The Victorian PGA Championship returns to the Forest Resort golf course in Creswick, Victoria for the second year running.
It is a Par 72 course, measuring 6300 metres. Both the front nine and back nine have two Par 5’s and two Par 3’s.
There are 15 lagoons on the course and the undulating greens and fairways are framed by the forest which is visually spectacular.
The bookies Top 5 in betting this week are- $11 Matthew Griffin, $13 Gareth Paddison, $17 Peter O’Malley, $17 Daniel Nisbet and $19 Ashley Hall.
This week the two players to follow are-
Daniel Nisbet $17.00 (www.sportsbet.com.au)
Daniel was our tip in the NSW PGA Championship at the end of last season. He played some great golf and finished second.
This week the field is the same strength and we can expect to see the same type of finish.
In July last year he won the US Players Amateur Championship at the Berkeley Hall Club in South Carolina.
From there he played in the First Qualifying Stage of Q School in October at the Lantana Golf Club in Texas.
Daniel won the event and finished at 24 under par. The second player finished at 12 under par. He won the event by 12 shots!!!
He returned to Australia where he played in his first event as a Pro.
It was the WA Open Championship where he finished T6th.
After a great start to his professional career it was back to the USA for the Second Qualifying stage of Q School. Unfortunately he finished T51st and did not make the final stage of qualification.
He then finished second in the NSW PGA Championship three shots behind the winner Matthew Stieger.
Next stop was the Australian Open where he missed the cut. That was his last tournament for the year.
To start the 2013 season Nisbet shook off the cobwebs with a 31st place finish in the PGA of Australasia Qualifying School that was played earlier this month.
Daniel is planning on playing in Australia until March when he will head to the USA to play on the web.com tour. If he is hoping to play well there you would expect him to produce the goods in an event like the Victorian PGA Championship.
Ryan Fox $41.00 (www.sportsbet.com.au)
Ryan finished the 2012 PGA Australasian Tour Order of Merit in 29th place. Not bad for a guy who turned pro in late 2011.
He had a glittering amateur career prior to turning pro. Heading into the 2012 season he was ranked 1406 on the OWGR. By the end of the year he was ranked 777.
Those numbers are sure to continue to fall in 2013.
Early highlights of 2012 included a 27th in the Victorian PGA Championship, 11th QLD PGA Championship and 4th NZ PGA Pro-Am Championship.
At the back end of the year he produced 14th Talisker Masters, 16th New Zealand Open and 4th NSW PGA Championship.
With his rookie season under his belt we can expect to see Ryan producing even better finishes in 2013.
As the son of former All Blacks Legend Grant Fox he has certainly picked up his fathers skills of performing on the big stage.
Watch out for him this year.
