We're up to 229 selections and counting after Xander Schauffele whimpered out at Sawgrass on Sunday last ! Think the potential Masters winner shortlist will be quite small in 3 weeks as there does not appear to be too many "fighters" on the PGA Tour at present who want to win a gold tournament.
We move onto The Valspar Championship at Copperhead this week where the "snake pit" will sort out the winners from the also-rans whilst the DP Tour returns to Laguna Golf Resort in Singapore.
It may be a decent field in fairness but I'm again struggling to find real value, mostly due to my own tissue perhaps being way out of kilter but as alluded to a few weeks ago, the approach now is to back win on the exchange and take TOP-10/TOP-20s and see can we get some coin back into the bankroll.
| Player | My Shortlist | BET365 Odds | Best Odds | Best Exchange | My Odds |
| Shane Lowry | Current Form | 10 | 10 | 10.3 | 13 |
| Matthieu Pavon | Current Form | 15 | 15 | 18.1 | 15 |
| Rasmus Hojgaard | Multi | 15 | 15 | 19.1 | 19 |
| Tom McKibbin | Multi | 19 | 21 | 23 | 23 |
| Jordan Smith | Strategy | 26 | 26 | 33 | 26 |
| Thriston Lawrence | Strategy | 23 | 26 | 31 | 23 |
| Zander Lombard | Multi | 31 | 31 | 41 | 29 |
| Richard Mansell | Course | 34 | 34 | 39 | 36 |
| Ewen Ferguson | Current Form | 31 | 34 | 45 | 31 |
| Alejandro Del Rey | Course | 34 | 41 | 39 | 51 |
| Alex Fitzpatrick | Current Form | 56 | 51 | 78 | 46 |
| Paul Waring | Course | 56 | 51 | 78 | 56 |
| Frederic Lacroix | Current Form | 61 | 61 | 74 | 51 |
| Grant Forrest | Course | 71 | 67 | 118 | 81 |
| Jesper Svensson | Current Form | 67 | 67 | 83 | 81 |
| Ugo Coussaud | Current Form | 71 | 81 | 98 | 67 |
| Daniel Hillier | Fancy | 81 | 81 | 127 | 67 |
| Johannes Veerman | Current Form | 101 | 101 | 176 | 91 |
| Aaron Cockerill | Current Form | 81 | 91 | 157 | 101 |
| Guido Migliozzi | Current Form | 101 | 111 | 176 | 81 |
| Ockie Strydom | Course | 126 | 126 | 196 | 67 |
| Gavin Green | Current Form | 111 | 101 | 176 | 81 |
| Haotong Li | Current Form | 91 | 126 | 176 | 101 |
| Max McGreevy | Current Form | 151 | 176 | 225 | 111 |
My 24-man shortlist
From the shortlist, there are players I just know don't have it to challenge come Sunday but they continue to be there or thereabouts and it's the bet that they can turn in some TOP-10s that keep me interested. The shortlist will need to have 20-30 players going forward if looking at the TOP-10/TOP-20 markets anyway. Tom McKibbin may prove to be a winner at some point but I don't see value at all in his price here when compared to market leaders Lowry, Casey, Pavon and indeed Rasmus Hogaard. However, Shane Lowry is yet to show his worth when a short priced favourite but he is in great form just 3 weeks out from Augusta and he's hard to ignore totally but at the price presents no opportunity here. Ugo Coussaud joined The Birdie Club non moving day list recently but I'm willing to give him one more go here. It really is beyond a joke now to see my selections nearly every week go from inside 2 or 3 shots off the lead after 36 holes to....no hope come Saturday evening....Coussaud owes me now! Not that Max McGreevy does however but he's a very interesting runner here. Max has plenty of experience overseas having spent a season on the PGA China Tour before earning his Korn Ferry Tour card and subsequently winning (then losing) his PGA Tour card. Not so sure Laguna will suit him off the tee but I have to play him anyway where he could surprise.
I was keen to reduce the numbers in y staking plans going forward but thought there was merit in taking Richard Mansell on @ 30/1 - 7 places as well as Frederic Lacroix @ 60/1 & Daniel Hillier @ 80/1 .
Missing out are Hojgaard,Migliozzi, Li & Ferguson who were seriously considered.
Selections
0.5 pts WIN U. Coussaud @ 110.00 / 1.5 pts TOP-10 @ 10.50
0.5 pts WIN M. McGreevy @ 300.00 / 1.5 pts TOP-10 @ 18.00
0.5 pts WIN R. Mansell @ 38.00 / 1.5 pts TOP-10 @ 4.80
0.5 pts WIN F. Lacroix @ 60.00 / 1.5 pts TOP-10 @ 6.80
0.5 pts WIN D. Hillier @ 130.00 / 1.5 pts TOP-10 @ 10.00
