The Texan is rapidly becoming one of my favourite players as he nearly always gives his backers a good run for their money.
Tiger Woods heads what looks like a strong field for this week’s Memorial Tournament contested at Muirfield Village Golf Club.
The Course: Muirfield Village GC, Dublin, Ohio (par-72, 7,265 yards)
Home to the Memorial since 1976, this Jack Nicklaus-designed course is a good all-round test for players. Sure, they need to give the ball a good whack off the tee, but the real difficulty lies with the hard-to-hit greens - only 56 per cent of approach shots found their target last year, while those players that missed the greens struggled to make par. That suggests scrambling skills will come to the fore this week. With some tricky par-4's, players need to make their score on the relatively easy par-5's - the 5th, 7th, 11th and 15th.
Ross' Top Tip: Jim Furyk @ 25/1 bet365
Caught the eye when shooting 65 on Sunday on his way to finishing ninth in the Crowne Plaza Invitational, his third successive top-11 finish. That's steady rather than spectacular stuff, but he always seems to peak around US Open time, which is in two weeks time, and he won this event in 2002. In anticipation of a good week, I would also advise punters to snap up the current 33/1 (Ladbrokes) on offer for the second Major of the year
Next Best: Sean O'Hair @ 25/1 Stan James
The Texan is rapidly becoming one of my favourite players as he nearly always gives his backers a good run for their money, as eight top-20 finishes this season testify, and he does pop up at a good price occasionally, as he did at Quail Hollow three starts back. A superb ball striker (ranked third on Tour), he finds the greens or fringes around three quarters of the time, which is just what you need to do around here.
Outsider: Ben Curtis @ 66/1 Blue Square
The Ohioan has been prominent on European Tour leaderboards in recent weeks, with his best effort coming at Wentworth two weeks ago when finishing sixth. But his US form hasn't been too shabby either with six top-35 finishes, including decent efforts at Augusta and Sawgrass. I suppose the travelling might catch up with him eventually but, at 66/1, it's worth taking the risk it won't this week.
Tournament Lay (Betfair): Steve Stricker for a place
Jumped from 13th to eighth in the world-rankings after his play-off victory at Colonial - but can he win back-to-back? He's certainly got the game to go well here but, while making the cut in eight of his nine starts, he's only finished in the top-25 twice.
Ross' 72-Hole Match Bet: Ben Curtis to beat Steve Stricker @ 11/10 Skybet
Recommended Bets:
Jim Furyk 1pt each-way @ 25/1 bet365
Sean O'Hair 1pt each-way @ 25/1 Stan James
Ben Curtis 1pt each-way @ 66/1 Blue Square
Jim Furyk (US Open) 1pt each-way @ 33/1 Ladbrokes