USPGA Golf: Chrysler Classic

With just 4 official events to go before the end of the season, the USPGA Tour goes to Greensboro in North Carolina this week for the Chrysler Classic. Korean K.J. Choi will be attempting to defend his title and the bookies are giving him a great chance as he is joint favourite alongside American Steve Stricker at 22/1 with VC Bet. Choi has finished in the top seven in each of his last four starts in this event so must be seriously considered here this week. 2003 champion and 2005 runner-up Shigeki Maruyama is also amongst those fancied by the bookmakers and is a best priced 28/1 with Betfred, which for a player with great form in this event over the last 3 years is great value if you believe in horses for courses in the game of golf. However no-one has won this event back to back since the great Sam Snead in 1955 & 1956 so although recent form is with Maruyama the history books aren't.

Many players will be sweating for survival over the coming months before the tour season concludes on 5th November at the Tour Championship in Atlanta, Georgia. In order to retain playing status on the USPGA tour for next season, players must finish in the top 125 on the money list. There are many players who need a good run in the next few weeks and many well known players could become casualties of this elite cut off point. A couple of players that are around the 125th – 170th mark that could go well and need to go well this week in an attempt for a final late season push for survival are; Carl Pettersson, who was 11th in last year's Chrysler Classic - he is 40/1 with bluesq; Lucas Glover is 25/1 with bet365 – he has had 3 good top 20 finishes in a row and finished 21st here last year; Chris Riley who is a huge 80/1 with Stan James despite being just 50/1 with many other firms and Brad Faxon – he was runner up here in 1997 and 2003 so has the course and distance credentials and he also has the experience and pedigree to match, so 66/1 with VC Bet is pretty good value for him.

It seems strange to be writing about US golf and not be mentioning or tipping Tiger Woods in every paragraph. There is one simple reason for that; - he isn't playing this week. Tiger has managed 6 straight wins in his last six events, which included the WGC in Hertfordshire last week and it seems he is giving the trip back to the states and this event a miss this week. He isn't the only one either who hasn't registered for this event as most of the top names in World golf are on a week off after a recent hectic trans-Atlantic schedule, which has included the World Matchplay, The WGC and of course The Ryder Cup. Many of Europe's top players who may have otherwise entered this event have instead decided to play in the pro-celebrity Dunhill Links Championship in Scotland. This absence of many of the worlds' top players of course produces a hugely open field with some very tasty prices on offer in deed.

Englishman Justin Rose is amongst the bookies shortest priced players and is expected to go well here this week. Despite being one of the favourites and one of the players who has shown signs of good form in recent weeks, he is still available at a whopping 25/1 with bet365. The experienced pair of fairly recent major winners Davis Love and Mike Weir are likely to feature heavily this week also and both are very temptingly priced at 33/1 with Coral, this surely has to be worth a punt for the win or at least an each way as you can get ¼ of the odds for the top 5 with many firms – great value!

Good Luck!

Ed note: Drive over to Blue Square Betting to make all your golf bets

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