Westwood looks to defend in Spain
IN: News | European PGA | Open de Andalucia (2008) | Preview | by Bruce Young | 27 Mar 2008
The MAPFRE Open de AndalucÃa by Valle Romano is the first European Tour event in continental Europe for season 2008 and with several in-form players heading the list of potential winners, the event promises to be stronger than in its inaugural staging last year.
This week’s venue, the Aloha Golf Club on the south coast of Spain, is a layout built in 1975 by the Spanish golf course architect, Javier Arana, featuring greens with cool season grasses and Bermuda fairways.
Lee Westwood will defend the title he won by two over Philip Archer and Frederik Andersson Hed last year and with Westwood in even better form now than he was then. Since his run of brilliant form earlier in the season Westwood has played in the US and although not quite as sharp, the competition has been generally stronger and overall his form is much stronger than it was when he won last year.
Germany’s Martin Kaymer is back from Doral after an indifferent week but if he is able to recapture the form that saw him win in Abu Dhabi then he has a chance.
Johan Edfors is back to his best in recent weeks and is more than capable of winning this event. He has had four top tens in six starts this year and has been twice 5th in his last three starts.
Miguel Angel Jimenez and Anders Hansen both played well last week in a much stronger field than that they will face this week when they performed with credit at the WGC-CA event in Florida. Jimenez played here last year and finished 24th.
Matthew Millar, who was 10th in the Madeira Islands event last week and Gareth Paddison are the only two Australasians in the field at present.
