Round 4 plays (1pt):
Bart Bryant to beat Sean O'Hair -105 @ Five Dimes
Bart Bryant to beat Bubba Watson -130 @ Unibet and Carib
Bart Bryant to beat Hunter Mahan -115 @ Bet365
Not a deliberate intention to back only one player in this round, but these were the three plays that had the greatest edge given by my calculation of probabilities and those given by the odds and I don't see any reason to drop any of these 'system plays'. Bryant has the ideal draw for the tournament leader in that he is in the penultimate group and he is not paired with Tiger Woods (like O'Hair ... so I can't see any reason for O'Hair being the favourite in that match). Let's look at Bryant's record when leading a PGA Tour event with one round to play: in the 2004 Texas Open, he held a 3-shot lead over Hunter Mahan and shot 67 to win by 3 shots; in the 2005 Memorial Tournament, he shared the lead with David Toms, Fred Couples and Jeff Sluman (Tiger Woods was 4 shots back), shot 68 and won by one shot; in the 2005 Tour Championship, he held a 3-shot lead over Retief Goosen (Tiger Woods was a shot further back), shot 67 and won by six shots. Not only did he win on all three occasions, but his lead over the field was never reduced and in two of those three occasions, Tiger Woods was very much in contention and his lead over Woods was also never reduced after the 4th round. Compare that to O'Hair - he has finished 2nd (2005 Byron Nelson Championship) and 11th (2007 Players Championship) when holding the 3rd round lead - and Watson - he finished 2nd (2007 Houston Open) despite holding a 3-shot lead - and there is no compaison to be made. Mahan may pose the bigger threat, but given that his four previous appearances on this course have yielded finishes of 62nd, mc, 59th, mc, whereas Bryant has finished 8th, 20th and 18th, I'm much more confident that Bryant's form this week will continue for another day on this course