Golf Events / Editor / 30 May 2007 / Leave a Comment

Many of the world's top golfers will be seeking confidence-boosting performances at this week's Memorial Tournament with the second major of the season, the US Open, now just a fortnight away.

World numbers one and two, Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson, will both make their return to tournament action after a three-week break following The Players' Championship and will be seeking to sharpen their games ahead of Oakmont next month.

The likes of Vijay Singh, Ernie Els, Luke Donald and Paul Casey have all flown in after competing at the BMW PGA Championship last weekend, while 15 of the world's top 20 players will be action at Jack Nicklaus' Muirfield Village course in Columbus, Ohio.
The event has thrown up surprise winners the last two years, with Bart Bryant winning in 2005 before Swede Carl Pettersson claimed a two-shot victory last year to win his second PGA tournament.

Pettersson is priced at odds of 140 to defend his title with Bryant available at 190, but it would be a major shock if there was another little-known winner in a field of such quality.

Triple champion Woods heads the market and is trading at around 3.5 to win his fourth event in eights starts in America this season, ahead of his closest rival Mickelson, who can be backed at 8.8 to win his first Memorial title.

Singh is available at 18 to win - ten years after he last won the tournament - with another former winner, Jim Furyk, trading at 20 ahead of Sergio Garcia and US Masters champion Zach Johnson (both 30), Adam Scott (34) and Els (36).

Nicklaus caused uproar last year with his controversial back-raking of the bunkers at Muirfield Village and, while the ridges will not be as severe as 2006, the sand will feature furrows for the second year running.

The onus was very much on accurate hitting and an excellent game short game last year - a fact emphasised when you consider Pettersson found sand only nine times in four rounds and had 35 single putts - and it is almost certain to be the same this week with the rough having been grown to three-and-a-half inches.

Woods missed last year's event following the death of his father but has an outstanding record at the Memorial and is intent on a good performance at next month's US Open after missing the cut last year.

He rattled off a hat-trick of victories between 1999-2001, has six top-ten finishes in nine appearances and averages a best-in-the-field 69.57 strokes for each round he has played at Muirfield Village. He is 1.54 to place in the top five this week.
While Woods is seeking a big improvement after finishing a lowly 37th at The Players Championship, Mickelson will enter this week full of confidence after his victory at Sawgrass.

The left-hander's decision to turn to Woods' ex-coach Butch Harmon has already produced a rich reward and Mickelson will want to continue moving in the right direction this week.

He preferred to miss this tournament between 2003 and 2005 but returned to finish tied for fourth last year and could be a good bet this week.
Mickelson can be backed at 3.1 to place in the first five while he is trading at 6.4 to finish top this week without Woods in the field.

Singh only failed by one shot to pull off an amazing comeback win at Wentworth last week and, with four top-fives here since his win 1997, is priced at an attractive-looking 4.5 to make it five.

The Fijian is trading at 12 to win without the presence of Woods while he is favourite at 3.05 to finish as the best Rest of the World player, ahead of South Africans Els (4.6) and Trevor Immelman (10.5).

It will be interesting to see how 2002 champion Furyk fares this week following his morale-boosting second place at last weekend's Crown Plaze Invitiational, where he and Bernhard Langer (220 to win and 8.6 to place in the top ten) only lost in a play-off to Rory Sabbatini.

He certainly has a good record in the past here and has won once, claimed three other top-ten finishes and never missed a cut in 11 appearances. He can be backed at 14 to win without Woods.

Els, who can be backed at 7 to come in the first five, also has winning form in the event, having triumphed in 2004 and made the cut all 13 years he has played, but he is not in the best of form and could be best watched in-play.

Johnson and Garcia are two players who have displayed good form of late. Johnson, runner-up with Brett Wetterich here last year, won his last tournament and is well-fancied at 15 to win his third title of the year this week without Woods in the market.

Garcia, the favourite at 3.5 to finish the week as the top European, has four top-ten finishes in nine starts in America in 2007 and came runner-up to Woods six years ago.
Donald (38 to win and 7.6 to place in the top five) and Scott (23 to win without Woods) are sure to have their followers, while the likes of Stewart Cink and Sean O'Hair (both 60 to win) will also hope to figure in the tournament climax on Sunday.

It may pay to keep an eye on the likes of Casey (70 to win and 12.5 to place in the first five), Jerry Kelly (14 to finish in the top five and 7 to record a second successive top ten) and it would appear foolish to write off the chances of veterans Langer, Paul Azinger and Kenny Perry.
Langer, available at 13.5 to be top European this week, proved last week he is still a formidable competitor in narrowly missing out to Sabbatini.

Azinger (50 to place in the top five and 21 to be in the top ten) loves the event having won it once, finished second once and come tenth last year, while two-time champion Perry looks over-priced at 300 to win, 28 to come in the first five and 12 to finish in the top ten.