Golf expert Matt Cooper is backing Linn Grant to make a major breakthrough in this week’s Evian Championship.
Golf betting tips: Evian Championship
2pts e.w. Miyuu Yamashita at 22/1 (General 1/4 1,2,3,4,5)
2pts e.w. Linn Grant at 25/1 (General 1/5 1,2,3,4,5,6)
1pt e.w. Yuka Saso at 50/1 (General 1/5 1,2,3,4,5,6 )
1pt e.w. Jennifer Kupcho at 66/1 (General 1/4 1,2,3,4,5)
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It remains one of the great mysteries of the Open Championship that an undoubtedly great sporting event journeys to some exceptionally unlikely destinations.
Back in 2011 two Dutch colleagues attended their first Open and the contrast between their on-site excitement at Royal St George’s and horror at having a billet in Ramsgate was, unfortunately for them, a joy to behold. Not quite as remarkable as when, a year later, they walked into the media centre at Lytham to reveal they were staying in, and had experienced the darker side of, Blackpool.
As with Southport, home to Royal Birkdale, these are centres of tourism that have faded and for whom it is increasingly difficult to add the word “grandeur”.
This year I am making a circuitous route to the Open and it is one that has taken me to a resort whose splendour has not been diminished. Evian-les-Bains is every bit as wonderful as you might expect of a French spa town on the shores of Lake Geneva with an Alpine backdrop. It’s almost laughably lovely.
The Romans came here, so too did the Victorians and also the beautiful people of La Belle Epoque, tempted by the therapeutic properties of the springs. The golfers find the location and resort every bit as restful as those old-timers, but the course can be testing.
Seeing it first hand is quite an eye-opening experience. There are elevation changes and there are elevation plunges, especially in the walks between holes. The par-three second green sits in a tiny spot across the road from the rest of the course and on first acquaintance you cannot fathom where the tee is – it’s perched high up on the slopes among the trees. Many fairways tilt like the banking in a velodrome. And the range is a 10 minutes drive away.
Patience and serenity are invaluable qualities this week – yet a glance across the lake and around the resort will aide such feelings.
The tournament has been pushed up the schedule this year to accommodate the Paris Olympics and France’s own Celine Boutier is set for a remarkable few weeks in which she first defends the title she won in dominant style last year and then hunts down a podium finish.
She doesn’t make the staking plan, however. Instead YUKA SASO leads the team and for a pretty straightforward reason.
The 23-year-old won last month’s US Women’s Open in very solid fashion and it was her second triumph in that event. She has also finished second and third in the 19 majors that she has played which indicates her comfort when among elite company and chasing the wins that truly define a career.
Moreover, that third place came in this event last year when she spent the entire week inside the top six. So she’s a very fine major performer, who won a major last month and contended in this particular major last year. We can get 50/1 and that sounds great to me.
Might this be the week when Sweden’s LINN GRANT breaks through at major championship level?
Her season has taken quite a while to get going but when it did she burst through in exceptional style at the Scandinavian Mixed, posting a final-round 65 to win the event for a second time.
There’s absolutely no doubt that the triumph owed a lot to the collapse of her compatriot Sebastian Soderberg (and she won more admirers by being so empathetic about his experience in her television interview) but nonetheless she put her foot to the floor that day and kept it there. It was an assured effort.
She didn’t quite fire when ninth in the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship next time out and missed the cut in the pairs event two weeks ago, but she’s has good experience of Evian.
On her first visit for a low-level LET event she needed to learn about those angles but, once done, she closed with a 68 for T13. Two months later a final-round 64 in this championship grabbed eighth. In May 2023 she won that LET event by two shots and was then T16 in this event last August.
“I love the course, it’s beautiful,” she said back in 2022 but then added a key point about it, one typical of tricksy layouts: “You can score really well, but it’s also difficult if you’re having a bad day. You have to play it smart. You cannot be too greedy out there. Play to the big areas and don’t hunt difficult pins.”
Grant can make a run for the title at around the 25/1 mark.
Let’s take heed of a few players I’ve discounted. Nelly Korda has missed her last three cuts and I’m not sure her equipment is quite right – there was a lot of chat about it with a technician on the range today.
Atthaya Thitikul is back in form but her wrist is still strapped up – might the odd lies this week make it a little more uncomfortable? Georgia Hall landed shortly after me without her clubs, but they’ve caught up with her. Charley Hull pulled out with an injury last week and spent a mere few minutes on the range – apparently she’s having difficulty with her driver.
Ally Ewing is in terrific form at the moment, logging top-five finishes in her last two majors, and she’s enjoying the week by the lake with her mum. As much as she loves the location I’m wary that she’s yet to record a top 10 in seven starts. Were she 50/1 that’d be worth the risk but she’s 25/1 and left out.
Instead add MIYUU YAMASHITA who has played the event just the once and only finished T48 but did card a 67 in the third round. She’s also now in fantastic form and far more experienced in the majors.
Up until this year she’d only made that one start here plus finished T13 and T21 in the AIG Women’s Open. This year she has added debuts in the American majors finishing T17 in the Chevron Championship, T12 in the US Women’s Open and second in the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship last time out.
We’ll complete the set with JENNIFER KUPCHO.
I was tempted by Leona Maguire and yet, despite her carding a 61 in 2021, I’m not entirely sure she’s a fan of the course. Kupcho, on the other hand, was second on debut when inside the top 10 all week.
She made the cut in her next two starts and was then T14 last year with a final round 67. She scores in the 60s round here on a regular basis and this year arrives off the back of solid form that has been given a little dazzle by third in the Mizuho Americas Open in May and second last time out in the Dow Championship alongside Ewing.
Posted at 1610 BST on 09/07/24
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