Betfair Official Blog

Arnold Palmer Invitational: Tiger dominates the betting but look for long priced outsiders

Click here to view market

TQ can't shy away from the no. 1 at the big US event

The Bay Hill Country Club and Lodge is the venue for the next episode of 'The Tiger Woods Show'. We all thought he couldn't get any better when dominating proceedings back in 2000/2001 but it appears we were wrong! The Tiger Slam was the crowning glory for a man at the summit of the game but you can be sure that the new improved Tiger is now after the real thing - the 'Grand Slam'.

Tiger's schedule for a year is planned meticulously and the tournament at Bay Hill is one that he never misses. A lot will be made of his four wins on the bounce in this event from 2000 to 2003 and even more made of his abject failure in this tournament for the last four years. Whichever angle you wish to see if from, you have to remember that Tiger is a different beast to most and trends can mean very little where he is concerned.

You have three punting choices this week - back Tiger to win, find some juicy outsiders for good value or play in the Winner w/o Woods market. I would go as far as to say that I recommend all three. The facts are that Tiger is the best player the game has ever seen, he is in the form of his life and playing on a course where he is a four time course winner. On that premise I can only do the boring thing and suggest backing him at what is a fair price at [2.34].

With that covered we now need to track down some decent priced outsiders for trading and place market purposes. The first player to catch my eye was the Dane, Soren Hansen. He is in pretty decent form and is one of the more underrated players on the European Tour and he may just squeeze into the Ryder Cup team this year. I believe the course will suit his style and he is definitely worth a punt at [420.0] in the Winner market and also at [16.5] in the Top 10 Finish market.

I couldn't leave the outsider selections without putting a mention in for the unfashionable George McNeill. A surprise winner on tour towards the end of last year McNeill has carried his good form on into this season and that was highlighted with his second place last week. He is Florida born and went to Florida State University so will not be short of some home support. At current odds of [370.0] he has to be supported in the Winner market and he should also be backed in the Top 5 Finish market at anything around [36.0].

You can expect the Winner W/O Woods market to be very popular this week for obvious reasons. I am not usually a big fan of this kind of market unless it is late in the tournament and we have a runaway leader but in this case I am willing to make an exception. My pick here would undoubtedly be Vijay Singh. He has not been outside the top seven in the last three runnings of this event and I fully expect him to feature this week. You also have the added advantage of him being one of the few players who isn't fazed by the Tiger mania and will just play his own game. Vijay is currently available at [14.5] in the Winner w/o Woods market and is certainly worth a wager.

As mentioned earlier, Tiger already has the Tiger Slam under his belt and is eyeing up the Grand Slam itself. Is that really possible? Well, if anyone is ever going to do it then Tiger is certainly the man. Check out the Major Wins market where Tiger to achieve the Grand Slam is priced up at just [15.0]. Now, surely that is a little short for what would be one of the greatest feats in modern sport?