Golf Events / Tareq Quiroz / 19 September 2007 / Leave a Comment

Betfair's golf betting expert TQ sees punting opportunities galore as Woods exits for a while

Tiger's taken the week off and it's a close call as to who is more pleased, the newly crowned Tour Champion or the 130 plus players competing in the Turning Stone Resort Championships this week.

As a competition, the Tour Championship was effectively over after nine holes of the second round. In a devastating burst Tiger shot seven under through six holes to put a commanding distance between him and the rest of the field, and it was all over bar the shouting. Forty-eight hours later in his traditional Sunday red top, Tiger proudly held aloft the inaugural FedEx Cup. Watching the master at work is always captivating, even when there is a certain inevitability about the outcome.

There's nothing inevitable about this week's event in New York and you'd be well advised to adopt a watching brief in the early stages. This is a new event on the PGA Tour calendar and with limited course form to go on it really is an open tournament. A profitable betting strategy here is to lay any player whose odds drop into single figures during the first round, as the most likely scenario is that the winner will come through the field in rounds three or four. Although this particular tournament has not been on the PGA Tour before, the course was in fact used as a late replacement for the storm damaged En Joie course for the 2006 BC Open. Early signs suggest it's not the most taxing track, so keep on the side of the guys who have a knack of going low on birdie courses.

A player to watch during the early stages of the event is Ryuji Imada. He's an improving player, has course form (he came twelfth here last year) and I'm sure he has an imminent tour win in him. The standout punt in this event, though, is to back John Rollins in his Tournament Match Bet against Vaughn Taylor. Anything above 1.8 is excellent value for the highest money list player on show and a proven course winner.

Over on the European Tour we have a substantially better quality event in store at The Belfry. The British Masters has a top-notch field, and on a course famous for hosting the 2002 Ryder Cup, you can expect the cream to rise to the top come Sunday afternoon.

In contrast to the PGA event, our betting strategy should revolve around some pre-tournament fancies. Be positive in your approach and take advantage of some decent prices available on top players.

The Belfry can play tough in difficult conditions, and early forecasts suggest that's just what we are going to get this week. A player who has caught my eye recently is Robert Karlsson. With a return to form and at 36s he has to be followed. The big Swede has had some good finishes lately and has been making plenty of birdies, but with too many mistakes. Take a chance that he's ironed out the errors for this week and will be right in the mix.

Consistency may play a part in wet and windy weather, so the man for the job could well be Richard Green. The classy left-hander from Melbourne has four top 20 finishes on this course and I fully expect him to feature around the top of the leaderboard.

Whether you are following proceedings in blustery Birmingham or noisy New York this week you can certainly expect a great deal of entertainment.

If you are looking for razzamatazz and birdies galore tune in to events at the Turning Stone Champs, but if you are more of a fan of watching players struggle in wet and windy weather, where par is an excellent score, then the British Masters will have it all.

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