Find me a 100 winner - Ryuji Imada

Find Me A 100 Winner / Paul Krishnamurty / 09 October 2007 / Leave a Comment

Accurate Japanese has the all-important attribute - a red-hot putter

Of the three events this week, without question the one most likely to yield a big-priced winner is the Frys.com Open on the PGA Tour. This pro-am has a long history of producing shock winners, with four of the last five winners starting in triple figures. In fact, Andre Stolz and Wes Short started close to the maximum odds of 1000 on Betfair when registering their first PGA Tour successes, while Troy Matteson and Phil Tataurangi's breakthrough wins also showed this is one event where inexperience is no great handicap.

For me, the best triple-figure value lies with Japanese player Ryuji Imada at 130. Imada is one of the most likely players to break their PGA Tour duck soon, having so nearly opened his account at Sugarloaf earlier this summer in the AT&T Classic. He comes here in decent form, having registered top-25 finishes in two of his last three events amongst ultra-competitive fields in Fedex Cup play-off events. A repetition of that level of form would make him a serious contender in this much weaker field.

If there is one essential attribute on these easy, resort courses it is a hot putter. In this area, only Chris Riley ranks higher than Imada over the past six months. Imada seems to be at his best when playing this kind of target golf, and most encouragingly has proved before that he enjoys the acquired taste of pro-am golf. His last win came three years ago in the Nationwide Tour in such an event, the BMW Charity Pro-Am at the Cliffs.