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April 23rd-26th 2009
Next Tournament:
Steve Bamford’s Quail Hollow Championship Tips
Marking Your Card gives some fascinating insight into this week’s Charlotte, North Carolina based tournament. History suggests that this traditional ‘classic’ of a course, brings the very best out of the world’s top players, who dominate the Top 3 placings over the past 4 seasons. Comments from players suggest that the Quail Hollow course is a US Open / PGA Championship course in waiting. Certain holes are similar to Augusta, with long irons, into undulating and fast greens. The Par 3s are extremely tough where Par is a decent return. The Par 4s and Par 5s are mostly dog leg in nature, but unlike Augusta are split between lefts and rights.
Greens are likely to be extremely fast, with long irons leaving uphill putts a key to success. My strategy this week encapsulates maximising value available from a mix of our predictor positive players who are in the World Top 25.
My tips are below:
Jim Furyk 1pt EW @ 35-1 Sportingbet. Jim’s form is very inconsistent this year. He either misses the cut or contends with absolutely nothing in-between. On the positive side Furyk ranks 8th in this week’s predictor model and his best results in 2009 have come at the ‘serious’ tournaments, where he contended at both the WGC CA and The Masters. Quail Hollow and its traditional nature suit Furyk’s make-up and 35-1 is too tempting.
Vijay Singh 1pt EW @ 50-1 General. You can’t argue with the 50-1 price on offer for Vijay given his terrible start to 2009. Singh was the best player on the planet at the end of 2008, but had to have knee surgery in the winter and has been a poor imitation of the world Top 5 player he truly is. His form at The Masters suggested a corner has been turned and I’m predicting that the World No8 whose driving and iron play is still decent in 2009, will start to drop some putts at one of his favourite courses this week.
Sean O’Hair 1pt EW @ 50-1 Bwin. For me the most improved player in 2009 with Nick Watney. He currently sits 22nd in the World Golf Rankings. O’Hair is long enough off the tee and can shape the ball both ways so has the armoury to compete at Quail Hollow this week. Previous course form is nothing to write home about, but O’Hair is a completely different animal to the player he was back in 2005-07.
Ben Curtis 0.5pt EW @ 100-1 Bwin. The Ohio based player isn’t your typical American PGA Tour player. Forget the West Coast and Florida swings, they simply don’t suit him. He’ll never compete at tracks like Doral because he can’t make enough birdies. Curtis starts to play well on tough traditional courses and that’s why his ‘major’ record in so positive. Look at his British Open, US PGA and Tour Championship results across his career. In contention at Quail Hollow last year and I see no reason why he can’t be in the mix in 2009.
Lucas Glover 1.5pts T10 @ 8/1 Totesport. Time for a ride on the ‘enigma’ that is Lucas Glover. Brilliant and awful in equal measure, the South Carolina resident’s game could be made especially for Quail Hollow. That’s why he ranks 9th in our predictor model this week. Long off the tee, a great long iron player, who can make heaps of birdies, the risk and reward nature of this week’s tournament, could see Mr Glover in the higher echelons of the leaderboard.
Steve Flesch 1.5pts T10 @ 12/1 Bet365. Flesch and Curtis are similar animals as they both come alive on the harder classic type courses. 6th at Augusta three weeks ago; backed up his 5th there in 2008. Remember Quail Hollow is US PGA-esque and Flesch managed 6th at Oakland Hills last year as well. He hasn’t missed a cut here in the last 5 tournaments held here and I like his chances this week.
PW's tips:
Tiger versus the field once again this week for many punters. 100/30 is a little skinny for my liking so I've once again swerved Woods and taken him out of the equation:
Vijay Singh 2pts EW 40-1 (W/O Woods) General. There was something about Singh that I liked at the Masters...I actually saw him make a few putts from 5-10 feet. If he can maintain that then there's no reason why he won't be striding up the 18th with Tiger on Sunday night now that his knee is better and his game is getting back to shape.
Steve Marino 1pt EW 75-1 (W/O Woods) Bet 365. Improving and course will suit his game this week.
Some long-hitting long shots, all 0.5pts ew in the W/O Woods market: Bubba Watson, 175-1 Paddy Power; Scott Piercy 150-1 General; Jeff Overton 125-1 General.
Finally, following on from last week's shock First Round Leader place, I'm backing Eric Axley at 0.5pts EW (300-1 Bet 365) to repeat that again at Quail Hollow.
