US PGA Championship / Steven Rawlings / 08 August 2011 /

The Punter casts his eye over the home challenge and ponders whether the Worksop Wonder can capitalise on his compatriot's poor form?

When scouting around the speciality markets it's often as much a case of finding one that contains out of form players as in-form players and in the Top UK and Ireland market I might just have found one.

First, second and third favourites, Rory McIlroy, Lee Westwood and Luke Donald are far from off their game but after that the contenders look either out of form or outclassed with the possible exceptions of Simon Dyson and Martin Laird.

Dyson won the Irish Open just over a week ago and he put in a fair effort in Akron over the weekend after an understandably slow start and if he gets close to [30.0] he might be worth a wager. Whereas Laird finished tied 11th yesterday after a run of poor form and that pair look the dangers to the big three. The rest look likely to struggle.

Graeme McDowell has shown up in patches of late but his 65th placed finish at Firestone was worrying and even when he has contended lately, he's flopped quite badly on a Sunday.

Darren Clarke was awesome at Royal St. Georges but he was even worse than G-Mac at Firestone - finishing in a tie for 68th. His partying after the Open Championship win will go down in history and his head will have surely been sore afterwards. The physical hangover may have cleared by now but the metaphorical one looks as if it may linger a bit longer. I made the mistake of backing him at Firestone last week, a venue he's blossomed at in the past, but I want to be against him now.

Ian Poulter, Justin Rose, Padraig Harrington and Paul Casey haven't played well in ages and I just can't see them figuring, whilst Ross Fisher showed up well in Ireland, before his son was hospitalised on the Saturday evening. He withdrew last week but should start this, but will his mind be on the job?

The front three in this market look very strong on current form but I'm airing towards the Chubby Chandler pair of Westwood and Rory. Luke Donald has an annoying habit of flopping at the majors and even if he doesn't, I think his lack of length could hinder him.

Chandler, who bids for a grand slam of majors in 2011 following the successes of Charl Schwartzel, McIlroy and Clarke, fancies Westwood over McIlroy and I do too at the prices. Now working with mind guru Bob Rotella, as did Clarke before his major success, and following a very strong performance over the weekend, this week's test looks made for Lee and I'll be surprised if he doesn't figure. He's never easy to get across the winning line and this market could be the place to profit from another fine major effort by the Worksop Wonder.

Selections:

Lee Westwood @ [4.3] or above
Simon Dyson @ [30.0]

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