Players Championship 2012

All 4 picks missed the cut last week in Seville. Very disappointing. Can mean only one thing, we simply have to find the elusive winner soon and a change from the European Tour to the USPGA often tends to do the trick. Not a hard call to make though as the Madeira Island Open is simply a lottery this week with a very weak field assembled. I was tempted to back Simon Wakefield there but it really could go to anyone so the excitement on offer at Sawgrass grabs the attention this week. In stark contrast to Madeira, the Pete Dye designed Florida course attarcts a very strong field where only Bubba Watson is missing from the World's Top 10. Rory upset the Americans last year by not playing here but they will be looking forward to seeing the Irishman this week who has been in scintillating form this season and having just been beaten in a play-off at Quail Hollow last Sunday, he will be drawing a lot of attention again this week. Its hard to ignore Rory given the form that he is in, but this strong field does give us some real good value.

I'll start of by picking Rory's compatriot, Graeme McDowell who has been playing very well the past couple of months and is the type of player that excels when confidence is high. He comes here fresh and has a good record at Sawgrass and could have won last year. The 66 /1 on offer is just too big and with 6 places on offer this week with most bookies he has to be on my staking plan.

Martin Kaymer is too big at 60/1 with Bet365. The German will like sawgrass and his iron play will serve him well here. He is due another big performance and indeed won the USPGA Championship at Whistling Straits, a Pete Dye course.

Another player who has been in sparkling form is of course Louis Oosthuizen. Runner up at Augusta bfore winning in Malaysia, his tee to green play has been excellent this season and is showing not only the temperament for these big events but seems to be enjoying them too. 40/1 is just about right and worth taking with Paddypower.

My fourth selection is Adam Scott, a previous winner here. I stated earlier in the year that he was looking to a good season and although he has not played an awful lot has shown signs he can post some good scores. If the long putter clicks he will be there or thereabouts. Again 40/1 with Ladbrokes with 6 places on offer.

I am tempted to back Tiger Woods at 25/1.....smashing price despite his mediocre form at Sawgrass. I'm only begining to look at trading on the exchanges and feel this is a trade worth investigating this week. If he gets a decent score on Thursday this price is bound to plummet and therefore create a trade for profit. My only worry is that I'm not sure if it will plummet enough to cover all bets and lock in profit etc but its a trade I will experiment this week.(The trades will need to be studid for m to be able to assess how I think the market will react but I presume with Tiger it will cause a shift if he opens with a 68 or something)

My fifth selection this week, afterall this is the "5th Major" is a 1 pt /w on Padraig Harrington at 110/1 with Betpack. Just a crazy price for the Dubliner who is about to click having shown good performances already this season including a top 10 at the Masters. If the driver behaves he can scramble for the scores which is good to have here on this course.

TIP 1 1 pt e/w G.McDowell @ 66/1 Bet365

TIP 2 1 pt e/w M.Kaymer @ 60/1 Bet365

TIP 3 1 pt e/w L.Oosthuizen @ 40/1 Bet365

TIP 4 1 pt e/w A.Scott @ 40/1 Ladbrokes

TIP 5 1 pt e/w P.Harrington @ 110/1 Betpack

McIlroy for Sawgrass- 4 for Italy

Its almost incredulous that the very weekend (or pre-weekend) that Tiger Woods produces his worse display for years, Ryo Ishikawa, 18 years of age and Rory McIlroy, aged 21 (yesterday) the pretenders to Tiger's No 1 throne in the future, produced some stunning golf last Sunday to win their prospective tournaments with an astonishing 58 & 62 respectively. Now it could be argued that Rory's 62 was better in a better class of field and better course,but a 58 is a 58 afterall and one can imagine the hype when both players tee it up in the same tournament soon. As for Rory, this is a kid that excels on confidence, whipping the big guns last week by playing the weekend in -16 at Quail Hollow can only mean 22/1 for the players (Bet Pack) is a steal. 1 pt e/w is the bet of the weekend.
Kevin Na is 2nd tip for Sawgrass and at 80/1, paying 6 places with Paddy Power, a player who has great form at The Players and has been in decent form lately and is worth .5 pts e/w also.

In Italy, pressure is on Edoardo Molinari to win on home soil having elected to play his national Open , whereas his younger brother, Francesco has opted to take his chance to play the Players. Chances of a repeat home win following Alvaro Quiros winning in Spain last week seem to be good with all the bookies as he starts favourite but I have selected 4 that I simply can't ignore for various reasons other than the odds being quoted. Alejandro Canizares is a player due to win and his form is excellent the past two months and is climbing the leaderboards and the hope is that he will start with a good opening round being in the 2nd group out and that he can take advantage of the soft greens. Thomas Aiken is taken at .5 pts e/w simply because I have to "keep the faith" with a player that will either shoot low or shoot high on any given week. I am backing James Morrison again this week following his play-off defeat last week, he is still at 33s but this is a player improving week by week and could be a star in the future and likewise with mcIlroy, confidence is key to playing well. My 4th tip is Simon Dyson @ 40/1. This is a player that seems to thrive on tournaments like this one as the field would not be considered a great one and the odds are just too good to be ignored.

Players Championship Selections:

1 pt e/w R.McIlroy @ 22/1 (1/4, 1-6)
.5 pts e/w K.Na @ 80/1 (1/4,1-6)


BMW Italian Open Selections:

1 pt e/w J.Morrison @ 33/1
1 pt e/w A.Canizares @ 35/1
1 pt e/w S.Dyson @ 40/1
.5 pts e/w T.Aiken @ 45/1