Defending champion Paul Casey is back to try to land the prize for the third time having held off Soren Hansen by a shot 12 months ago and will be joined by Colin Montgomerie, the tournament chairman, Darren Clarke, Lee Westwood and David Howell. Casey is the highest ranked player in the starting line-up, while Richard Sterne and Montgomerie are the other two currently positioned inside the top 50 in the world.
The Centenary course that Jack (Nicklaus) built sits at the foot of the Scottish Highlands and, at over 7,200yds, is the longest inland course in Scotland. The fairways are quite generous and they lead to large, undulating greens. It can prove a very difficult place to play golf, particularly with the likelihood of wind, mist and rain becoming factors during the course of the tournament.
Powerful Casey
Long and powerful hitters like Casey have tended to come out best at Gleneagles and he will once again be high on the short-lists of many punters. But it’s worth remembering that he has yet to successfully defend a title and he was tied for 11th in 2002, a year after he picked up the first prize.
Montgomerie will lead a 20-strong ‘home’ defence as the Scots seek to win the Johnnie Walker Championship for the first time. The most likely candidate from that group is Alastair Forsyth. He has twice posted top six finishes in the event in the last four years and was also seventh at the start of the century. His putting was superb in 2006 (he was second for total putts) and he was one of the few players to beat par in every round 12 months ago. His form had slackened off in recent starts having posted three decent top-10s earlier in the season, but he bounced right back to form at the weekend when he shot a final round 66 on his way to sharing third spot in the KLM Open in Holland. So if he can just improve on his approach work at Gleneagles, Forsyth could give the home fans something to cheer about.
Angling for Fisher
Ross Fisher would have been a strong contender for this title had he not broken his tour duck with a win at the final hole on Sunday as it’s always difficult to follow up a previous week’s success. His long-hitting game (third in the driving distance stats at this week’s venue in 2006) should stand him in good stead once again. He was on his way to a top-10 finish when lying in seventh place at the halfway stage however, things began to unravel over the weekend as his putting let him down and he slipped back to tie for 28th.
Still, that was a promising course debut and Fisher should have learned a lot from it. Despite his victory in Zandvoort he could still be one of the main challengers.
Bradley Dredge and Brett Rumford are two others who can both hit the ball a long way and should be able to take advantage of that this week.
Like Fisher, putting proved Dredge’s downfall in 2006 at Gleneagles as his approach play was well up to scratch, he was tied sixth for greens in regulation (GIR). However, a tied for second finish 12 months earlier showed that he had the game and temperament and could be marked down as a possible future winner of the Johnnie Walker title.
Brett back to form
Having posted six top-20s last season, it’s been a pretty dire year so far for Rumford with just a tie for 11th and a second in the New Zealand Open right at the start of 2007 being all he has to show for his efforts. But there were more encouraging signs to be gleaned from his tied for 17th finish in the KLM last week and hopefully the return to the Perthshire air will bring about a revival and the kind of form that saw him take a share of seventh spot in 2006 and a third for GIR. Francesco Molinari was one of the brightest stars to shine on the European tour last term posting five top-10s, including his maiden win when landing his national championship the Italian Open. He has consolidated well this term and was third as defending champion in the latter event.
The Johnnie Walker was one of the tournaments in which he missed the cut but in 2005 he showed he could handle the tough conditions that prevailed that year when tying for sixth and posting scores of 69-71-69 for the last three rounds. If he can produce that level of form again Molinari could be the second Italian winner, Emanuele Canonica in 2005 was the other, of this event.
Lima likely
One of the best rounds to have been played over the last two years at Gleneagles was the 66 produced in the fourth round by Jose-Fillipe Lima in 2005. What was even more impressive about that score was that it was his debut at the course. He went on to finish tied for 17th that year and although he failed to improve on that in 2006 he might be worth a small wager, particularly after he looked like returning to form when sharing the runner-up spot in the BMW International back in June. Come the final morning it might be worth remembering, if planning to bet in running, that none of the previous eight winners of the Johnnie Walker Championship started the fourth round lower than joint-third place.
Walker Wonders: Bradley Dredge & Alastair Forsyth
Gleneagles Giants: Francesco Molinari & Brett Rumford
• All prices correct at time of writing.
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