Canadian Open

[Stanley]

Outright plays (total stake per play: 1pt)

Brandt Snedeker to win 40/1 e.w. @ Ladbrokes, Sportingbet and Sporting Odds
In contrast to the European Tour where a strong performance in the British Open was a pre-requisite to finishing high on the leaderboard in last year's event at Gut Kaden, it was of much greater importance on the PGA Tour to have not even travelled across the Atlantic. Of the top-5 at last year's U.S. Bank Championship, which was played the week after the British Open, only two had returned from Royal Liverpool Golf Club; of the top-12 on the leaderboard, only four players had been competing in the British Open. On that basis, and with course experience being very rare now that it is the North Course that is being used this week at Angus Glen, the best value odds should be on players who didn't make that trip across the Atlantic. One such player is Snedeker who has three top-10 finishes in his last five starts and was in the top-10 for each of the first two rounds of the U.S. Open last month. Add in the additional factors that the North Course has extremely large greens, averaging 8,000 sq.ft (compared to a Tour average of 6,000 sq.ft), and Snedeker is 2nd in the "Three-Putt Avoidance" category and he should record another top-10 this week.

Nathan Green to win 66/1 e.w. @ Stan James
Putting is the cornerstone of Green's game. Not only does he rank in the top-10 in the "Three-Putt Avoidance" category, but in the more traditional putting categories, he ranks 3rd in putting average and 4th in putts per round, so he should find the course to his advantage this week. And while he disappointed last week as a selection, merely finishing 57th, he admitted on his website that he had been feeling a little flat after his performance the previous week when he had held the lead after the second and third rounds, only to finish 3rd. In hindsight, he should have been avoided last week on this basis, but his website also reports on his encouraging final round 67 at Brown Deer Park so he should have some momentum heading into the week as he seeks to earn his third top-5 finish in seven starts.

Camilo Villegas to win 80/1 e.w. @ Ladbrokes
Villegas is a very different type of player. He is much too erratic to rank highly in any of the Tour's statistical averages, but he does have a very good top5:starts ratio on this Tour: 6 in 47 starts. And the fact that he has just three further finishes in the top-20 shows that he is a very hit-and-miss player who will either earn at least a place return on an each-way wager or not feature at all. When the odds are 80/1 (and so the place odds reach 20/1) there should be value in backing him, particularly as one of those top-5 finishes was in this event last year. Of course, a different course was used at the time, but it will still be encouraging, as was last week's performance was he was inside the top-10 at the cut.

 

[abc]

Im a big fan of the Vanderbilt product. Guys remember this is a new course, like Stan said.

 

[abc]

Mark Wilson -115 over Dean Wilson (72)
Dean re aggrivated his wrist injury at the John Deere. Mark is coming off a top 10 and says "I haven't played well at all the last few months, especially for four rounds," he said. "I've had some glimpses and actually played pretty solid this week. I'm pretty happy about what I did and hung together and am looking forward to the rest of the year now." We'll see how it goes.

 

[abc]

I had sean o hair penciled as a player to fade. He was non stop bitchin at the open about his putting. His stats were brutal. Stan says the greens here are huge. We'll see :shrug:

 

[ridle]

Mark Wilson -115 over Dean Wilson (72)
Dean re aggrivated his wrist injury at the John Deere. Mark is coming off a top 10 and says "I haven't played well at all the last few months, especially for four rounds," he said. "I've had some glimpses and actually played pretty solid this week. I'm pretty happy about what I did and hung together and am looking forward to the rest of the year now." We'll see how it goes.

I think both are non-runners.

 

[abc]

I think both are non-runners.

Dean Wilson withdrew on Monday afternoon from the Canadian Open.
Wilson re-injured a wrist at the John Deere Classic and hasn't played since then. He has been replaced in the field Carlos Franco, whose only made cut this year was a T-44 at the Zurich Classic.

Mark Wilson withdrew on Monday from the Canadian Open.
Wilson finished T-9 at last week's U.S. Bank Championship, which was his best result since his win at the Honda Classic.

