Golf Events / Paul Krishnamurty / 03 August 2011 /

There's a whole heap of course form to inform us ahead of this week's WGC Bridgestone Invitational and that's helped Paul Krishnamurty to make five suggested bets for first round two-ball winners

6pts Robert Allenby @ [1.8] (vs Steele) (Starts 13.50)
My first 2-ball pick is a man who came in for very strong consideration for the Find Me a 100 Winner column. Ultimately, Robert Allenby was rejected there because he's become so hard to win with, but last year's runner-up looks highly likely to register yet another good finish in this event. One of the very best long-iron players, a regular near the top of the crucial greens in regulation stats, Allenby has the perfect game for Firestone, as illustrated by eight top-25 finishes from nine visits.

Those numbers set a rather stiff target for Brendan Steele on his Firestone debut, especially after missing his last two cuts. The 28-year-old rookie owes his place in the line-up to a shock win at the Texas Open, but that remains his only PGA Tour top-ten.

5pts Stewart Cink @ [1.75) (vs Stallings) (Starts 14.10)
An extremely similar logic applies here, with a course specialist strongly favoured against a rookie debutant. It would be an understatement to say that Scott Stallings was excited towards the end of his breakthrough victory on Sunday, and superb though he was down the stretch, he will need to come back down to earth quickly for this surprise Firestone debut.

Stallings faces a stiff task here against one of the few players to have got the better of Tiger Woods around this course. Stewart Cink saw off Tiger head-to-head when winning this title in 2004, and finished runner-up two years later. In total, he has six top-20s here, and while the former Open champion is another who rarely seems to contend nowadays, he remains pretty consistent.

4pts Jeff Overton @ [2.1] (vs Els) (Starts 15.00)
One can be sure Ernie Els' game is in trouble when he starts missing cuts at The Open, and given a rather disappointing career record at Firestone, the Big Easy looks one to oppose this week. To be clear, I don't think Ernie is completely gone at the game, but at the moment his putting is abysmal and these super-fast greens are bound to cause him headaches. Indeed in last year's renewal, he looked like seriously contending for the first time in over a decade of trying, before enduring a final day nightmare on the greens.

In contrast, Ernie's first round opponent has every reason to be excited about the return to Firestone, after finishing sixth on last year's debut. Jeff Overton is in decent nick too, finishing third recently at Aronimink and making his third straight British Open cut.

4pts Darren Clarke @ [2.6] (vs Woods) (Starts 18.40)
As argued in greater detail here, it is hard to find anything positive to say about Tiger Woods' chances on his return to action this week. Twelve months ago, this seven-time course winner was humiliated in 78th place and a repeat is far from impossible. Of course, nobody is going to get rich laying him at ever-increasing odds in the outright market, but Tiger's reputation ensures he remains a terrible value odds-on chance for most 18-hole bets.

For me, these odds make Open hero Darren Clarke the best value of day one. Nobody is expecting any miracles so soon after the last one from Darren, but he has a fine record at Firestone. Apart from winning here in 2003, Darren was third in 2001 and sixth in 2008. Even 22nd place on his last visit two years ago was pretty good, considering how far he'd slipped down the international pecking order.

5pts Lucas Glover @ [2.02] (vs Casey) (Starts 18.50)
Another player hard to make any sort of case for right now is Paul Casey, even despite an impressive Firestone record. Since winning in Bahrain in January, Casey hasn't made a single top-ten anywhere, and recent results have been particularly poor, missing the cut in three of his last four events and finishing 54th in the other one. Casey's putting stats have been a worry for a while, and recently his greens in regulation numbers have suffered a similar decline.

Lucas Glover is in much better form, winning at Quail Hollow and challenging for a long way at the Open. Moreover, the former US Open champ has his own claims on previous Firestone form, finishing sixth on debut and registering three top-25s from five tries.

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