The Carlsberg Scandinavian Masters Betting Preview

The European Tour ventures further north into Sweden for The Carlsberg Scandinavian Masters, and this year the course they are using is the Kingsangen Course in Stockholm. As usual the Scandinavians will fight like their forefathers to keep the trophy, and we'll be looking at the Swedish challenge in detail especially. The strong favourite and the "big" name in the line up is Adam Scott at 9/2 with Stan James. Mark Hensby is second favourite at 12's. For the past three years the Masters has been played on the Barseback in Malmo, so we have to go back to 2002 for the most recent course form at Kingsangen. That year Irishman Graeme McDowell won by a shot from Trevor Immelman. Neither play this week. In the Top Ten that year were some notables though. Third was Henrick Bjornstad and joint 6th were Niclas Fasth, and Adam Scott. The 2000 event was also played at Kingsangen and it was Lee Westwood who picked up the Trophy, with Michael Campbell finishing runner-up, and Robert Russell in 3rd. Only Russell competes this week. Adam Scott is a previous winner having won at The Barseback in 2003 and was 6th in Kingsangen in 2002. He obviously has an affinity with the event, as his girlfriend is Swedish. The other man on everyone's lips will be Niclas Fasth at 18/1. He won last week in Hamburg to end a drought, so he'll be in the groove on his home turf. He has to be a big runner here. The crowds are always large and patriotic. They'll be a big help to him this week. They'll also be cheering on a mass of Scandinavian and especially Swedish players. None of these are exactly setting the golfing alight at the moment but anyone of them could win this. Hendrik Stenson (20's), Jesper Parnevik (25's), Peter Hedblom (28's) P-U-Johansson (50's), Patrik Sjoland (150's), Pierre Fulke (80's), Peter Hanson (33's), Christopher Hanell (175's) and Joakim Haeggman (40's)One look at the field will tell you a story. A lot of the leading players are ducking this event, so the likelihood of a Scandinavian lifting the trophy is a very real one. If you don't think it will be a Swede, then you could do worse than to opt for these. Henrik Bjornstad of Norway came third here in 2003, and the Danish pairing of Anders and Soren Hansen always do credibly here. Stan James have a host of markets on the event and it is being covered live on Sky Sports. Good Luck.