MSU, talk about timing. I was just getting ready to come on here. I spent about 6 hours on site at the DB Championship here in nearby Norton, MA today. I spent some time following Tiger and it was NOT packed early when he was going off. Spent some time in the NIKE truck that was on site and learned more about wedges, bounce etc than I thought possible, however that got me access to stand right behind the players on the range when I exited (remember - today is the Pro-Am; tournament proper begins tomorrow.) Watched all of the top players up close either on the range or on a couple of tees. Tiger looked good (not playing him - back seemed fine but might be a problem if he hits it in the rough.) I watched Phil hit balls for 20 minutes. He hit about 10 drivers, 9 of them went wide left and he wasn't trying to cut it.) He finally hit one solid and straight and put it away. He did hit the 3 wood well, however this course calls for many drivers. Not betting him either. Stenson and Day looked real good when I saw them. So did Adam Scott. By the way, Gary Woodland is an impressive athlete.
Based on value return, here are my plays in a fully loaded field.
Stricker: 30-1
Speith: 44-1
Fowler: 40-1
I didn't play them, but Z Johnson (39-1) and H Stenson (24-1) are both in good form and worth a look.
No worries, Mike. This is the time of year I start to ride your coat tails right through to March Madness. I stood 20' from DJ and watched him tee off a long par 4, so he hit driver and it was just plain different. He does not hit it all that high, but it stayed in the air for a while and it was straight. Can he win? Sure he can. However, he hasn't made a cut (0-2) since he got engaged to the lovely Paulina Gretzky. Do I blame him? No. Am I ready to invest in him? No.
Here are a few tournament matchups (All 4 rounds) that I will be playing:
Jim Furyk -115 over Dustin Johnson
Furyk has four straight top tens and Johnson is coming off a missed cut last week, plus the recent engagement to The Great One's daughter might be weighing on his mind
Adam Scott +120 over Tiger Woods
Adam Scott is arguably the best player in the world right now, and even though he's against Tiger I like him as the underdog against anyone
Lee Westwood -125 over Sergio Garcia
Sergio has been playing pretty average golf as of late and Westwood is the better ball striker and overall player