Golf Events / Tareq Quiroz / 03 September 2008 /

Outside backers have had little to cheer in recent weeks with market leaders coming. That could all be about to change, says Tareq Quiroz.

The FedEx play-offs are fast becoming the Vijay Singh benefit tournaments. The big Fijian is in scintillating form, a shining example of how you can continue to be amongst the elite at an age when most would expect you to be past your best. This week he lines up for the third of the FedEx series play-off events in the BMW Championships in what promises to be a cracking tournament.

The Course

In what seems to be a recurring theme, we are faced with the prospect of a newish tour course with little form to go on. The Bellerive Country Club in St. Louis has only hosted three tournaments of any real note to date. It is a Robert Trent-Jones course that was re-modeled by Rees Jones in 2006. At a pretty imposing 7,456 for a par 71 course it gives the impression of being pretty tough. As a host for the 1992 PGA Champs and more recently the 2004 US Senior Open in 2004, we must expect an unforgiving course.

The Favourite

It doesn't take an experienced market maker to work out who is the jolly this week. Coming off the back of two consecutive wins and three in his last five events, Vijay Singh is the epitome of a worthy favourite. It is possible that he is the one that is benefitting most from the absence of Tiger but more importantly he is in great form. In a field containing the likes of Mickelson, Garcia and Harrington it speaks volumes about Singh's form when he is trading at current odds of [7.8]. He thrives on playing week after week.

The Next Best Bets in the Field

The elite are the players in form at the moment but I guess that is why they are the world's elite. Although Vijay has won the last couple I don't think anyone would argue that Sergio Garcia has been his match in terms of ball striking but just hasn't managed to get the win he deserves. At around [11.0] this week he must be worth a bet. Just a little further down the market is Ernie Els and although I have been avoiding him like the plague in recent months there are definite signs of a return to form. He finally seems to have got the putter into motion and he is close to a win. This may well be his week and at current odds of [21.0] he is the main selection this week.

The Massive Outsider

With the rash of market leaders coming in in recent weeks outsider backers haven't had a lot to cheer about. This could all be about to change. A field of only 69 goes to post and the vast majority of those are available at three figure prices.

All the talk recently has been about the Ryder Cup and with the teams now selected those who had it on their mind can now relax. US captain Paul Azinger chose to select JB Holmes as one of his picks and you can be sure that he was delighted. He is a talented player and maybe, just maybe, he will show his captain why he was right to pick him this week. You certainly can't go too far wrong backing Holmes at decent odds of [130.0].

Interesting Info

The Bellerive course was named after the last French Commander in North America. When Gary Player won the US Open title at Bellerive in 1965 he donated his entire winning cheque ($25,000) to cancer research and junior golf. Amazingly, Bellerive is just one of fifty five different courses which have hosted this fine tournament.

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