I knew Dean was hurt.. SHIT thats twice :com:

 

[Another Steve]

By Christian Peterson
Senior Editor

July 23, 2007



Date: July 26-29, 2007
Location: Angus Glen Golf Club ? Markham, Ontario
2006 Champion: Jim Furyk
FedEx Cup points: 25,000
2007 Purse: $5.0 million ($738,000 to the winner)



2006 Recap
Jim Furyk emerged from a tightly-bunched pack of players within a shot of the lead to win his 12th career PGA TOUR event by virtue of a final-round 65 in brisk conditions at Hamilton Golf & Country Club. He bested Bart Bryant by a stroke after overtaking third-round leader Justin Rose. Jonathan Byrd would have tied for third with Sean O'Hair if not for a two-stroke penalty incurred for a rules infraction after his round.


2005 Recap
Other than the U.S. Open and the PGA Championship, the Bell Canadian Open proved to be the most difficult layout of the season. Veteran Mark Calcavecchia took home the title with a winning score of five-under-par, despite shooting over-par in each of his final two rounds. It was the first victory since the 2001 Phoenix Open for Calc, who finished one stroke ahead of Ben Crane and Ryan Moore. Stylish Swede Jesper Parnevik finished another shot back in fourth, and was one of just nine players in the field to finish in red figures.


The Course
The Canadian Open returns to Angus Glen for the first time since 2002, and the club brought in Davis Love III to both narrow and lengthen the fairways and strategically reposition the tee boxes. "It's a wide-open, wild traditional, more Scottish links style look," Love told the Royal Canadian Golf Association website of the changes. It's unclear what, exactly, "wild traditional" means, but we can tell you that the course meanders along an old Angus beef cattle farm and features fescue-covered dunes and sod wall bunkers like one might see in Scotland. In other words, it will give the many players in attendance ? most of whom were not at Carnoustie last week for the British Open ? a sense for what they missed out on.


The Field
It wouldn't do fantasy golfers much good to play their top draft pick when he doesn't plan on teeing it up, which is why fantasy owners have to be very cognizant of who is playing each week. As a courtesy, we've provided this link to the official field as provided by PGATOUR.com.

Note: It's a good idea to check this list for the official field of players again on Wednesday, as it is not unusual for golfers to drop out of tournaments in the days leading up the first round.

**Canadian Open Official Field.


Leaderboards

Canadian Open (2006 Top 20)
Player Scores Total To Par Earnings
Win Jim Furyk 63-71-67-65 266 -14 $900,000
2 Bart Bryant 69-67-64-67 267 -13 $540,000
3 Sean O'Hair 65-69-66-68 268 -12 $340,000
4 Brett Quigley 71-63-67-68 269 -11 $240,000
T-5 Jonathan Byrd 65-68-67-70 270 -10 $170,500
T-5 Trevor Immelman 68-66-66-70 270 -10 $170,500
T-5 Steve Lowery 70-66-65-69 270 -10 $170,500
T-5 Camilo Villegas 69-64-69-68 270 -10 $170,500
T-5 Rory Sabbatini 67-69-68-66 270 -10 $170,500
10 Steve Stricker 67-69-68-67 271 -9 $135,000
T-11 Arron Oberholser 65-68-69-70 272 -8 $115,000
T-11 Paul Azinger 69-69-68-66 272 -8 $115,000
T-11 Stewart Cink 69-69-68-66 272 -8 $115,000
T-14 Justin Rose 63-71-65-74 273 -7 $90,000
T-14 Tom Pernice, Jr. 66-68-70-69 273 -7 $90,000
T-14 Bubba Watson 65-71-68-69 273 -7 $90,000
T-17 Jesper Parnevik 65-68-70-71 274 -6 $75,000
T-17 Frank Lickliter II 64-72-68-70 274 -6 $75,000
T-17 Jeff Sluman 69-69-67-69 274 -6 $75,000
T-20 Nathan Green 64-70-69-72 275 -5 $50,438
T-20 Ryuji Imada 66-68-71-70 275 -5 $50,438
T-20 Mark O'Meara 69-69-67-70 275 -5 $50,438
T-20 Ben Curtis 69-66-71-69 275 -5 $50,438
T-20 Bo Van Pelt 69-71-66-69 275 -5 $50,438
T-20 David Hearn 69-67-71-68 275 -5 $50,438
T-20 Aaron Baddeley 67-71-70-67 275 -5 $50,438
T-20 D.A. Points 68-70-70-67 275 -5 $50,438


The Canadian Open was last played at Angus Glen in 2002. Those results are shown below.

