Jake Roos is a genuine threat at the Lyoness Open in Austria
Thursday 11 June 2015 06:51, UK
David John is siding with South Africa's Jake Roos for this week's Lyoness Open in Austria on the European Tour.
With the US Open just around the corner, it is no surprise to see little strength in depth for this week's Lyoness Open in Austria but there are a couple of interesting angles at the head of the market.
Hot favourite is local hero Bernd Wiesberger, who gave the galleries here what they were looking for back in 2012 and perhaps should have doubled his trophy tally 12 months ago only to be mugged by a 40-foot birdie putt by Mikael Lundberg in extra time.
Wiesberger is set to go off at 11/2 and he could quite easily blow this lot away if continuing in the same sort of form he has shown this season which has seen him record five top-six finishes from nine starts on the European Tour.
Whether your betting strategy is to get stuck into a short-priced one like Wiesberger or look to take him on, the bottom line is that he deserves plenty of respect and in all probability he will give it another very good shot.
Richie Ramsay is a 16/1 chance and an event of this nature is well within his compass too. He has already tasted success in 2015 in Morocco and the layers are starting to get pretty wise to the fact he will contend when he turns up for one of these middle-tier tournaments.
He looked poised for a big day in Ireland recently with conditions to suit but was surprisingly blown off course with a closing 77 - yet you still get the feeling he is in very decent nick. Throw in the fact that he needs a win and results elsewhere to go in his favour to make the top 60 in the world rankings and qualify for the US Open then the redoubtable Scot has plenty of motivation to make a big push for glory.
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There is plenty of form in Austria to take a look at with an event staged on the Challenge Tour as well and with that in mind, I quite like the look of South African rookie Jake Roos.
Roos has won six times on the Sunshine Tour in his homeland and two victories on the Challenge Tour in 2014 ensured he earned his playing rights for this season on the big stage.
He has not made the quickest start to be honest but there have been one or two signs over the last month or so that he could be running into some form with a T13 in Mauritius and a couple of rounds in the 60s in very tough conditions at Royal County Down.
Roos has some experience of this layout having played twice and posted a creditable top-20 12 months ago while another venture out in Austria saw him secure a T4 in the 2014 Karnten Golf Open.
One of his wins last year came in Germany so for whatever reason, Roos seems quite at home playing his golf in central Europe. With temperatures set to hit 90C this should feel even more like an event at the peak of the season back home and Roos makes plenty of appeal at a big price to add his name to the roll of honour of South Africans who have done so well already this season.
France's Gary Stal has not done a huge amount since his amazing breakthrough victory in Abu Dhabi earlier in the year but he is a past winner in Austria and a return to the country might just help him rediscover some form.
That success in the desert will forever be remembered for Martin Kaymer's implosion having been 10 shots clear at one stage in the final round but Stal went about his business in a quietly impressive manner for someone who had not been under that sort of pressure when the opportunity presented itself.
Bar a top five the following week in Dubai, Stal has produced a number of missed cuts and a lot of high scores but deserves another chance at 50/1 in this company bearing in mind this country was the scene of his first victory on the Challenge Tour and he quickly followed up in neighbouring Switzerland.
As mentioned, Stal's recent form is far from ideal and a bit of a sticking point but like Ramsay, he is a cut above the majority of this field and a chance is taken that he can get back in the groove and step up on last year's T25.
A final selection goes to John Hahn from the United States, who seems to be on an upward curve at the moment and can make his presence felt at 150/1.
Hahn is taking his first look at the course and is mixing his schedule this year between the main and Challenge tours so will have to grab the opportunities at this level when they present themselves.
He managed to shoot a ridiculous 58 at the Qualifying School last November but still failed to secure his card but he has shown over the last couple of years playing in Europe that he has the ability to compete and potentially make the breakthrough in the same way as Brooks Kopeka and Peter Uihlein.
Hahn posted a T4 recently in the Czech Republic and last week's top 25 at the Nordea Masters was pretty eyecatching with plenty of birdies mixed in with the understandable errors in the testing conditions.
It remains to be seen whether not seeing the course competitively before is a disadvantage but I don't think Hahn is too far away from a really good performance which can establish him on the European Tour as a regular fixture.
