Golf Events / Tareq Quiroz / 13 August 2008 /

Vijay the favourite in poor field on course where wayward drives will be punished,says Tareq Quiroz.

So, he did it again. Padraig Harrington has gone from the nearly man to three time major champion in an incredibly short space of time. With the presence of the likes of Garcia and Stenson at the business end of the tournament it all looks good for European golf at a time when it has never been more important. The Ryder Cup is around the corner and the scramble is on to make the final places up for grabs in each team. That continues this week with the Wyndham Championships in North Carolina.

The Course

The Wyndham Champs is a fabulous tournament that started out as the Greater Greensboro Open in 1938 and has always been an integral part of the PGA Tour schedule. Sedgefield CC was used at that time on a regular basis as the host course and continued that right up until 1977 when Forest Oaks CC took over. Sedgefield has been off the tour rota since then but makes its return this week after a massive overhaul to bring the course up to modern day standards.

It still isn't the longest course at 7,100 yards but with little known about the course and how it will play in competition you can only really go by what you do know. We know it is an original Donald Ross designed track and you can be sure that despite the revamp that they will have kept with the Ross traits. With this in mind we should be looking for someone who keeps the ball in-play off the tee as you can be sure that wayward drives will be punished.

The Favourite

It has been an up and down couple of weeks for the big Fijian Vijay Singh. He played sparkling golf to win the WGC event and although going into the USPGA with a lot of confidence he was never able to recover from a poor start and eventually missed the cut. He is quite rightly the favourite this week in what is essentially a pretty poor quality field. If Vijay has recaptured the form of old then I would say that at the current odds of [12.5] he represents plenty of value in a tournament he could dominate if back to his best.

The Next Best Bets in the Field

It is always good to have a well supported favourite in the field as it gives some stability to the market. There is in fact only one other player, Paul Casey, at odds of less than [30.0]. Casey has got some excellent recent form and must be respected but he will not be seeing my money at [16.5] this week. You don't have to go too much further though to find my main selection in David Toms. Toms has been beset with problems in the last couple of years with a heart issue that set him back for a while and it has only been in the last few weeks that I have seen any real signs that he is coming back to his best. I am hopeful the course will be right up his street and with the lure of a possible Ryder Cup pick he may well turn it on this week. At current odds of around [30.0] he is definitely the man to support.

The Massive Outsider

It is that time of the season where no matter who you are there is a target set for the remainder of the year. If your card isn't secure yet then it is time to start getting worried, if you want to be part of the great FedEx giveaway at the end of the year then you need to climb the points list and there are of course those how are desperately seeking Ryder Cup points. Desperation can result in an improved performance but more often than not the pressure is too much. Therefore you really want someone who probably isn't playing for too much. That man for me this week is Mark Calcavecchia. The veteran has a tour exemption so despite his average season he is not in danger of losing his card and he is still capable of the odd good performance. He was fourth earlier in the year at the Honda Classic and let's not forget he was a winner last year. At odds of around [120.0] he is my main pick for the outsider this week.

Interesting Info

There really isn't much to go on this week but for those who like omens then the last person to win this event back to back was Sam Snead in 1955-56, and he did that on different courses. So, all looks set for defending champion Brandt Snedeker to repeat the feat this week.

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