Canadian Open (2002 Top 20)
Player Scores Total To Par Earnings
Win John Rollins 70-71-66-65 272 -16 $720,000
T-2 Justin Leonard 69-68-66-69 272 -16 $352,000
T-2 Neal Lancaster 66-67-67-72 272 -16 $352,000
T-4 Greg Chalmers 66-71-65-71 273 -15 $176,000
T-4 Steve Flesch 71-67-65-70 273 -15 $176,000
T-6 Grant Waite 64-70-69-71 274 -14 $134,000
T-6 Vijay Singh 67-70-66-71 274 -14 $134,000
T-6 Geoff Ogilvy 68-74-64-68 274 -14 $134,000
T-9 Bob Estes 68-71-68-68 275 -13 $108,000
T-9 Jeff Sluman 71-68-66-70 275 -13 $108,000
T-9 Lee Janzen 72-68-69-66 275 -13 $108,000
T-12 Dudley Hart 71-70-68-67 276 -12 $81,000
T-12 Jay Williamson 72-70-67-67 276 -12 $81,000
T-12 Billy Andrade 66-67-70-73 276 -12 $81,000
T-12 Pat Perez 70-69-74-63 276 -12 $81,000
T-16 Gene Sauers 70-69-67-71 277 -11 $62,000
T-16 Paul Gow 71-68-70-68 277 -11 $62,000
T-16 Ian Leggatt 69-65-72-71 277 -11 $62,000
T-16 Carlos Franco 67-68-76-66 277 -11 $62,000
T-20 John Senden 70-71-69-68 278 -10 $50,000
T-20 Per-Ulrik Johansson 66-71-72-69 278 -10 $50,000


Recent History
Year Champion Runner Up
2004 Vjay Singh Mike Weir
2003 Bob Tway Brad Faxon
2002 John Rollins Neal Lancaster / Justin Leonard
2001 Scott Verplank Bob Estes / Joey Sindelar
2000 Tiger Woods Grant Waite

World Rankings
The following are the top-ranked players from the current Official World Golf Rankings entered into this event:

3. Jim Furyk
7. Vijay Singh
36. Mike Weir
38. Stephen Ames
46. John Rollins
55. Chris DiMarco
61. Hunter Mahan
62. Mark Calcavecchia
76. Sean O'Hair
80. Bart Bryant
81. Dean Wilson
83. Bubba Watson
84. Brett Quigley
88. Brandt Snedeker
91. Troy Matteson
94. Nathan Green
95. Rocco Mediate
101. Jeff Quinney
103. Camilo Villegas
104. Ken Duke

 

[Another Steve]

By Christian Peterson
Senior Editor

July 24, 2007

Last week's British Open was held at Carnoustie in a town called Angus, Scotland. This week's venue is called Angus Glen, and the similarities don't end there. The course is carved out of an old farm in Ontario and has been designed with the Scottish links in mind. While the event will certainly lack the burns, gorse bushes, and balmy weather blowing in off the North Sea, the narrow fairways and long, thick rough should provide a very stiff test for those who have ventured North for the national championship of our friendly neighbors.



The Favorites
To be clear, the only reason Jim Furyk chose not to skip this week's action is because he is the defending champ. The venue has changed, but Furyk still ranks as the favorite thanks to his four top-five finishes in his last six events and a solid T12 last week in Scotland. Vijay Singh is the other big name in this week's field, but he's far less of a sure thing. Veej is coming off a mediocre T27 at the British Open; the type of boring finish that has unfortunately become the norm for the perennial fantasy superstar. You certainly won't want to count him out this week, but it won't be as much of a shock if he doesn't contend as it might have been a few years ago. Mike Weir is easily the most famous golfer from the land of the Maple Leaf. He would absolutely love to take home this title, but he's missed the cut 11 times in his 16-year Canadian Open history. He also owns a runner-up finish, tied for 22nd in 2002 at Angus Glen, and has registered consecutive top-10 finishes, which is an indication that his injury problems are behind him and his swing changes are finally taking hold. Les Habitants will be cheering loudly for their native son all week.


The Best of the Rest
Hunter Mahan just continues to roll. The American tied for sixth at Carnoustie to make it three straight top-10 finishes and hasn't finished worse than T17 in his last five events. Even more impressive, he's fired a 65 on Sunday in each of his last three tournaments, so look out if he's near the top of the leaderboard on Saturday. Chris DiMarco had it going on Saturday at Carnoustie, but faded back into the pack on Sunday and is anything but a sure thing this week. Two PGA TOUR rookies are worth keeping an eye on. 2002 Canadian Open champ John Rollins, 2006 third-place finisher Sean O'Hair, and adopted Canuck Stephen Ames are also worth keeping an eye on.


