Preview & outright plays:
It's major season - the US Open this week; the MacDonald's LPGA Championship next week and the US Senior Open the week after - but in the meantime, the other Tours continue as usual. Almost as usual, I suppose, as the Ladies have taken refuge from the US Open by flying to France, but for the Seniors this is another regular Tour event. Tom Kite and Hale Irwin may be preparing to do battle with Southern Hill, but this week sees the return of Gil Morgan and Bruce Fleischer. For the second time, they play at the Gary Player-designed TPC at Jasna Polana which is noteworthy not just for the tree-lined, undulating course but also for the clubhouse.
In the first few months of the season, the weekly selections were nearly always Canizares, Doyle and Quigley. Their successes has meant that their odds have dropped, but maybe the value has shifted to another set of players, particularly given the views taken by BetSmart and UKBetting: Quigley (still), Hall and Jenkins. These were the three selections last week and they are again this week. I noted two weeks at the BellSouth Senior Classic that Quigley was following a good week-bad week pattern - should have avoided him last week then! - and duly enough he finished down the field in 33rd place. But he had been up with the leaders after the 1st round only to suffer a 78 in the 2nd, so there is no concern that this was a deterioration of form. With a top-15 finish last year, he looks set to continue the pattern.
Hall and Jenkins opened with poor rounds, but closed very strongly. Hall was only two shots out of a place finish and Jenkins again finished in the top-15. With Hall in great form - he has finished in the top-10 in five of his last seven events - he can surely improve on last week's near miss by eliminating that one bad round. The same is true for Jenkins, but there may be reason why he should improve on his run of good, but not spectacular finishes. He won this event in 1999 at Chester Valley and was tied with Gil Morgan and Bob Murphy after 36 holes only to fall back in the final round to 4th. With an excellent history and in good form, he should perform far better than his odds suggest.
Outright plays:
Dana Quigley to win 40/1 e.w. @
UKBetting
Walter Hall to win 66/1 e.w. @
UKBetting or
BetSmart
Tom Jenkins to win 66/1 e.w. @
UKBetting or
BetSmart
