Tiger Misses The Cut For The First Time In a Major

Tiger Woods has missed the cut in a major golf tournament for the first time since he turned professional. Tiger's absence on the weekend, coupled with the fact that there are no "big names" up top of the leader board, has thrown the betting wide open.

Yesterday, we hinted that the bookies had Tiger too short and there was some value around for other golfers. Unfortunately, out of our tips - Appleby missed the cut and Adam Scott shot 6 over, and is now 9 shots from the lead. Luckily for us, Montgomerie shot a solid even par and is right in the mix. The 20/1 we took on him yesterday at Pinnacle Sports is looking tasty.

Looking at the bookmarkers odds, by default Phil Mickelson has assumed favoritism after Tiger's departure. The fact that he is 4 shots off the lead with two rounds to go does not seem to have influenced punters. We think Phil is too short given his current position on the leader board!

Looking at the value bets, we still think Montgomerie is worth a bet at around 8/1. Currently you can get this price at Bet365.

Steve Stricker, in our view, is an unlikely leader at the half way point. His tour average of 70.02 is very respectable, but Steve is not a particularly long hitter of the golf ball and one would think this was a prerequisite for Winged Foot. Still at 9/1 we think it is worth taking the half way leader.

Geoff Ogilvy has had a stellar year on tour to date currently sitting in the top 5 in the money list. Ogilvy is a solid striker of the ball and has a game that can win at Winged Foot. With rounds of 71 and 70, we think Ogilvy is a good value bet at $8.50 at Bet365. Forget the rest of the golfers in the field as the bookies are not offering much value!

Taking my sports punters hat off for a second, it was great to see Duval make the cut in style, shooting a one under the card 69 in the second round. Given his well publicized demise from the golfing scene, it seems like he is getting back to his best.

• 
• 
• Email to a friend
• Print