Who's Hot?
Charlie Wi: The rookie has been anything but consistent this year, but with a T16 and a T2 in the last two weeks, could he be the next first-year player to go streaking?

Pat Perez: If, by "hot," you mean "intermittently hot and freezing," then Perez is hot. The inconsistent malcontent has registered two top-five finishes in his last seven tournaments, tied for 20th at the British Open last week, and tied for 12th at Angus Glen in 2002.


Who's Not?
Bart Bryant: Last year's Canadian Open runner-up has endured a brutal 2007 season thus far. He doesn't have a top 10 since February and hasn't finished better than T55 in his last seven starts, including five missed cuts.

Shigeki Maruyama: After a brief flirtation with respectability, Maruayam has slipped back into his season-long funk. After two straight missed cuts, Shigeki has now either withdrawn or been cut from 14 of his 21 events this season.


Player Trends
Many of the players who have traditionally played in this event will not make the trek up North this week due to the change in the PGA TOUR schedule that moved this event from the early fall to the week after the British Open. Of those who are in the field, even fewer still were around back in 2002, the last time it was played at Angus Glen. As if that weren't enough, the golf course itself has undergone a facelift that has it only barely resembling the track the boys played five years ago. As such, outlining historical trends for this tournament is an endeavor that's unlikely to provide much return on investment.


Weekly Rankings
1. Jim Furyk
2. Hunter Mahan
3. Mike Weir
4. Vijay Singh
5. Brandt Snedeker

 

[Another Steve]

Great Open last week. Have to feel for Sergio but if it went the other way, we will be worried about Paddy. Had Els, really have been close the last few weeks, ready for a POP.


M WEIR wins Canadian Open pick @+16.00
H MAHAN wins Canadian Open pick @+20.00
J FURYK wins Canadian Open pick @+6.50


M WEIR OV/S AMES pick @-1.40
H MAHAN OV/S O HAIR pick @-1.05
N GREEN OV/S LEANEY pick @-1.25
S ALLAN OV/S MARUYAMA pick @-1.25



Might be back with some More...GLTA and Thanks for Posting your Plays

 

[abc]

Steve that was my play mahan over ohair.. Ohair has been brutal on the greens, + he has an awful 3 putt record. Factor in mahans recent form = $$$ Nice vision homie

 

[abc]

Rollin on the same street again as stan.

Snedeker -145 over Duke :com:

 

[ridle]

Lowest Round:
Baryla LTR 401 SportingbetAU
Lepp LTR 251 SportingbetAU
Hearn LTR 251 SportingbetAU
Fritsch LTR 501 SportingbetAU

Round 1 1/4 1-5:
R1: Lickliter 126 Bet365
R1: Sindelar 176 Bet365
R1: Geiberger 226 Bet365
R1: Day G 226 Bet365
R1: McLean 176 Bet365
R1: Fritsch 301 Bet365

Win/Places:
Lickliter 151 Bet365
Hearn 1-5 51 Totesport
Fritsch 1-10 42 BetFair
Fritsch 1-5 101 Paddy Power
Day G 1-5 51 Totesport
Day G 507.45 BetFair
Hearn 600 BetFair
Fritsch 1000 BetFair
Lepp 1000 BetFair
Gillespie 1000 BetFair
Lepp 1-10 34 SportsTAB

1/4 1-5:
Armour R 401 Portlandbet
Dufner 201 Paddy Power
Stiles 401 Portlandbet
McLean 501 Portlandbet
Baryla 801 Portlandbet
Ciesielski 801 Portlandbet
Morland 801 Portlandbet
Parry B 801 Portlandbet
Scott R 801 Portlandbet
Van Zyl 801 Portlandbet

Matches:
Chopra-Levin 2.1 5Dimes
Dufner-Putnam 2 5Dimes
Stadler-Pavin 1.95 5Dimes

 

[abc]

Biggest bet of the week.. not a 6 unit special that I am 4 - 1 - 2 on this year but close. :nono:

Bo Van Pelt -135 over Brian Gay
But why oh great abc would you make this selection. Well because Bo is from Tulsa, so what the tourney is in Canada :mj07: Well the PGA is in Oklahoma, and Currently Bo has not qualified yet for it and needs a few good events to move up in the money list. Anyway he has a nice track record for this particular event.. and also I think Gays lack of distance off the tee will hamper him on this 7400 yard course.

