Okay, okay, you can all stop making the phone calls of appreciation and slipping us those brown envelopes for tipping Thomas Bjorn (at odds of 25 to 1) to win the Spanish Open last week. To those who laughed at our advice, we'll simply say, "oh ye of little faith".

Anyway, the circus moves on to Milan this week for the Italian Open and some more of the big guns rejoin the European Tour after spending most of March and April on the other side of the Atlantic. Lee Westwood and Darren Clarke are among the more notable returnees to the fray, and both rejoin the action with considerably more American greenbacks in their pockets than when they left these shores.

The Italian Open was last played at Castelconturbia in 1991 when Craig Parry won, so that's no guide to this week's tournament. The form horses, so to speak, are undoubtedly Jose Maria Olazabal (7 to 1 favourite, again!!), Westwood (8 to 1) and both Bjorn and Clarke, who are available at 16 to 1 apiece. All are worthy of consideration, but a better value bet could be Sweden's Robert Karlsson, who is on offer at 25 to 1. Karlsson shot a final round 64 in Barcelona and appears to be rediscovering his top form. For each-way value, David Carter at 50 to 1 represents good odds.

7-1: Jose Maria Olazabal (Sp).

8-1: Lee Westwood (Eng).

16-1: Thomas Bjorn (Denmark), Darren Clarke.

20-1: Eduardo Romero (Arg), Retief Goosen (SA).

25-1: Miguel Angel Martin (Sp), Robert Karlsson (Swe), Robert Allenby (Aus), Andrew Coltart (Scot).

40-1: Mark James (Eng), Ignacio Garrido (Sp), Greg Turner (NZ), Patrik Sjoland (Swe), Phillip Price (Wal), Alex Cejka (Ger), G Chalmers (Aus).

50-1: Padraig Harrington, Sven Struver (Ger), Clinton Whitelaw (Aus), Michael Jonzon (Swe), Stephen Leaney (Aus), Sam Torrance (Scot), Peter Baker (Eng), David Carter (Eng), Angel Cabrera (Arg).

66-1: Paul McGinley.

Prices supplied courtesy of Ladbrokes Ireland.