Yates - worth a wager.

By Dave Tindall

Sky Bet's Odds Compare All Prices

BETTING BOX
FIXED ODDS
	1pt e.w. Simon Yates at 80/1 (totesport, Betfred 1/4 1,2,3,4,5).	Asian Tour regular led after 54 holes here in 2006 and is in fine form.
	1pt e.w. Jose Manuel Lara at 50/1 (General 1/4 1,2,3,4,5).	Good finish in Mallorca last time suggests he can make a bold defence of his title.
	1pt e.w. Thomas Bjorn at 35/1 (bet365, VC Bet 1/4 1,2,3,4,5).	Dane has the game for this course and is coming back into form again.

European golfers have won the last eight runnings of the Hong Kong Open - a decent stat for those of us looking to oppose market leaders Mike Weir, KJ Choi and Retief Goosen.

The trio come into the event in varying degrees of form. Weir arrives fresh from a morale-boosting win in the Fry's Electronics Open but Choi has gone off the boil of late while Goosen is still scratching around trying to find his best.

Choi was second here two years ago which is a plus but this is Weir's debut while Goosen missed the cut on his only appearance last year.

Favourites have done well here in recent years but this trio are hardly screaming to be backed on a course where past experience has proved vital.

So what is needed at the short but difficult par 70 Fanling course?

The pre-tournament press interviews of defending champion Jose Manuel Lara and recent US Tour winner Daniel Chopra offer some good advice.

Lara revealed: "You have to know the greens. They are very tough, quite hilly, and if you miss them, then it is very difficult to get up and down because of the Bermuda grass around the greens.

"Putting is very important here. Last year my putter worked well, especially in the first three rounds. If you can hole your putts, then that is the key.

"The advantage for me is that I know the course, it's my fifth year playing here and I know how to play it."

Chopra added: "The course itself represents a huge challenge. It's one of those timeless courses where all the modern improvements in equipment don't really help you.

"You still have to manoeuvre the golf ball, you still have to move it in the air, you still have to control your distance and you have to hit it straight. It is still a shot-maker's course.

"It's very important to hit the fairway. And if you do miss the fairway, then it's important to play conservatively, hit the middle of the green and take your par. If you miss the green then you can end up in some very bad spots."

Not a course for bombers then.

The more I look at it the more it seems that Lara should go well again.

Last year's win ended a frustrating eight-year quest for a first European Tour success and on arriving back in Hong Kong, Lara said: "I love this place. We were flying in and I was saying to my caddy, 'Look at the buildings, look at the scenery.'

"It's a great city, very exciting. And, of course, it has a lot of great memories for me after my win last year. I'm very happy to be back."

A stress injury to his left foot has hampered Lara in the last 12 months but he returned to form with a seventh place in Mallorca last time when he improved his score each day, shooting 71-70-68-66.

Pula is also a short par 70 so it seems that he likes this sort of track and at 50/1 we'll back him to make a strong defence.

Thomas Bjorn finished 11th at Pula and followed that up with a ninth place in the Volvo Masters.

That return to form should alert Bjorn backers as the Dane has a fantastic record in Hong Kong and China.

Between 2003 and 2004 he reeled off six top fives in seven starts in the region and that run included a third here in 2003 and a fourth in 2004.

Bjorn remains a mercurial talent but he most definitely has the game for this course and he's worth chancing at 35/1.

There's certainly scope for backing those who did well in Shanghai last week as they should be nicely acclimatised.

The problem with that theory is that none of the top 10 finishers at the HSBC are making the shortish trip down to Hong Kong.

However, there is a player from the top 15 who lines up here and he just so happens to hold the course record at Fanling.

The man in question is Asian Tour regular Simon Yates.

The Scotsman was tied third at halfway last week before losing momentum but his tied 13th place in such a strong field was still a decent effort.

Yates can also boast two runners-up finishes in his last six Asian Tour starts so he's obviously in very good nick.

His appeal grows further when you consider that he was the 54-hole leader in this tournament two years ago.

Yates raced to the top of the leaderboard with a stunning third round 61 but, like many who go that low, he found that the magic had disappeared 24 hours later and his closing 75 left him down in 10th place.

Yates, who resides in Thailand, was also eighth in 1999 so his combination of course and current form suggests he's a good each-way punt at 80/1.

Soren Kjeldsen has a fourth and a sixth at this course in recent years and is in good form but the 28/1 is short enough while the same can be said of Simon Dyson, who won this event back in 2000 (has played pretty poorly here since) and lost a play-off at the Volvo Masters.

So we'll stick to our trio of Lara, Bjorn and Yates.