Last week we had a 25/1 Winner with Jason Dufner claiming Victory in the Zurich Classic of New Orleans after a Play Off with Ernie Els.
This week the PGA Tour rolls into Charlotte, North Carolina for the Wells Fargo Championship at the Quail Hollow Club. This event was established in 2003 and has always been played at Quail Hallow.
In 2003 the event was known as the Wachovia Championship until it was renamed the Quail Hallow Championship in 2009, then in 2011 it became the Wells Fargo Championship.
This years purse is US$6,500,000 with the winner taking home US$1,170,000.
Quail Hollow is a Par 72, 7,469 yard course that is considered one of the most exclusive clubs in America. The players love this tournament as it is a very challenging course and brings out the best in thier game. The course also has one of the toughest finishes on the PGA tour with holes 16,17 and 18 known as the ‘Green Mile’. These 3 holes are sure to bring some players to ther knees and cause all sorts of pressure come sunday afternoon.
The course is set up very much like a US Open sytle and as such hitting greens is a must. The fairways are tight and shot making will play a major factor this week. Most of the winners in the past have ranked highly in this stat as well as putting as the greens are fast and undulating. Good overall stats will see you play well here as the cream always rises to the top.
Looking at the field this week we are in for a real treat as the quality is worthy of a Major.
We have 11 players who have already won this season teeing it up this week including Tiger Woods (Arnold Plamer Invitational), Phil Mickelson (AT&T Pebble Beach), Rory McIlroy (Honda Classic) and Hunter Mahan (WGC Match Play and Houston Open).
There are 8 Past winners of the Wells Fargo Championship looking to be the first person to claim two titles in the short history of this event. They inlcude Defending Champion Lucas Glover, Sean O’Hair (2009), Jim Furyk (2006) and Vijay Singh (2005).
To keep the quality rolling we also have 17 Major winners strutting thier struff with the likes of Keegan Bradley, Zach Johnson, Geoff Ogilvy, Retief Goosen, Angel Cabrera and Trevor Immelman.
Then you have a host of International players vying for thier name to be included on the honors roll like Jason Day, Lee Westwood, Martin Laird, Rory Sabbatini, Marc Leishman and Andres Romero.
As you can see from the above mentioned players there is a host of talent on offer this week and we are in for some very exciting golf.
The TWO Players who I believe will be up there in contention and challenging come Sunday are:-
Hunter Mahan 20/1
Hunter had a very positive 2011 season with 22 cuts made from 25 starts. He had 13 Top 25’s and 9 Top 10’s as well as finishing 2nd twice. We then move forward to this season and he is in career best form. He has made the cut in all 8 starts and been placed in the Top 25 in seven of those! He has also notched up 2 Wins already with victory at the WGC Match Play Championship at the Ritz-Carlton GC in February and the Shell Houston Open at Redstone GC in late March.
After his victory at the Shell Houston Open he backed up the next week in the Masters Tournament and finished in a tie for 12th. He has sat out the past three tournaments and comes into this weeks event well rested and ready to show why he is playing so well and with so much confidence.
His form at Quail Hollow is very incouraging with his last four visits here notching up T12th (2008), T22nd (2009), T17th (2010) and T16th (2011). Then you look at his current stats of 5th in Driving Accuracy, 5th in GIR’s, 6th in Ball Striking, 14th in Scoring average and 39th in Strokes gained Putting and you can see why he has the game to win here.
This could be the week where we see Hunter chalk up his 3rd win for the season and his 6th in his PGA Career. You can almost here the crowd chanting the ‘Golf Boys’ song ‘Oh Oh Oh’ as he walks up the 18th on Sunday!
Bo Van Pelt 40/1
If you are looking for a consistant golfer to back then you can’t go past Bo Van Pelt. He is having a great season on tour with 7 cuts made from 9 starts with 5 Top 25’s and 4 Top 10’s.
He was T8th in the Phoenix Open, T8th Northern Trust, T8th WGC Cadillac Championship, 9th Transitions Championship and T17th Masters Tournament. After the Masters he missed the Cut at the RBC heritage and has since had a two week break to refresh himslef ready for the big events ahead.
Looking at his course form he has had 7 starts in this event and made the Cut 6 times. Last year he was T33rd and in 2010 he was 5th. In 2006 he was T6th so we know he can handle the course.
I like his stats this year as well as they are ideal for this type of course. He is ranked 1st in Strokes gained from Putting, 6th in Total Driving, 7th in Birdie average and 4th in All Round ratings.
At the current price he is a great each way chance and should also be looked at in Top 10 markets.
Good Luck and Good Punting.