 

[abc]

Jim Furyk to finish in the top 10 -165

A lot of juice :scared I was gonna take him at -125 over Vijay but i dont want both to finish in the top 5 and jim lose.. like what happened to me last week :nono:

Thats it folks.

 

[ridle]

My best match surely is Stadler over Pavin - amazing line.

 

[abc]

My best match surely is Stadler over Pavin - amazing line.

Pavin playin a couse of 7400+ yards is interesting. You never know with Kevin. He is pretty inconsistent. 11 made cuts out of 20 events. Corey was playin well until rd 2 last week.. i would lean the other way but Good Luck.

 

[Another Steve]

Tournament information:
The Canadian Open has deep roots. Founded in 1904, it is the second oldest non-major tournament, save for the BMW Championship, formerly known as the Western Open. The original format was 36 holes over two days. John H. Oke won the inaugural tournament at the Royal Canadian Golf Club in Dixie, Quebec. Three years after the tournament's inception, the event switched to its current format, 72 holes over four days.
The fledgling tournament was hosted annually through 1914 before being postponed from 1915 to 1918 due to World War I. When the event was re-instituted in 1919, it was never to be halted for reasons other than weather again. During World War II, its value as a national open skyrocketed as it, along with the British and U.S., were three of the only golf tournaments played during that era. The conclusion to World War II took some of the luster from the event.

Today, with the Canadian Open not being as prestigious as other national opens, it provides a great place for American golfers to seek a country's championship; seeing that it is the easiest to qualify for and typically has a lower quality field than other similar events, the Canadian Open affords those not likely to win a major championship the opportunity to still capture a national open.

Though the field can be underwhelming at times, the Canadian Open has been the site of many notable achievements. Arnold Palmer captured his first PGA Tour win at the 1955 Open. Lee Trevino's 1971 victory capped off his amazing run at three national open victories in a month. Tiger Woods, in 2000, became the only other player to accomplish this feat, winning the U.S., then the British, followed by the Canadian.


Course information:
The Angus Glen Golf Club, North Course was designed by Doug Carrick, who prior to the North Course, was famous for his design of the South Course, and by American, Jay Morrish in 2000. The course has hosted the 2001 Canadian Women's Open as well as the 2002 Canadian Open; however, in 2006, in preparation for the upcoming 2007 Canadian Open, Davis Love III re-designed the North Course. Love's firm, Love Design, systematically tightened the fairways, lengthened fairways, and re-shaped bunkers to make the event more difficult than the 2002 event.
At 7,403 yards, the monstrous Par 72 course has a course rating of 74.6 and a slope rating of 143. The course features Creeping Bent Grass on the tees, fairways, and greens, with 0.41" cut for the tees, 0.46" cut for the fairways, and a 0.115" cut for the greens. The Bent Grass greens make for a fast green, as evidenced by the stimpmeter rating between 11 and 11.5. The fairways at Angus Glen are a 4" cut of Kentucky Blue Grass.

The Angus Glen, North Course is a throwback course. Wide fairways lined with large dunes. Tight greens that require well-played approach shots; its layout, save for the surrounding woodlands, attempts to fool golfers into thinking they are playing somewhere across the Atlantic; the most noteable feature of this relic course are its large assorment of bunkers featuring a sod-wall lining. With 103 bunkers lining the course, and the majority of them featuring the sod-wall bunkers, golfers can easily find there way into trouble, but will have much more trouble getting out.

The only anomalies to this format are the Par 3's, which are much tighter and lined with trees, and Number 18. Number 18 is a long Par 4 that requires a tee shot down a wooded chute. Anything in the woods and five may be considered a good score. From the fairway, the hole is much more manageable, but it still plays as one of the hardest on the course.


The Buzz:
The event has had to scramble to keep alive. Sponsorship has been non-exist, any breaks from the PGA Tour have been non-exist as it has the worst dates on the schedule being wedge after the British Open and the Bridgestone then PGA Championship.
With that they were only able to get two top-25 players Jim Furyk and Vijay Singh. They do have to thank Furyk for honoring a commitment by coming as the defending champion.

Still they have a lot of mid-tier players looking to improve their status on the FedEx Cup standings, since that series is wrapping up with the final qualifying even being just four weeks away.

Again the big question will be if a Canadian can come to the fro-front this year, 2004 did bring a lot of excitment.



