Expect Woods to fire up at Firestone

If there is a course on which to back Tiger Woods with great confidence that course is the Firestone Country Club, venue of the World Golf Championships-Bridgestone Invitational.

There are those golfers who have good records on the Akron, Ohio layout and then there is Woods, who has won the WGC tournament staged on it seven times, clinching victories over top-quality fields in 1999, 2000, 2001, 2005, 2006, 2007 and 2009. His statistics are quite extraordinary.

Woods may not reign over the golf world like he once did but no-one is in hotter form than the 14-time major champion, who has won three of the last nine tournaments in which he has played and arrives at the Firestone Country Club having won the Open Championship bronze medal last time out.

Bookmakers have got Woods as the 5-1 WGC - Bridgestone Invitational favourite, which implies that the 36-year-old American superstar has a 17 per cent chance of winning on what one would have to say is his favourite course. Yes, he probably loves the Firestone Country Club even more than Augusta National. Now that is some kind of statement.

If the thought of backing a golfer at a single-figure price to win a tournament featuring 49 of the world`s top 50 - Webb Simpson is the odd man out because his wife has just given birth to the couple`s second child - fills you with dread, there are punting alternatives to Woods at 5-1.

Not long ago Rory McIlroy was the world number one and he would have been an automatic selection at odds of around 22-1. But the Northern Irishman has slid to third in the rankings following a string of poor results in the last three months, including back-to-back major disappointments.

McIlroy is too talented to spend too many tournaments away from the top of the leaderboard and his Firestone Country Club form is decent, with eight consecutive rounds in the 60s en rote to ties for ninth and sixth in 2010 and 2011 respectively. Back him either with or without Woods.

Padraig Harrington is the clear favourite for this week`s other PGA Tour-sanctioned event, the Reno-Tahoe Open, even though the Irishman has not played the Montreux Golf and Country Club layout before and the Modified Stableford system will determine the winner of the tournament.

The Modified Stableford system randomises events somewhat but, if you are keen to have a bet on the Reno-Tahoe Open, it makes sense to pick a golfer who scores birdies and eagles frequently because of how the scoring works.

Jeff Overton, Pat Perez and John Rollins are the only three golfers in the top 25 of this year`s PGA Tour birdie average rankings who are in the Reno-Tahoe Open field so, at 33-1, 33-1 and 25-1 respectively, they are worth a second look.

Overton is in the best form of the three and just so happens to be the longest priced as well. The 29-year-old from Evansville in Indiana has been a consistent top-30 finisher on the PGA Tour in the last two months and he could be set to break throughout for his first professional victory.

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31/07/2012     © Frixo 2026