The Players Championship Tips

Steve Bamford’s The Players Championship

It’s the fifth ‘major’ this week at TPC Sawgrass. After last week’s Quail Hollow triumph let’s aim to keep up the momentum.

TPC Sawgrass is a very unique Pete Dye design, where water, wind and a balanced course challenge the PGA Tour. As our unmissable Marking Your Card feature highlights this week, short iron play is the absolute key here. The Par 3s here are probably the toughest in world golf and inaccuracy is brutally punished.

Par is a great score at most holes here, so experience and patience is the key.

My tips are below:

Jim Furyk 1pt EW @ 40-1 Stan James (6 Places) After last week’s good performance the bookmakers have added 5 points to Furyk’s price this week! He was a 20-1 shot last year so 40-1 offers superb value. TPC Sawgrass is all about consistency and grinding out a round. Jim lives next door, plays the course regularly and is a decent wind player. Furyk fits the bill perfectly this week and rates highly in our Players Predictor Model.

Luke Donald 1pt EW @ 45-1 Bet365 (5 Places) When you want consistency Luke no further than this player! In superb form at the moment and ready for his first win on tour. Donald is accurate from tee to green and a superb ball striker. Likes Pete Dye designed courses and listed both in our Players Predictor Model and Marking Your Card.

Stewart Cink 0.75pt EW @ 110-1 Stan James (6 Places) What happened over the winter to Stewart Cink? From one of the best players on the PGA Tour in 2008, his form has seriously slipped in 2009. However that creates value and the old phrase “form is temporary class is permanent” is perfect for Cink. Plays TPC Sawgrass well and finished 3rd here in 2007. The slump has to end soon, so lets hope it’s here.

Fred Couples 0.75pt EW @ 150 -1 Stan James (6 Places) How can you not like Fred Couples? He’s an absolute god to our ‘long shot king’ tipster Paul Williams and I’m starting to see why. Placed in the Top 10, 4 times here, Couples game suits. Lightly ‘raced’ in 2009 and when he comes to play he still contends at the top of the leaderboard.

Scott Verplank 1.5pts Top 10 @ 9-1 Bet 365 We like Verplank at Golf Betting towers. Learnt to play golf in Texas and Oklahoma so is an extremely wind positive player. So at tournaments where the course requires accuracy and where wind is a factor, Scott is usually in the mix.

Jeff Klauk 1.5pts T10 @ 14/1 Bet365 List your top 3 rookies of 2009 and I’d guess Scott Piercy, Webb Simpson and Jeff Klauk would be the most mentioned players. Klauk is a Ponte Vedra, Florida native. So what? Well his dad used to be course superintendent here and tee announcer. TPC Sawgrass is very much Klauk’s home course so he knows every blade of grass here. Form? Well the Honda Classic just down the coast, played in April is a very similar set up to Sawgrass and Klauk placed 4th.

PW's tips:

With the world's elite taking part we have some incredible prices available for a number of players who could go well. My suggestion is to take 1 point ew on the following 4 players:

Briny Baird 110-1 Stan James (6 places). 4th Last year, 2nd at the Heritage last time out. Game will definitely suit, looking much more solid with his new putting style. I like his chances a lot here.

Tim Petrovic 125-1 Bet 365. In the best form of all players over the last 3 tournaments, can build on his T-15 last year.

Bubba Watson 125-1 Stan James (6 places). Outstanding last week, his left-hand power fades will reduce these par 5's to a drive and short iron. If he holds his form on the par 3s and 4s from last week he'll go very, very close.

Fred Couples 150-1 Stan James (6 places). Played this 17 times, 4 top 10s and a win - coupled (pun intended) with his great form this season I can see him delivering another profitable week for GBS.

Add to those a couple of longer punts:

Jeff Quinney 0.5pts ew 200-1 Stan James (6 places). 3rd and 6th here in his only 2 starts. Current form is rubbish, then again it was similarly bad before last year's tournament.

Briny Baird 0.5pts ew 80-1 First Round Leader Stan James (6 Places). Often starts quickly - worth a small punt here.