Here are some things to look for this week:
Here are some of the secrets that it will take to play well this week at the Canadian Open:


Photo: ? Stan Badz/Wire Images
The 18th Hole of The Angus Glen Golf Club, home of the 2007 Canadian Open..

This year the Bell Canadian Open moves to Angus Glen, a public course just outside of Toronto. The course is a blend of natural terrain with significant eleation changes that wonders through valleys and wetlands. The back nine has a stretch of Scottish-style links holes The greens are average in size that have undulations in them and are well bunkered.

Key stat for the winner:
Even though the fairways are wide under PGA Tour standards the fairways are demanding and very penal for those that miss the fairway. Rough will be 4 to 4 and a half inches in length so look for good drivers to have a big advantage.
Greens are contoured and well bunkered which means that those that scramble will do very well.
Not many of the players in the field have seen the course and those that have will be on a redesign from 2002 so it will take some learning to master it. Look for a player that spends a lot of time on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday in educating himself on the secerts of the course to have a big advantage over those that just show up on Tuesday afternoon.
The last time a first-time winner prevailed at the Bell Canadian Open was in 2002 when the course was last played and previous to that was in 1996 when Dudley Hart won and before that it was in 1981 when Peter Oosterhuis won. So the Bell Canadian Open hasn't favored non-winners and I don't see that changing this year. Of the 97 winners of the event, 49 including the last four champions have been won by a player who owns a major championship title
Good putters should have a field day this week. That's because I hear that the severely-sloping greens will be a lot slower than normal.
For those wondering about a Canadian-born champion, the last one was in 1954 when Pat Fletcher won. Lately its been a bit bare, Mike Weir lost a playoff in 2004, Dave Barr finished T4th in 1988.

 

[Another Steve]

Davis Love III has been tweaking the holes at Angus Glen ahead of this week's Canadian Open since the event was last staged there in 2002.

The prediction is that the players will find the test somewhat stiffer, with tighter fairways, more penal rough and a par reduced to 71 from 72 with one of the par fives reduced to a lengthy par four.

The champion five years ago was John Rollins and although he may struggle to reach his total of 16 under again on the way to a playoff win over Neal Lancaster and Justin Leonard, he still looks a reasonable starting point.

He has enjoyed another hugely consistent year on the PGA Tour having made an impressive 16 cuts from 20 events and already trousered over $2 million.

One of those missed cuts came last week at the Open Championship but I am inclined to overlook that considering golf on a cold and blustery links does not treally seem to be his forte.

An early exit from Carnoustie will have given some more time to prepare here and get a handle on the changes that Love has incorporated.

Rollins hit top form at virtually the same time last season when winning the BC Open and he looks well capable of repeating the dose at the general 40/1 on offer.

Left-hander Steve Flesch is also worth an interest at 66/1 after he found some form himself at last week's US Bank Championship in Milwaukee.

He has spent the most part of 2007 floundering around in the doldrums and despite still tinkering with his putting, he managed his first top-five of the campaign which included a 64 in round two.

Likes Rollins, Flesch also has good memories from this venue thanks to a T4 here five years ago and I also like the fact that his last win back in 2004 also came after a T5.

It shows he is the sort of player who can back it up after a good display so gets the vote at 66/1 to get in the groove once again.

Jim Furyk heads the betting at 7/1 as he bids to defend the title.

It is tough to quibble with his price considering the remarkable run of form he has been in but all good things have to end at some stage and grinding out all four days at the Open last week may just take the edge off him.

You have to go back to 1954 for the last Canadian winner of his national open but Mike Weir has been well backed to end the drought.

He came within a whisker of achieving the feat in 2004 and is certainly showing his best form of this season with two recent top-10s to his credit, including last week at the Open.

He is his nation's main hope again and may well rise to the occasion but it is two lesser lights who catch my eye to complete this week's selections.

Troy Matteson missed the weekend's action in Milwaukee but has twice tied for third in his last four outings and could well be worth another chance.

Like Flesch, he showed last season he is capable of holding his form over a period of weeks as he had twice finished in the top 10 before claiming the Frys.com Open in Las Vegas.

This will be his first competitive look at Angus Glen but may just be able to overcome that considering how well he is playing.

Those looking for someone at massive odds for an interest this week could do worse than John Mallinger.

In his first full season on Tour, he is already well on the way to cracking the $1 million barrier with two third places on his CV.

