Alfred Dunhill Links Championship

Alfred Dunhill Links Championship October 5th thru 8th
Old Course St. Andrews, Carnoustie & Kingsbarns, Scotland

last years winner Tyrrell Hatton [-23] with tied 2nd Ross Fisher & Richard Stern [-19] and 4th Joakim Lagergrin [-17]

obviously Rory McIlroy the favorite @ 11-2  and rightly so with a strong [-17] 2nd last week @ Close House. HE'S BACK!!!. he WINS the tourney IF Paul 'Young Gun" Dunne does NOT shoot a final round [-9] for tourney [-20] for his first ever Euro Tour WIN

other favorites, last years winner by four shots Tyrrell Hatton, Tommy Fleetwood and Shane "Fat Baztard" Lowry all @ 20-1. recent European Masters winner [-14] playoff] "The Matthew Mouse" Fitzpatrick is @ 25-1 while last weeks winner Paul Dunne, Lee Westwood and Chris Wood are all @ 28-1 @ William-Hill

had three players "break their maiden" the last three tourneys. Romain Wattel @ KLM, Lucas Bjerregaard @ Portugal Masters and young Paul Dunne @ British Masters last week. COULD it be a week for a Callum Shinkwin (2nd Scottish Open [-13] playoff) @ 100-1 OR Canadian kid Austin Connelly (2nd KLM [-14]) @ 125-1 to break thru ??? also my Aussie Scott Hend (2nd European Masters [-14] playoff) @ 100-1. my Duke Blue Devil and Made in Denmark winner @ [-19] Julian Suri @ 60-1 back playing this week after some time off. he is currently #67 in Race to Dubai points and needs a strong tourney here to get back into the Top 60

other "to win" bets I chanced this week are last year winner Tyrrell Hatton @ 20-1 with Jordan L Smith, Fabrizio Zanotti, Florian Fritsch and Joakim Lagergren all @ 80-1

ave bet just one tourney match play so far with "The Matthew Mouse" Fitzpatrick even over Branden "Dis"-Grace. "The Mouse" with tied 11th last week [-11] @ Close House GC and WON the European Masters @ Crans-Montana [-14] playoff his last two. "Dis"-Grace been playing a somewhat limited mostly PGA schedule this season with CUT his last @ US PGA. best finish tied for 6th @ British Open [-4] where he had a 3rd round [-8] "bomber"

leaning Tyrrell Hatton -125 over Shane Lowry @ Westgate and  -115 over Tommy Fleetwood @ William-Hill. Ty "wicked close" his last two with tied for 3rd @ European Masters [-11] and tied for 8th last week [-12] where he had the 2nd round lead [-12] and was tied for 2nd going into Sunday [-11] he opened -110 over Lowry @ Westgate, went to -105 BUT I waited to see William-Hill match plays. by the time THEY came out, Ty had been "bopped" to his current -125 and I did NOT want to "chase"

also leaning last weeks winner Paul Dunne -110 over Chris Wood , Eddie Pepperell -110 over Joost Luiten, Graeme Storm even over Richard Stern, George Coetzee -120 over Martin Kaymer and Thorbjorn Olesen even over Lee Westwood but have NOT "pull the trigger" on any yet

Rat

Ya that is why "Stormy" and "Young Gun" Dunne are just NO bet "leans" for me. "Stormy" really could NOT finish last week when he was "in range" final round and I have seen "maiden" winners like Dunne really NOT focused their next tourney

agree with ANY "fade" of "Dis"-Grace. I got "The Matthew Mouse" over him BUT the Tommy match up is WAY too expensive for me @ -150

Fife Weather Thursday: some overnight rain. mostly sunny during the day with winds from the west to northwest 15 mph early increasing to 20 mph in the afternoon. temp 46F early warming to 55F in afternoon. throw in the rain showers supposedly coming Friday & Saturday and you have typical fall Scottish Links weather

"Young Gun" Dunne on a RUN!!! WIN last week @ British Masters and opens Alfred Dunhill Links with a [-5] tied with Nicky Colsaerts for the lead. defending champion Tyrrell Hatton with four others one shot back

AND I'm already behind early in my only match play with "The Matthew Mouse" opening [+1] to "Dis"-Grace [-2]

it looks like Chris Wood did NOT start. NOT on the leaderboard but haven't seen any official news

