Weekly golf betting guides

With two main events this week Golf Monthly looks at the main players and odds in the golf betting markets with prices from Ladrokes.

Africa Open golf betting:

Main players:

Charl Schwartzel

The joint favourite is 5/1 in a relatively weak field and the defending champion warrants such a short price after his -20 last year. Has shown signs of form of late and should be there or thereabouts come Sunday afternoon.

Retief Goosen

Along with the above, he's the star attraction in the field. Just lost out to Ernie Els before Christmas so form is no concern.

Louis Oosthuizen

Open champion he may be but Louis is by no means a prolific winner. Nonetheless he's striking the ball well and if the putter gets going expect the little man to contend from the off.

Thomas Aiken

From 8/1 on Louis, it's then a 16/1 jump to Aiken. He's in that next bracket of class in this event but with the above 'Big 3' in the field it's hard to make too much of a case for anyone else.

Chris Wood

Wood is 33/1 in the betting but he fell ill at the end of last year and after the Christmas break we wonder just how on song he'll be. 

Robert Rock

Rock has his moments but he seems to struggle when it comes to getting the job done. Always worth an each-way bet but you'll get better odds of 20/1 on him at other times this season.

Advised bets:

2pts each-way on Darren Clarke at 33/1 The Ulsterman will be keen to get off to a flyer in 2011. He may not have won since 2008 but we think a big year is due for Clarke who is still firecely competitive.

3pts win on Charl Schwarzel at 5/1. Charl gets the nod from the 'Big 3' as he was starting to strike the ball well before Christmas. Backing a defending champion is tough but he was so impressive here last year it seems set up perfectly for the defence.