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Northern Trust Open Preview: Weir is bringing top form to world class event so back him to show his class!

Golf Events RSS / / 18 February 2009 /

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Tareq Quiroz is mightily impressed by the quality of field assembled in California this week but says Canada's finest can beat them all.

I think it is fair to say that by and large this season's PGA Tour has been a feeding ground for the lesser lights. Ogilvy and Perry are big names but they are hardly the kind of players that take huge crowds around with them. Obviously, we are all desperately missing Tiger but there have been some hugely disappointing performances from the likes of Phil Mickelson and Padraig Harrington thus far. The Irishman has already stated that he likes to focus his schedule on the majors, let's just hope that isn't every top players attitude or we could be in for rather a boring season.

The Course
The Riviera Country Club is a cracking course that most of the seasoned pros will know very well. Located just outside of Los Angeles, this course was opened back in 1926 but did undergo a facelift last year at the hands of Tom Fazio. It is a tough old track that will need the full respect of any player hoping to challenge this week. The Riviera has hosted three major championships in the past so don't expect any favours this week. Watch out especially for the par three fourth as that will almost certainly play the toughest hole through the week.

The Favourite
Not for the first time this year the market leader spot goes to Phil Mickelson. It is not surprising as Lefty is the defending champ here and has a close affinity with the course. A couple of weeks ago that might have been enough but he is showing no signs of form whatsoever and in a pretty hot field he can't be supported this week, even if he is big looking at odds of [17.0]. With Mickelson it is very much all or nothing. If he is going to be there at the end, he will win, so if you are a layer then it makes more sense to take him on in the Top Ten Finish market where you can lay him at slightly more attractive odds.

The Next Best Bets
I am excited by the quality on show this week and I am sure this will be a top notch event. Having turned down Mickelson's chances I have to say that my main recommendation of the week will run him close for favouritism. Mike Weir was in great form in last week's weather shortened AT&T Pebble Beach event. If it wasn't for the cancellation of the final round I firmly believe he would have chased down Dustin Johnson to claim the win. When Weir is in form he is a man to be followed and I was very impressed with his ball striking last week so now is the time to strike. This two-time winner here is hard to look past so getting on him at current odds of [18.0] would be the main bet of the week.

I tipped up Kenny Perry last week and he was in the process of running a decent race so must be looked at again this week. As we all know Perry runs hot and when a multiple winner like him is available at odds of [46.0] you just have to involve him in your staking plan.

The Massive Outsider
Value is just oozing from the Winner market and it is hard to know which of the opportunities are too good to be true. In cases such as these your best plan of attack is to ignore the old guns who have been there and won a few things a long time ago and concentrate on the younger crowd. These two types are often the same price but don't represent the same real value. I am still following Michael Letzig and once again at [310.0] you must have a punt.

The other man to be followed this week is Ryan Moore. This guy is close to stepping his game up on a regular basis. Keep an eye on him going forward and at odds of [280.0] this week he is worth a small bet.

Interesting Info
Never let it be said that the Riviera CC is a pushover, last year it came in as the 13th most difficult course on the PGA Tour. The quality of the field is clearly shown in the stat that we have five of the world's top ten in action this week. It is easy to say course form is key but there are plenty with claims to that with an amazing eleven former winners taking part. If that wasn't startling enough I was even further surprised to count up a mind boggling 23 major winners lining up for what promises to be a cracking event.

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