We stay in Texas for this weeks instalment on the PGA Tour with The Shell Houston Open, in Humble, for the pre-event to the first Major of the season The Masters. It had been moved in recent years but the organisers have said they wanted it back before the Masters as its a course that will sharpen up the players going on from here to Augusta... I personally think that's codswallop, but hey, im just a punter...!!! The one thing I will guarantee, and hopefully that's not just the winner, is that this weeks winner will be told on Sunday that winning the Shell Houston Open means you wont win the Masters...!!! Its a true stat, but a ****e one...!!! Anyway ive gone for a few in good current form and some with good records around here... Graham DeLaet is playing well so far this year without actually winning a damn tournament yet. Twice a runner up this year he finished 8th last week at Valero. He is one of those golfers who is very precise with his shots, which shows in his stats, but never looks like he is going to tear a course up with a -8 or like. He's long off the tee, 304 yards average for the year ranks him 8th, plus sits 4th in GIR... Tailor made for this type of course... Jason Kokrak is a big man, standing at 6'4 he towers above many of golfers, but not yet in terms of winning titles he isn't. This is only his 3rd full season on the PGA, but already he has shown signs that he can compete at this level. He smashes the ball miles, his approach shots from 200 out are just fantastic, and he can score low rounds. He isn't, however, the best over the Par 3'S, probably because he wants to hit everything miles and miles. Gets that part of his game together and he could well break his Tour Duck... Ryan Palmer is one I have been following for a while now, along with Ryan Moore, and I am going to back him regardless of the event for the next few events. A fellow Texan, from Amarillo - (yes he dos know the way to Amarillo... cue singing in your head...) and has had two runners up spots to his name this year. Lets hope a bit of that local love in will spur him on to victory here this week... Brian Davis finished T6th here last year and T5th the year before that, so im going with the thought that he quite likes it around here. He isn't the most sparkling of form at the moment but a return to a track that he obviously dos well at may change all that... Graham Delaet @ 40/1... Jason Kokrak @ 50/1... Ryan Palmer @ 66/1... Brian Davis @ 100/1... All done in the usual £2.5 e/w... PadPow pays 1/4 odds top 6...
Keegan Bradley 25-1 Jordan Speith 25-1 Seung Yul-Noh 100-1 Geoff Ogilvy 100-1 All with Coral this week!
Two this week for me in the shape of Louis Oosthuizen 50/1 and Ian Poulter 66/1 No great detail to the picks, didn't study at all so pure guesswork. Hopefully one of 'em does ok. Good luck as usual
Away from the punting side...what has happened to Lee Westwood lads? I can't help but feel he has messed up any chance of landing that elusive Major now, I felt if he had of stuck at what he was doing this side of the Atlantic he really would of won one very soon, now the split recently from Foley as his coach leaves the impression he regressed rather than got the progress he desired albeit he did improve his scrambling stats and that. Padraig Harrington did something fairly similar in that when he won his Major's he tried to get better again!! Ok, that's fine but what work's for say a Tiger Woods or Phil Mickleson doesn't necessarily mean it will happen for someone else. I felt he was mad trying to change his game after being so successful and ever since he has struggled hugely with only a non tour event win in Singapore to his name and is now a Masters non runner for the first time in donkey's years. A real shame and I would like to see both men get back for a final fling at the top before bowing out as both have been great ambassadors representing England and Ireland in golf globally but I feel somehow sticking to what you know would have served both better in the long run. Just wonder if you guy's had any thought's or ideas on this?
STH, I think that it is a combination of things that started when he lost his caddie Billy Foster as I think they were a very good team. Plus I just think the blokes got on with each other really well, and had fun on the course even if it was in a Major... I don't think he fully trusts his caddie Mike Kerr like he did with Billy and I think this has altered his mind frame. You know what these golfers are like, a bit like creatures of habit with the same drills, practice shots etc and I think Billy gave him some extra confidence that Kerr cant... I also think that the obsession with playing over in America has been a bigger call than he would imagine it would be, and he may regret it in time or just say, hey, I gave it a go and it just didn't work... I didn't see Darren Clarke move over there to win a Major, but he did... Its an interesting one, and we shall see how he goes on in the next couple of years, but with all these kids coming up through the ranks his chances of getting that elusive Major are getting harder every year...
Leaderboard after the first round... Leader - B. Haas @ -7 T3 - Keegan Bradley, -6 T8 - Justin Hicks, -5 T59 - Ryan Palmer, -2 T59 - Jordan Spieth, -2 T59 - Ian Poulter, -2 T59 - Graham DeLaet, -2 T97 - Louis Oosthuizen, E T97 - Seung-Yul Noh, E T114 - Jason Kokrak, +1 T124 - Brian Davis, +2 T140 - Geoff Ogilvy, +4 Looks like -2 is a popular score...!!! Good start from Keegan and Hicks, Smokin/Jeff , lets hope they keep it up then... A bit to go yet, so lets not get too carried away, we all know what happens there don't we...
Good luck guy's I'm out of contention but will be back next week to defend my Masters crown, well technically Adam Scott won but I backed him also so I felt a big part of it ...and red I agree re the caddy situation there with Westwood, what actually happened there? Didn't Westwood feel he needed a change? I would think he took advice from someone, perhaps Chubby and it has backfired. If he stuck at what he was at for another few year, he would have won his Major it think. And yes, the implosion of so many young, taleneted golfers coming through nowadays thanks to Tiger's heroics over the years has meant any win gained now is usually hard fought for. It's as competitive as it ever has been on tour.
Billy did his knee in playing football with some other caddies... See report below... The 46-year-old Yorkshireman's ability to do what he regards as "the best job in the world" had been taken from him by a freak injury at a football match in which he wasn't even taking part. He had been asked to play in a caddies' match last spring in Charlotte, North Carolina. "My famous last words were 'no, I'm too old and my job's too important to me to get injured'," he told BBC Sport. Fatefully, though, he took part in the pre-match kick-about and as he stretched for a stray ball, his foot lodged in a hole in the pitch. "My body went one way and my leg the other," he said of the moment the ligaments in his right knee snapped. "You could hear it 20 yards away." “Losing the fantastic job that I had with Lee Westwood has been soul-destroying” Billy Foster In that moment he lost his dream job, a lucrative role as his then best mate Lee Westwood's right-hand man. Foster thought he would be out of action for a few weeks. He had no idea it would take 13 months and three operations before he would be back inside the ropes. And he wasn't at all prepared for the months of misery that followed, compounded when, after holding the position open for six months, Westwood confirmed he would be sticking with Mike Kerr as his caddie for the start of the following season. But he is back on the bag for him now, and I think it will help him now...http://www1.skysports.com/golf/news/12230/9043735/lee-westwood-to-reunite-with-caddie-billy-foster-after-nearly-a-year-apart
Cheers red. By the way are you doing your brilliant Masters thread as per usual for Thursday? I'm like a little kid at Christmas, I love the Masters.
