Wyndham Championship

After the thrills and spills of last week, its back to more mundane fare this week. And mundane is being polite, this weeks field is very poor.

But there will be a winner, and it may be quite an obvious one.

Tim Clark is a recent winner, doing me a favour in the process, and in winning that week he was consolidating good recent form. He looked like a winner in waiting, and confirmed that with a superb final round to reel in Jim Furyk. He has had two outings since that, and hasn't set the world alight, but Firestone and Valhalla were never going to be Timmy's cup of tea. Sedgefield is. Two top 6's in his last 3 completed starts here, and a Sunday 64 last year which confirmed he has the tools to take this place apart, show that he will be far more at home here. Considering his current well being, 33-1 looks massive to me. The one small worry is that it is his 4th week on the trot, but his missed cut at the weekend will help in that regard. Expect a very prominent showing.

Brandt Snedeker is a deserving favourite. This is a dire field, with very little strength, never mind strength in depth. Sned has been somewhat in the golfing wilderness for awhile, but he has being showing signs for a few weeks now that he could be ready to end his exile from the winners enclosure. Teaming up with Butch Harmon has had an predictably positive effect, and he wont get many better chances of  a win, than here this week. He has performed creditably here before, and if he can get his putter going to even 90% of its brilliant best, then he will take a firm hand in the finish.

Carl Pettersson is a former winner here, amongst other good performances. Its a track that sets up nicely for him, an opening round 62 in 2012 showing he can shoot the lights out, and he will probably have had his sights set on this, while others have been trying to fry bigger fish. Fresh off only two competitive rounds in 5 weeks, he is likely to figure prominently. He is not bullet proof in a finish, but not too many in this field have seen the judges camera in a while, so I will take my chances. 

Brendon de Jonge is another who will be at home on this layout, and like the others capable of going very low. The winner is going to have at least one round where they went birdie crazy, and the Zimbabwean fits the bill. He hasn't been setting the world alight, and indeed has never troubled the judge here, but any slight improvement on his 4 solid rounds in 2012 will be enough to suffice here, in what is a much weaker field.

Freddie Jacobson looks a very big price in field shy on star names. He got off to a roaring start in Valhalla last week, suggesting his game is near enough to peaking. His performance tailed off, but better can be expected here, where he has two top 20 finishes from his two visits.

Gonzalo Fernandez Castano requires slightly more imagination. He has never played Sedgefield before, but there are valid reasons to expect him to take a liking to it. He went very close in the Canadian Open, a series of short putts missed over the 4 days ultimately proving costly. But this is commonplace, so don't expect an improvement there!! But he is 125-1 in shops and 160 on here, so lets not expect perfection from him! Like Clark, he wont have had his ideal conditions the last two weeks, but its perfectly plausible that he may now continue  his good form, on a layout where I have no doubt he will give himself enough birdie chances to go very close....lets just hope he takes them. 

Martin Laird and Scott Piercey came close to selection, and for those feeling adventurous Rocco Mediate is probably worth a fiver of anyones money at 1000-1.

2pts e.w Brandt Snedeker 16-1
1pt e.w Tim Clark 33-1
.5pt e.w Brendon de Jonge 66-1
.5pt e.w Freddie Jacobson 66-1
.6pt e.w Carl Pettersson 50-1
.3pt e.w Gonzo Castano 125-1

8pts Tim Clark Top 20 13-8(cracking bet, should be 4-6 imo)

Running Total...... +29.95pts