The PGA Tour regular season culminates this week with the TOUR Championship at East Lakes Golf Club in Atlanta, Georgia.
East Lakes Golf Club is a Par 70 course measuring 7154 yards. The greens are Bermudagrass and running at 12 on the stimpmeter. The course record of 60 was set by Zach Johnson in 2007.
The Purse this week is US$8 million with the winner taking home US$1,440,000.
With only 30 players in the field this week everyone will be out to stake their claim on the winner’s cheque.
This week also sees the crowning of the FedExCup winner who will take home a US$10 million bonus.
Realistically any of the 30 players in the field can still claim the FedExCup bonus however they will need to rely on other players higher in the standings having a bad weekend.
To make it simple if one of the Top five players secures victory this week they will take the FedExCup honours and the US$10 million bonus.
Those five players are Rory McIlroy, Tiger Woods, Nick Watney, Phil Mickelson and Brandt Snedeker.
To win this week a player will need to be able to handle the pressure cooker environment as the 10 million bonus is sure to be on their mind late in the round on Sunday.
Nerves of steel, experience and motivation will take you a long way this week.
Putting stats should also be looked at as three of the last four winners have lead the field in putting.
Hitting greens is also a requirement at East Lakes. Good ball strikers also fair well here.
The Top five in betting this week are-
Rory McIlroy $5.50, Tiger Woods $6.00, Phil Mickelson $13.00, Dustin Johnson $17.00 and Adam Scott $17.00.
So who will win this week?
Tiger Woods $6.00 (www.sportsbet.com.au)
If you had to pick one guy to be on your side when the pressure is on, you would take Tiger Woods every day of the week.
Tiger has hit a purple patch of form of late and this season has seen him get back to the Tiger of old that we all know and love.
With US$10 million up for grabs this week you can expect a few players to crack under pressure. Tiger has nerves of steel and performs under pressure better than any other player on the PGA Tour.
He also has the motivation to chase down Rory McIlroy who is the current FedExCup points leader and who has been getting all the attention over the last few months due to his deeds on the course.
To win back to back on the PGA Tour is very hard to do and Rory has done that in the last two tournaments. He is now trying to go back to back to back! The pressure could take its toll on him this week. This will also be Rory’s first visit toEastLakes.
Tiger cracked the US$100 million career prize money this year and has already had three wins to see him climb back to No.2 in the World Golf rankings.
He has had 18 starts and made 16 cuts. 12 of those were Top 25 finishes and 8 were Top 10’s.
The three wins have been-
- Arnold Palmer Invitational
- The Memorial Tournament
- AT+T National
His last two starts see him in great form-
- 3rd Deutsche Bank Championship
- T4th BMW Championship
When you look at his form at East Lakes and you know he has to be the man to beat this week-
- 2nd in 2009
- 1st in 2007
- 2nd in 2005
- 2nd in 2004
Stats wise he is at the top of his game-
- 34th Driving distance 45th Driving accuracy
- 17th in GIR’s 26th in Strokes gained putting
- 7th in Birdie average 2nd in Scoring average
- 6th in Total driving 2nd in Money leader
- 8th in Ball striking 3rd in Scrambling
- 1st in Par 4 performance
Tiger will be out to prove a point this week and it would be mad to over look him when the stakes are so high this week.
There are also a few other markets that should be looked at this week-
$8.00 for lowest round in the tournament.
$3.75 for Top US Player.
$1.93 in a head to head with Rory McIlroy.
Good luck and good punting.
