We head from Texas back eastwards to South Carolina for the 2nd Major of the year to be hosted by Kiawah Island this week, where no doubt the Asian players are in confident mood following KH Lee's first PGA tour win at the Byron Nelson Championship and Hideki Matsuyama's Augusta win last month.
Same can be said for the Irish contingent though, as Rory McIlroy ended his drought last time out by winning the Wells Fargo Championship two weeks ago and arrives here having won his second Major Championship at Kiawah Island by 8 shots back in 2012. The defending Open Champion, Shane Lowry and former PGA champion Padraig Harrington, make up that Irish stable for the week ahead and there's reason to believe they can all go well here. Like McIlroy, Harrington too has tasted success at Kiawah having won the World Cup for Ireland alongside Paul McGinley in 1997. Being an out and out links track subjected to wind, Shane Lowry should be right at home here also. I do fancy Shane to contend here this week despite drop in form of late. Kiawah is an ideal course with ideal wind conditions that will not faze him and should his driving game be on point this week, we can expect the Offaly man to challenge hard for his second major come Sunday. "Shano" may need to buck the trend of recent PGA Championship winners having already won in the current season with my selection, but he's 11/13 this season on the PGA tour this season with 2 TOP-10s coming at Sawgrass and at the RBC Heritage both of which are Pete Dye designs as is the case here at Kiawah. The Open Champion is an ideal fit for Kiawah and I have already placed a few quid on the exchange as high as 110.00 /120.00 over the past few weeks and @ 80/1 - 8 places for the each way markets.
If I'm angling in at links form, then double Irish Open winner, Jon Rahm cannot be discounted here. The Spaniard is in brilliant form without a win this season, but posting 11/12 with 7 TOP-10s from those 12 outings shows he's in fine fettle despite the personal distractions and excitement in becoming a father for the first time days before The Masters. He duly missed the cut the week after Augusta but thats easy to write off as nappy changing was the focus. He warmed up nicely last week without overly exerting himself to play all 4 days in McKinney. Twice a winner of the Irish Open at Portstewart and Lahinch, both links courses emphasizes his ability for this type of test and of the market leaders is the one I'd prefer to be with. "he's due a win" too.....he has contended in nearly all events this year, a surprisingly 5th place at Augusta amongst the personal excitement, a T10 at Sawgrass, and those TOP-10s all point to a big week here. He's now ready to go! I've taken the 17.00 on the exchange. I'm very keen on his chances this week
I think its a week to chance Martin Kaymer at huge odds too. The double Major Champion will also like the course this week. Often correlated to Whistling Straits where he won his PGA Championship in 2014, the German also took out the US Open at Pinehurst which also features links-type attributes. Kaymer's portfolio of victories includes Scottish Opens, Dunhill Links, KLM Open, The Players, Abu Dhabi Championships, and his recent form over the past 12-18 months has been solid despite scorning many chances to end the winless drought, which is a concern, but he could just find it here this week - there are no rules that he must win somewhere else before taking down another Major. Of course, there is the uncertainty that he cannot close out the deal these days so I've backed him @ 600.00 on the exchange with a view to trading should he go well. At 250/1 - 10 places, he's worth a small wager also.
I've considered both Tommy Fleetwood and Patrick Reed also, but felt their prices were fair enough. I'm looking forward to watching it this year more so then other years when for various reasons I've been away and missed a lot of the action so its just three before the off for me.
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