Find Me a 100 Winner: Count on Connor at Valderrama

This week's limited field PGA Tour event in Japan, the ZOZO Championship, has only been staged three time and the winner of the inaugural edition, Tiger Woods, who was generally a 50.049/1 chance before the off, is the biggest priced winner to date.

Add into the mix that we've seen just one triple-figure priced winner on the PGA Tour since May, and that strong cases can be made about all the market leaders, and the ZOZO is starting to look like a tournament to swerve.

I'd have played the recent Sanderson Farms Championship winner, Mackenzie Hughes, if the 100.099/1 had held, but unsurprisingly, given he was also tied fourth here last year, it hasn't. He's that sole triple-figure priced winner in the last five months and he looks a fair price here at 90.089/1.

Brendan Steele, who finished tied for second last year, and Matt Wallace, who finished alongside Hughes, are both available to back at a juicy price but neither are playing well enough so I'm playing just one extremely speculative pick, C.T Pan.

Pan's the man in Japan

As highlighted in the preview, the second edition of the ZOZO Championship was played in the States because of the pandemic but the two course winners so far, Tiger, and the defending champ, Hideki Matsuyama, have both won the US Masters and form at Augusta looks worthy of respect.

C.T Pan finished a very respectable seventh behind Dustin Johnson at the 2020 US Masters and he also won a bronze at the Tokyo Olympics so a return to Japan could spark some very happy memories.

He's finished down the field here in his two previous visits and he has just one top-ten to his name this season so there are some serious negatives but so there should be at 390.0389/1.

On a positive note, he's won on the PGA Tour before at a huge price (460.0459/1), at the Heritage in 2019, and he was woefully out of form at the time.

Back 1u C.T Pan @ 390.0389/1
Place order to lay 10u @ 10.09/1 & 10u @ 2.35/4

Count on Connor at Valderrama

As Matt Cooper highlights in his each-way piece, form at Galgorm Castle may well be worthy of consideration for this week's DP World Tour event - the Andalucía Masters - and he names a number of players with fine records at Valderrama that have that have performed well at Galgorm.

John Catlin has won at both venues and when he took this title in 2020, Scotland's Connor Syme, who finished runner-up at Galgorm Castle this year, finished tied for eighth, having led alongside Catlin after round one and having sat second to him at halfway.

The 27-year-old is yet to win on the DP World Tour but he's trending in the right direction, and he's tasted success on the Challenge Tour.

Syme was second to Callum Shinkwin at the Cazoo Open in Wales the week before he finished second to Ewen Ferguson in Ireland in August and after a quiet spell, he caught the eye again last time out when finishing in the top-ten at the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship.

Back 2u Connor Syme @ 120.0119/1
Place order to lay 10u @ 10.09/1 & 10u @ 2.35/4

Alex can emerge from Matt's shadow

As highlighted in the preview, Matt Fitzpatrick is a worthy favourite to defend his title in Spain but don't discount his little brother Alex.

We've seen the Hojgaard twins inspiring each other constantly on the DP World Tour and they won back-to-back tournaments last year with Nicolai claiming the Italian Open title just seven days after Rasmus had won the European Masters.

I don't know much about sibling rivalry; I've only got one brother and I'm miles better at everything than him so I can't really comment but I can see Alex being inspired by making his debut in a tournament won by his older brother.

At 23, and fresh out Wake Forrest University, Alex only turned pro in June but he's already showing he has quite a future.

He finished 27th at the Italian Open, 13th in the Open de France and he really caught the eye in Scotland last time out when he was one of only three men to break 70 in the foul conditions on Friday at the Dunhill Links Championship.

Matt eventually caught and passed Alex to finish 22nd to Alex's 28th but the younger sibling looks ready to impress and odds in excess of 300.0299/1 look juicy.

Back 1u Alex Fitzpatrick @ 320.0319/1
Place order to lay 10u @ 10.09/1 & 10u @ 2.35/4

*You can follow me on Twitter @SteveThePunter