Mercedes Championship. 7 points Jason Gore to beat Brad Faxon @ Evens with Sunderlands (10/11 Corals).
This course looks tailor made for the huge hitting Gore. Lengthened to 7411 yards for this years renewal and with some of the widest fairways on tour it will reward the big hitters and they don't come much bigger than Gore who averaged over 311 yards on the Nationwide tour in 2005. The rest of his game is respectable and he is a player to follow on these resort type courses which place little premium on accuracy.
Faxon on the other hand is one of the shorter hitters on tour, a full 35 yards shorter than Gore on average. To add to his problems he is returning after a long lay off following knee ligament surgery and is reported to have only started hitting balls on the range on the 30th December, so it is fair to say he will be very rusty indeed. His seasonal debuts for the last 3 seasons have seen form figures of 70th/mc/mc, so he looks to be a player who needs a few events to get going at the best of times and this long hilly course looks to be the worst possible place to make a come back. Of course he will pick up a cheque just for for turning up, so that might explain the early return.
lost 7 points
Outright
0.5 point e/w Jason Gore @ 50/1 generally available.
0.5 point e/w Ben Crane @ 25/1 VCBet, Totesport
No prizes for originality in picking Crane and the best odds have been gobbled up (opened at 40/1 and backed into best 25/1 now) this talented young player has a good mix of distance off the tee (293 yards) with excellent putting stats (ranked 3rd on tour in 2005). He was 9th in is only previous outing here and is much better player these days.
lost 2 points
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