Johnnie Walker Championship

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A little here from Bettingzone-

Darren Clarke did himself no harm in terms of the Ryder Cup picture with victory at the KLM Open as he gave captain Nick Faldo another headache in terms of who will get his wildcard picks.

The talismanic Colin Montgomerie has the chance to do likewise himself in this week's Johnnie Walker Championship at Gleneagles - an event he promotes as championship chairman.

The Scot is drinking in the last-chance saloon if he is going to make it on the plane to Valhalla and certainly needs something in the vicinity of a top five finish if he is going to make Faldo sit up and take note.

The reality for Monty is he is just not the force of old and it would be a big gamble to rely solely on his brilliant past exploits against the USA.
So a big show here cheered on by his own fans is a must although the nuts and bolts of his recent form - some real cricket scores - suggests that is unlikely to happen.

However, he could take some inspiration from the performance of Clarke in Holland so it would be folly to write him off completely just yet.

Justin Rose turns out once again while Ross Fisher will also try to gatecrash the party after a costly finish at the KLM highlighted the sort of pressure Ryder Cup hopefuls are under and only kept him on the fringes in the European Points List.

Martin Kaymer admits he is not scoring as he would like - so that rules out a host of big names who have such a lot on their respective golfing plates at the moment.

So we shall move on to those who can be fancied this week and top of the list is defending champion Marc Warren at 55/1.

August seems to be the Scot's time of the season and after a very modest 2008 so far, he has suddenly shown major signs of a revival in his last two events.

First off, he finished tied for 30th at the SAS Masters in Stockholm before stepping up markedly on that with a T4 in Holland.

The timing could not have been better - perhaps spurred on by the fact he is returning to one of his favourite haunts at Gleneagles where he picked up the title 12 months ago after a play-off with Simon Wakefield.

It might just be coincidence but his other win came in August in Scandinavia and with just a few days of the month left, this could be the time to catch him now he seems to have regathered some momentum.

A second selection goes to old favourite Raphael Jacquelin, who has a similar profile to Warren in that he has sparked into life in his last two outings after a modest spell mid-summer.

A top-10 at the SAS Masters was followed by a T26 at the KLM, the latter including a closing 64 which could have been bettered but for a couple of late dropped shots.

Jacquelin has played some very good stuff in the past when travelling to Britain and he boasts a string of good finishes at this venue among them.
He looks ready to go very well at 50s.

Francesco Molinari makes up the trio of picks for Gleneagles this week - a man who has two top-10 finishes here already from three starts.
His last visit to Scotland at Loch Lomond yielded a T6 so a return to the home of golf might just see his 'A' game come to the fore.
Off on a slight tangent, an interesting physical profile of recent winners has developed.
Warren, Paul Casey (twice), Emanuele Canonica, Miles Tunnicliff, Soren Kjeldsen and Pierre Fulke are all under six feet tall with the last quartet all quite stocky players. Maybe a diminutive frame and a compact swing to help battle the blustery conditions is a help so Molinari, who stands at 5-8, might just keep that particular trend going.