for golf in Wales, and a continuation of the smaller-than-the-naked-eye-can-see positives which have come out of a terrible 18 months. From a golfing point of view, tournaments in the UK have multiplied, this one returning after several years away, and that's why we've a packed schedule to take us from post-major malaise to the buzz of the Ryder Cup.
Crucially, the last fortnight has been on links terrain, and that's the prism through which form has to be viewed. OK, neither the Scottish Open nor the Open Championship were played on baked-out turf, but Royal St George's in particular was subtly challenging and a world away from the brazen modernity of Celtic Manor's 2010 Course, so-named having been built to host that year's Ryder Cup.
Here, everything is different, from flat fairways, graduated rough, water hazards and greens whose only complications are the steps from one tier to the next. It is a totally different style of golf, and it's one Horsfield took to as he recorded his second victory in the space of three weeks late last summer.
With June and early July having been fairly miserable, I doubt even the searing heat of the last few days will have turned the 2010 into the sort of firm, fiddly test of accuracy which Rai prefers, and Harding's short-game is unlikely to be decisive here. Of the top four in the betting, it's the Celtic Classic champion who looks best served by the challenge ahead.
Relying on course form is always risky but CONNOR SYME's preparation has been quite similar to last year, when he led through 54 holes here at Celtic Manor in back-to-back weeks.
Ultimately finishing third and eighth, clearly there's something about the place he enjoyed and those efforts came after an upturn in ball-striking at the English Championship. Almost a year on, his long-game has been getting better, with progressive strokes-gained approach figures and a top-10 ranking in greens hit in Scotland.
Having also struck the ball nicely in Ireland, gaining strokes off the tee and with his irons there too, there's a reliable look to a decent but unspectacular fortnight, and it comes at the right time given the way he struck form here thanks again to good driving first and foremost.
Jack Senior is a fair price having caught the eye in the Celtic Classic and done himself justice in the Open, which he qualified for with that Sunday charge for 10th place in Scotland. Something seems to have clicked and this talented Englishman will have drawn encouragement from the success of fellow slow-burners Jonathan Caldwell and Marcus Armitage.
I prefer the more explosive talents of RICHARD MANSELL, however.
Just one poor round kept him down the leaderboard last week but it was still an excellent Open debut for a youngster who has quickly established himself as a quality ball-striker, ranking seventh this season in strokes-gained off the tee and above-average with his approaches.
This time last year he first showed what he could do with second in Austria before graduating from the Challenge Tour, and though his best in 2021 is 12th in the Canary Islands, he was in the mix at Diamond (28th) and at halfway in the British Masters (57th), all of it invaluable experience which will serve him well.
Finally, while seven selections is more than ideal I can't leave out the risky but capable pair of ZANDER LOMBARD and KRISTOFFER BROBERG.
Lombard is interesting because his driver appears to have clicked. This is the club which has been so ruinous at times in his career, a problem exacerbated by a rib injury in 2020, and it's hard to make it pay in the modern game if you're hitting a couple of provisionals per round.
That's what makes the numbers he's produced lately, at first sudden, now sustained, appear potentially significant. They by no means represent a transformation, but he was well above-average in Germany, 11th in Ireland, and on course for something similar had he made the cut in Scotland.
Given that he's a quality iron player on his day, capable of field-leading numbers as in Tenerife or else something close to that as at Mount Juliet, and that his putter can run hot, Lombard suddenly looks like he might be close to the form which saw him threaten to secure his first European Tour win back in 2019.
It's already been an excellent year for South African golf and having made the cut here despite abysmal driving last September, ranking 12th in strokes-gained approach for good measure, Lombard could add his name to the list of winners.
Posted at 1900 BST on 19/07/21
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