Find Me A 100 Winner: Four picks for the Players' Championship

Find Me A 100 Winner / Paul Krishnamurty / 05 May 2009 / Leave a Comment

Paul Krishnamurty agrees that the Players' Championship is in fact the fifth Major and will be treating it as such by making four picks this week. First of all, he hopes Davis shows him some Love.

The debate will continue to rage about whether TPC at Sawgrass really is the '5th Major', or indeed whether it is a better tournament than some of the other four. Personally, as a punter, I prefer this to the USPGA and in some respects, the Masters. There are very few tournaments where the in-running betting is more exciting and volatile, due to the dramatic swings seen on the last two perilous holes. So while in a normal week, I would only make the one pick for this column, I've decided to opt for major rules and pick four.

First up, Masters play-off loser Chad Campbell is huge at [100.0]. That seems a massive over-reaction to a disappointing effort at Quail Hollow last week; a course where he'd never previously prospered. In contrast, Sawgrass has looked a positive set-up for Chad in the past. He's twice made the top-10 from six outings, and tends to appreciate the extra emphasis on hitting greens in regulation. That effort at Augusta was no fluke; Campbell is a good player of tough courses and I reckon he'll break that major duck one day. If he doesn't, a win here would be a fine consolation.

Sawgrass is very much a course that takes some knowing, and no place for a novice. As recently as 2005, Fred Funk won this in his late forties, and there are usually several of the old guard on the first few pages of the leaderboard here. With this in mind, I reckon a couple of former champions are worth an interest; Davis Love and Fred Couples.

If only he can get the putter working, [110.0] chance Love is still a big threat at the highest level. Its only six months since he won on the PGA Tour, and he's been on the fringes of contention throughout for his last two top-25 finishes. Love's last fifteen visits to Sawgrass have produced two titles, in 1992 and 2003, plus four other top-10s. Hopefully, familiarity can bring about the improvement required in his putting that would make him a very obvious candidate.

Couples is a crazy price at [270.0] given his course track record and sound recent form. I tipped Couples in this column last year, and he gave us a good run for our money in 15th place after spending the first two days bang in contention. Like his good friend Love, Freddie has won this event twice before, in 1984 and 1996, as well as registering several other high finishes. And having twice finished 3rd recently in top-class events at Riviera and Redstone, Couples looks as competitive as he has for several years.

Finally Pat Perez is no forlorn hope at [250.0]. Having finally won his maiden PGA title at the Bob Hope Classic, Perez seems to be moving forward in his career. Prior to a couple of predictably poor efforts on unsuitable courses at Augusta and Quail Hollow, he finished 4th behind Tiger at Bay Hill. Perez has also prospered at Sawgrass before, finishing 3rd in 2006.