Maybank Championship preview

Side with Westy at a price

The second outing of the Maybank Championship goes this week, with the action getting underway on Thursday afternoon, live on Sky Sports. Coral have laid on a feast of betting markets to hold your interest throughout, including outright winner, for punters bold enough to pick the champion.

Marcus Fraser won the first-ever staging of this competition last year when handing in a card reading 15 under-par. The Australian doesn’t have a hope of retaining that honour this time out however, if our sports traders are to be taken at their word, with a massive 66/1 currently doing the rounds.

Fraser may not win it, but the market seems at a loss to nail down a guaranteed victor, with Charl Schwartzel and Rafael Cabrera-Bello travelling to Saujana Golf and Country Club, Kuala Lumper as joint-favourites. We are giving 12/1 on both players, which is sure to catch the attention of value-hunters.

Westwood worth a wager

We will bypass the shorter prices however and throw our weight behind Lee Westwood’s charge. The 43-year-old Englishman hasn’t shown his best golf for a while now and, granted, he is approaching the end of his career at the top of the game, but it would take a brave punter to put a line through his name, given the form shown previously in this part of the world.

Westwood has already tasted success at this course, and has no lack of winner’s cheques banked on the Asian Tour either. It is his proven ability to handle the challenges here – winning the Malaysian Open back in 1997 – that will separate him from the pack. There’s a lot of uncertainty, with this being a fairly new competition, but I am confident going in on Westwood’s experience will pay-off.