He showed he is still in good nick with a tidy T13 in Milwaukee last week and a couple of firms have been forced to clip his odds into 150/1.

There is still some 200s floating about and that could look huge come Sunday evening

 

[ridle]

Mallinger is an interesting prob, played Cantour a bit in 06...

Btw, interesting intrrview snippets below - I expect this to play very similar to Jennings Mills, which was also redone by Davis - birdie buster course for big hitters- anyone tell me if Kimbell or Bolli get in as a replacement
Also good reference for this seems Price Cutter Charity last week on nwide- pretty same kind of player needed as for Jennings...

Other players I fancy are Dickerson, Garrigus, Steve Allan and Jeffrey Overton.

Q. This week's routine, switching from a really hard course to here at Angus Glen, is this just a routine change or is there something different coming from a place like Carnoustie?
MARK CALCAVECCHIA: It's kind of like going from Augusta to Hilton Head. You know, there's an ease in pressure. You know, Carnoustie is such a battle. You come here, and we're used to it. You come here, and you know, the fairways are more forgiving. You know, a lot wider. You're not going to get goofy responses like you're going to get over there.
It's just we're used to the change, but it's nice to come and get back to it. Although, this is a national championship as well, don't forget, as is the British Open. But it's definitely a little bit more relaxed atmosphere. And, you know, more relaxed stage, so to speak.

Q. I heard one player tell his caddy after they played the back nine first, and after the back nine he was joking that there could be somebody who doesn't miss this fairway this week. Is it really like one of the easiest, one of the most forgiving courses you've seen on the tour?
MARK CALCAVECCHIA: The fairways are pretty wide. But, no, I mean, if you have a good day driving the ball, you could easily hit every fairway here. But no, I mean, the guy who leads the week in driving accuracy, I think will probably miss between 6 and 8 fairways for the whole week. They're pretty wide.
But on the other hand, you know, there's some holes like 10, 11, and 12 where you don't need to hit driver. Even though 11's a par 5, but you can. The fairways are still wide. But they narrow up the farther you go. Like I hit on 11, I hit a 3-iron on a par 5, because the fairway's wider than where the fairway ends up, and you can still reach. You can have a 5 or 6-iron down wind. But, you know, it gets narrower.
There are decisions off the tee whether it's a driver or 3-wood, but, you know, it roughs up, if you miss the fairway, the rough's pretty thick in spots. So it's always important to drive the ball well. But I think the battle this week will be on the greens.

Q. You weren't here in '02, so you have no idea what the course looked like before Davis did the changes. Have you seen any evidence of where it might have been before? And can you imagine how wide the fairways must have been before?
MARK CALCAVECCHIA: They're narrower now than they were?

Q. Much.
MARK CALCAVECCHIA: Are they really. Oh, pretty forgiving for the members, I guess. You know, I can't really -- I can't tell because I don't know what it looked like before. But, you know, I think it's a beautiful course. There are some pretty good lofts and seasoned greens and things. You know, the rolling hills, it's a beautiful piece of land. And I enjoy playing courses like this.
So I like it. It's visually appealing to me. I've always said, you know, you have to like the way a course looks to play it well. Because if you can't see where you want to go or see the shots you want to play, it's very difficult to play. And I can -- the course sets up well for me. It's really visually appealing to me, so that's why I like it.

THE MODERATOR: Welcome, Mike. Thanks for coming in for a couple of minutes. National Championship, obviously, so it's good to be here. But more curious to see how the course is playing today. What are your thoughts on it?
MIKE WEIR: Yeah, I thought the golf course was playing really, really good. You know, it's soft. It's a lot softer than I thought. I was kind of surprised about that. So you'll see the ball stopping on the greens pretty good this week. The contour of the greens, the green speeds are really good.
So the greens have a lot of slopes to them. That's going to be probably the toughest factor of this golf course is really around the greens. There's a lot of roll-off areas and deep rolls around the greens.
It's fairly generous off the tee, but around the green is going to be the toughest part. I think they did a great job get ting this golf course ready. I've played it about a month ago, and it's really come a long way from there. It's going to be good.

 

[lostinamerica]

Outrights:

Billy Andrade(125/1) e.w.

Nathan Green(50/1) e.w.

Brandt Snedeker(35/1) e.w.

Hunter Mahan(22/1) e.w.


Matchups:

Mahan(+100) over O'Hair (Tournament)


GL