Written by Stephen Moloney (www.twitter.com/TheCheeky9)

The birdies at the 3rd, 4th and 10th. The chip-in birdie at 14. The eagle at 16.

When it comes to playing back the highlight reel of Collin Morikawa’s breakthrough Major win at the PGA Championship, those moments above which saw him reach his title-winning score of -13 on Sunday will probably get the most airtime. Yet, as massive as those moments obviously were, the fact Collin currently has the novel problem of trying to find a plinth on which to store the Wanamaker in the midst of a pandemic is down to two pivotal par saves he made on the front 9 on Sunday – a 22 ft 6 in. putt on the opening hole after finding the greenside bunker and a 25 ft 9 in. MONSTER at the par 4 6th after finding trouble off-the-tee.

Like, in the grand scheme of things, those two clutch moments, really, won the PGA for Collin. I mean, for argument’s sake, let’s say he bogeys those two holes instead of making par, but plays the rest of his round in the exact same way – what score does he finish on? -11. And, as we know from how things played out, if he’d posted that score he’d have found himself entering the lottery of a playoff against Dustin Johnson and Paul Casey, a scenario that may not have led to him needing to warm up his rotator cuffs ahead of hoisting the beefy Wanamaker.

Now, however, with win number five of the season chalked up, a Major winner added to the ‘Hall of Champions’ and my brain giving out to me for staying up until three in the morning the past two nights, I, once again, turn my attention back to the European Tour for the fourth instalment of the UK Swing, the Celtic Classic, at the home of Europe’s 2010 Ryder Cup victory, Celtic Manor – the first such visit of a European Tour event since, amazingly, all the way back in 2014.

So, let’s get sleepily into it for this week’s rapidfire preview.

The Oracles’ Fourball

Gavin Green

In what will hopefully be the final amendment to this week’s preview, given I couldn’t be sure if Rasmus Højgaard was playing or not this week, I’m just going to go right ahead and slip Gavin Green into this week’s fourball instead. Though this week will see Gavin tee it up for only the second time since lockdown – he missed the cut at the English Championship last week by a shot on -4 – for a player of his talent and with his particular strengths, I just see Celtic Manor being a potentially really good fit for the 26-year old Malaysian.

I mean, given there’s a good chance we’ll see a bit of rain this week, with his length & accuracy off-the-tee (he’s both 17th in ‘Driving Distance’ & 12th in ‘Driving Accuracy’ on Tour), consistent iron play (he’s 30th in GIR % with a total of 72.86%) and the fact he’s more-than-proficient on the greens (he’s 31st in ‘Average Putts per Round’ & 9th in ‘Stroke Average’), at a long course like the Twenty Ten – which might play even longer if it gets a bit soft and muggy – and that has four par 5’s for him to take advantage of with his length, Gavin could very quickly find himself in the running to capture the maiden European Tour Title he really should already have by now.

Lorenzo Gagli

When I was doing my preview for the Betfred British Masters a few weeks ago, I’d filled in an entire section of that week’s ‘Oracles’ Fourball’ on why I thought Lorenzo Gagli’s solid finishes of T-25 & T-9 at the two Austrian events back in July,  his accuracy off-the-tee and his healthy GIR % (73.14%) would bode well for him at Close House … and then I realised that he wasn’t actually in the field that week.

However, given that Lorenzo will be in Wales this week, following his more-than-solid showing at the English Championship where he shot in the 60’s all four days and posted -11 for the week (a total that in the previous two legs of the UK Swing would have seen him bag two top 10’s as opposed to the somewhat underwhelming T-34 it did at the weekend), I can see his steady type of game playing well at Celtic Manor, as you’d have to imagine the Twenty Ten Course will present the field with the toughest test of the UK Swing so far.

Laurie Canter

Having originally published this preview with Robert Rock in this slot, only to then discover that he is now no longer playing this week, I’m quickly subbing in Laurie Canter in Rock’s stead – and because it is rapidly approaching my lunchtime, I’m going to make my case for why I’m picking him nice and quick.

Though probably not the most well-known of golfers on the European circuit, over the course of the UK Swing to-date the English Laurie has caught my attention quite frequently as a host of under-par rounds have seen him get up and around the top 10 of nearly all three tournaments since the Betfred British Masters. Now, unfortunately for Canter, these forays into the top 10 have only resulted in just the one top 10 finish over the course of the last three weeks (a T-10 at the Hero Open) as one or two rounds of not keeping up with the pace set by the leaders saw him clock up finishes of T-29 & T-34 at the Betfred British Masters & English Championship respectively.

Yet, given he’s decently straight off-the-tee (57.76% compared to the Tour average of 56%), one of the longer hitters on Tour (321.41 yards sees him 16th on Tour), hits a lot of greens (a GIR % of 74.15% sees him 18th on Tour) and that he’s shown he can go low on the greens over the last few weeks, Laurie Canter could well end up making himself a lot more well-known come Sunday afternoon in Wales.

Ryan Fox

In the six events he’d managed to play prior to lockdown, Ryan Fox had clocked up four top 30 finishes, a solo 2nd at the Handa Vic Open and missed just one cut – so, undoubtedly, nice solid playing. And since coming back from lockdown, the big-hitting New Zealander has seemingly slipped straight back into ‘competition mode’, as in the first three events of the UK Swing he’s finished T-8, T-15 & T-19 at the Betfred British Masters, Hero Open & English Championship respectively.

So with the weather looking as though it’s going to be quite wet for the week in Wales, with his distance off-the-tee (324.5 yards sees him 12th in ‘Driving Distance’ on the European Tour), consistent iron play (72.4% sees him 36th in ‘GIR %’), his ability to shape the ball up & down, and his solid putting (he’s 9th in ‘Stroke Average’), then with a potentially soft course and greens that might have some of the fire taken out of them, Fox could well pull out a big performance in Wales and deliver on the consistency he’s been displaying over the last three weeks.

Title Photo Credit: All Square Golf