Tag: Billy Horschel

Ryan Repeats at PGA Tour’s CIMB Classic

Posted on by Online Betting Pro

Ryan Moore successfully defended his CIMB Classic title in the PGA Tour’s Malaysia stopover last week, shooting a final round five under 67 to win by three from Gary Woodland, and the highest ranked player in the field, Sergio Garcia.

Moore’s fourth PGA Tour win makes him the first player to successfully defend a title since Tiger Woods achieved it at the Arnold Palmer Invitation in 2012/13.

The 31 year old mixed eight birdies and three bogeys on route to the win, withstanding a final round challenge from familiar foe Gary Woodland.  Woodland finished runner up here last year (losing in a playoff to Moore) and again mounted a strong late challenge, but missed puts on 16 and 18 prevented him from putting serious pressure on Moore.

Third round leader Kevin Na saw his challenge fade at the 17th, after burning chances throughout the final round after a rapid start, Na put his tee shot on the 17th into a plan tree and couldn’t recover.  South Korea’s Bae Sang-moon (69) was tied for fifth with 21-year-old Australian Cameron Smith (68).  Smith has huge raps on him as a young player to watch; his week proved the undoubted potential.

FedEx Cup winner, Billy Horschel, finished tied for 37th.

Two events this week, one PGA Tour, one WGC.

Sanderson Farms Championship

The PGA Tour takes a reduced field to the Country Club of Jackson, a 7,354 yards, par 72 course founded in 1914.  Missing the top 50 in the Official World Golf Rankings (they’ll play in Shanghai) the event offers up a lower than norm 300 FedEx Cut points.  Without the big names the tournament again becomes one of FedEx Cup priority.  Players will be chasing cheap points and this season’s winners Robert Streb and Ben Martin will be looking to pull away from the pack.

The field is a true lucky dip of players.  Aside from the two above (Martin is the highest ranked player at 57), Padraig Harrington, Woody Austin (as last years winner), and John Daly are the main draw cards.  That’s quite saddening.

Predictions

Stay clear of this one.  It’s too tough to pick a PGA Tour winner at the best of times, let alone a limited field.  It might be quite tricky to find a bookie taking it on too.  But if you have to, consider:

Nicholas Thompson ($101), Danny Lee ($61), William McGirt ($56) or Charles Howell III ($36) all at bet365.

WGC HSBC Championship

The spotlight on Asia continues during the Sheshan International GC (West) hosted World Golf Championship event starting on the 6th of November.  Tiger Woods once called the course “the crowning jewel of all of Asian golf”, so it’s only fitting that only the top 50 players in the World make the trip.  Some will use the tournament to mark their returns to competitive golf for the first time since the FedEx Cup concluded.  Four of the top six golfers, and 12 of the top 20 join the field in competing for 550 FedEx Cup points and a ton of money.

Picking a winner here is equally tough given the quality in the field.  In fact, most of the odds I’ve seen simply list the world rankings and odds in descending order.  For example, Adam Scott, Sergio Garcia, and Justin Rose are the favourites; matching their World rankings.

Others to Watch

Jordan Speith – $29 – Unibet

Rickie Fowler – $21 – Luxbet

Thorbjorn Olesen – $71 – bet365

The Tour Championship and PGA Tour Review

Posted on by Online Betting Pro

The culmination to the PGA Tour season is always a confusing affair. With all the talk about bubbles and projected standings it can get a little tricky working out whether your favourite player has the opportunity to win the coveted FedEx Cup, not to mention if they’ll even make it through to the next event.

Luckily, with Billy Horschel’s win in the season ending Tour Championship we don’t need to worry anymore. Instead we can look forward to the passion and prestige of the Ryder Cup, set to begin at Gleneagles on the 23rd of September.

But before we start predicting whether the USA can prevent a Europe three peat, let’s take a look at the Tour Championship and review the 2013-14 PGA Tour season. 

The Tour Championship 

Held at Eastlake in Georgia the final event of the season is played by only the top 30 players in the FedEx Cup standings and comes with an excellent purse of $8 million. (The FedEx Cup too comes with a $10 million bonus.)

The Eastlake course was the home of the legendary golfer Bobby Jones, and while none of the current field have reached his lofty heights (seven majors), two players playing pretty great golf of late were locked in a gripping final round battle.

Coming in to the final event at number 2 and number 4 in the FedEx Cup standings, Billy Horschel and Rory McIlroy could both get their hands on the FedEx Cup with a win. Paired together for the final day the two were expected to buck the trend of 4th round conservatism. However, with only Jim Furyk (and he hasn’t had a win since 2010) offering any real challenge the two could play match play of sorts – winner takes all. Rory’s challenged was effectively over on the sixth when he found water and when Horschel signed for a 12th consecutive round in the 60’s the double was his.

It was, on reflection, a wonderful achievement from a guy who started the playoffs in 69th position and before today was best known for being a bit of a hot head. Today’s win makes him a good pick for next year’s events and a sleeper for the majors.

The PGA Tour Season

It’s admittedly hard to think back to October 2013 when the season started, not because of too many gold rum and cokes, simply because of the sheer number of tournaments and the musical chair winner’s circle that the PGA Tour entails. Having said that there were some players and some moments that stood out.

Jimmy Walker dominated the early stages thanks to thee wins (at the Frys.com Open, the Sony Open, and the AT&T at Pebble Beach) and sat in pole position for the post-season events. Bubba Watson won twice including his second Masters title. Lots of Aussies enjoyed wins (Adam Scott, John Senden, Matt Jones, Jason Day, Steven Bowditch, Geoff Ogilvy, and as a nation they won the World Cup of Golf). Tiger spent most of season on the operating title, and Rory dominated every golf story in the latter part of the season, both for his golf and for the abrupt halt to his engagement.

Outside of the golf, Dustin Johnson had his ‘issues’. Adam Scott got married in secret and broke the hearts of a host of female fans. McIlroy’s dad, Gerry, got in on the action too by netting a huge payout from a ten-year-old bet, predicting his son would win an Open Championship.

Looking ahead to 2014-15 here are a few predictions:

  • Tiger won’t win a major. Rickie Fowler will.
  • Anthony Kim (remember him) will return to the game. But will be terrible.
  • More pros will throw away their anchored putters in preparation for the 2016 ban.