Oh and looks like BOTH Callum Shinkwin [+4] AND Austin Connelly [+9] were "Wile E Coyote, Super Genius" picks. the "hot maiden" this week might be my Kiwi Ryan Fox in the [-4] group after 1st round. naturally I thought his 60-1 this week did NOT have any "value" after I had bet him every damn tourney since the Open de France. LONG hitter and played BOTH Irish AND Scottish Opens well on links courses (I'm a dummy)

no rain and light winds forecast for Friday (BUT it IS Scotland)

WOW!!! Tommy Fleetwood with the "bomber" [-9] 2nd round to TIE Tyrrell Hatton [-7] for the lead @ [-11]

Belgian Nicky Colsaerts having his best tourney in awhile in 3rd with a [-5] for tourney [-10] with Paul "Young Gun" Dunne [-4] and the German Marcel Siem (2nd Paul Lawrie match Play this season) [-6] tied for 3rd @ [-9] Swede Joakim Lagergren @ "to win" 80-1 (4th here last year) tied for 6th with four others [-8]

NO cut after 36 holes in this event. instead the cut comes after the 3rd round with top 60 pros and top 20 pro-am teams advancing to the final round. that way everyone gets a shot at each of the three courses in the competition

my boy "The Matthew Mouse" better Friday with [-4] for tourney [-3] BUT still two back of "Dis"-Grace [-3] for [-5]

Tommy's 9 birdie, NO bogie [-9] 63 @ Carnoustie a new course record. Ty Hatton [-7] also on that course Friday. both play Kingsbarns Saturday

Saturday forecast for an occasional rain shower with winds from the west @ 12 mph increasing to 18 mph late afternoon

well "boom goes the dynamite" Saturday @ Kingsbarn. Tyrell Hatton with another [-7] for tourney [-18] and a FIVE shot lead over Frenchman Gregory Bourdy. "Young Gun" Dunne solo 3rd @ [-11]. hopefully Ty cruises Sunday for the repeat tourney WIN

AND after his record [-9] @ Carnoustie, Tommy Fleetwood "blew up" with a [+4] for [-7] and gets knocked down to tied 18th

"The Matthew Mouse" [-4] for tourney [-7] and a two shot lead over "Dis"-Grace [even] for [-5] going into Sunday. hopefully Fitzpatrick can hang on

WOW just WOW!!! Ross "The Fish" Fisher with a [-11] 61 for a new course record @ The Old Course on Sunday. he gets 2nd @ [-21] to Tyrrell Hatton [-6] for [-24] who repeats as Alfred Dunhill Links champion. the Frenchman Victor Dubuisson also with a "bomber" [-9] fomal round to grab solo 3rd @ [-17]. "Dubbie's" best finish in a LONG time. Paul "Young Gun" Dunne with a final [-2] for [-13] to tie for 7th. he was #12 in Race for Dubai and could move into the Top 10

TWO course records set in this tourney. Fisher's final round @ The Old Course AND Fleetwood's 2nd round @ Carnoustie

thank goodness "The Matthew Mouse" ended up [-4] for [-11] with "Dis"Grace [-3] for [-8] to WIN that matchplay

all in all my BEST tourney in awhile with the Hatton the outright WIN and the Fitzpatrick over Grace match play payoff

next week the Italian Open @ Golf Club Milano in Italy, which is one of this years Rolex Series $7 million dollar "big bucks" tourneys. last years winner Italian Francesco "The Mole" Molinari [-22] with Danny Willett 2nd [-21] on this same course

thank you, sacker17. gonna be TWO "International" tourneys this week with Italian Open AND the CIMB Classic in  Kuala Lampur, Malaysia. that kind of "splits" the top player field this week with Rahm, Molinari and other Euro Tour "usual suspects" in Italy while Justin Thomas, Matsuyama, "Salt" Pieters, "Dis"-Grace and the "Poulter-geist" in Malaysia. BOTH are "big bucks" tourneys. waiting for the books to list "to win" and tourney match plays for both

OOP!!! forgot to mention Sergio Garcia playing Italy this week along with the "Rahm-a-lama Ding Dong" and "The Mole" and the Euro Tour "name" players like Noren, Fleetwood, Hatton, Fitzpatrick, Wiesberger, Ross Fisher and Danny Willett along with recent tour winners "Young Gun" Dunne, Lucas Bjerregaard, Romain Wattel and Julian Suri