New Year tidings
January 15th 2009 08:23
Welcome to the first blog of 2009 a year in which I hope to tip you many winners on the US and European Tours.
What I won’t do is tell you is that Tiger Woods is a good chance to win such and such a tournament because Tiger, and Phil, and Sergio and Paddy Harrington are always good chances to win any tournament they enter.
What I will try to do is steer you towards players at good value with the bookmakers, guys who will be at odds of 40-1 or 100-1 but who I believe have good chances of winning based on their form, their past performances on the course in question and any other inside information. Basically I’ll try to do the research for you.
Before I get to this week’s tournaments I’ll tell you the players I’ll be keeping an eye on in 2009; guys whom others might call journeymen but who I think have the game to make the big time this year.
They include:
- DJ Trahan, a player who was close up in plenty of majors last year and who is ready to step up to regular contender
- Kevin Streelman, who had a bold rookie season, putting himself in the fray plenty of times but just failing to make a breakthrough win
- Steve Marino, a real birdie-makerwho just needs consistency to temper his brilliance
- Ken Duke, who had a raft of top-10 finishes to prove he could mix it with the good guys. He just needs a dose of self belief to win this year
- Wil Collins, who really impressed me with his gritty, heads-up performance to earn his card at tour school
There will be others who I’ll identify through the year as being ready to win; much as I did with Camilo Villegas last year.
Anyway, to the opening week of the season (in terms of full field tournaments): the Sony Open in Hawaii.
Here I’m looking past the obvious candidates like Ernie Els, Vijay Singh and Davis Love (who could well have boom year with his rediscovered game) and steer you towards a Hawaiian native with a good record at the Sony Open (10th last year) and the confidence of having won his first tournament last year.
His name is Parker McLauchlin and he’s got a strong chance at around 100-1.
Vaughn Taylor is talent-laden but went awol for most of 2008 until late in the year when he rediscovered his touch with a couple of top 10 finishes, If can carry over that form following the holiday period, he could challenge here.
And my third tip is Steve Marino, for the reasons I mentioned above – he makes birdies!
In the middle east the Abu Dhabi Championship is the European’s first tournament of 2009, although the season actually began late last year.
There’s a great field here including Padraig Harrington, Sergio Garcia, Trevor Immelman and Miguel Angel Jiminez/
Again, outside these favoured players I like a couple of roughies. One is Oliver Fisher, a young Englishman who excels in hitting fairways and greens but needs to pick up his putting. He started to do that late last year and could be poised for the first of many wins most experts believe he can achieve.
His countrymen Paul Casey and David Howell are my other picks,
Casey won this tournament two years ago and after a poorish 2008 when he was expected to excel in majors, he finally refound his consistency late ilast year.
David Howell has been plagued by injury in recent years but at his best, which he could be approaching, he’s easily good enough to win this tournament.
Good luck and tune in next week for a post-mortem of this week’s tournament and predictions for the next stops.
What I won’t do is tell you is that Tiger Woods is a good chance to win such and such a tournament because Tiger, and Phil, and Sergio and Paddy Harrington are always good chances to win any tournament they enter.
What I will try to do is steer you towards players at good value with the bookmakers, guys who will be at odds of 40-1 or 100-1 but who I believe have good chances of winning based on their form, their past performances on the course in question and any other inside information. Basically I’ll try to do the research for you.
Before I get to this week’s tournaments I’ll tell you the players I’ll be keeping an eye on in 2009; guys whom others might call journeymen but who I think have the game to make the big time this year.
They include:
- DJ Trahan, a player who was close up in plenty of majors last year and who is ready to step up to regular contender
- Kevin Streelman, who had a bold rookie season, putting himself in the fray plenty of times but just failing to make a breakthrough win
- Steve Marino, a real birdie-makerwho just needs consistency to temper his brilliance
- Ken Duke, who had a raft of top-10 finishes to prove he could mix it with the good guys. He just needs a dose of self belief to win this year
- Wil Collins, who really impressed me with his gritty, heads-up performance to earn his card at tour school
There will be others who I’ll identify through the year as being ready to win; much as I did with Camilo Villegas last year.
Anyway, to the opening week of the season (in terms of full field tournaments): the Sony Open in Hawaii.
His name is Parker McLauchlin and he’s got a strong chance at around 100-1.
Vaughn Taylor is talent-laden but went awol for most of 2008 until late in the year when he rediscovered his touch with a couple of top 10 finishes, If can carry over that form following the holiday period, he could challenge here.
And my third tip is Steve Marino, for the reasons I mentioned above – he makes birdies!
In the middle east the Abu Dhabi Championship is the European’s first tournament of 2009, although the season actually began late last year.
There’s a great field here including Padraig Harrington, Sergio Garcia, Trevor Immelman and Miguel Angel Jiminez/
Again, outside these favoured players I like a couple of roughies. One is Oliver Fisher, a young Englishman who excels in hitting fairways and greens but needs to pick up his putting. He started to do that late last year and could be poised for the first of many wins most experts believe he can achieve.
His countrymen Paul Casey and David Howell are my other picks,
Casey won this tournament two years ago and after a poorish 2008 when he was expected to excel in majors, he finally refound his consistency late ilast year.
David Howell has been plagued by injury in recent years but at his best, which he could be approaching, he’s easily good enough to win this tournament.
Good luck and tune in next week for a post-mortem of this week’s tournament and predictions for the next stops.
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