St. Judes Classic from TPC Southwind, Memphis Tennessee

The St. Jude’s Classic has always been the tournament that precedes the US Open championship, and this has taken away some of the real top quality golfers from playing here, this year is no different. We will only get to see 5 players who currently sit in the top 30 of the World Rankings, so it dos take a little away from the kudos and depth of the tournament. But someone has to win it, and it’s our job to find him…

The course, TPC Southwind, is not set up to mimic next week’s Open like other tournament courses do pre one of the Majors, but it is a real test for the golfer if he strays off line. The big hitters do well here, Dustin Johnson, Harrison Frazer and Lee Westwood being the past 3 winners, all averaged over 300 yards for driving, with 354, 347 and 328 yards being their longest drives. Dustin Johnsons GIR stats came in at 69% for his win last year, 12% higher than the field average, as it was also for both Frazer, 69% and Westwood with 65%. So your sat-nav for locating the green this week had better be in good shape. The par 3’s are all small, tight and very well protected, so they don’t tend to give up many shots, but again it’s the distance hitters that can negotiate that factor by having easier approach shots on the par 5’s and thus scoring well from them instead.

So we are looking for bit hitters with good scrambling skills, and high figures in the GIR department…


Ryan Palmer is one that I’ve sort of followed instead of my 2 yearly picks, mainly as he is playing well, and Bo and Keegan have not delivered. Currently sits 9th for Driving Distance, 28th for GIR and has 4 top 20’s in all the birdie stats for scoring at the holes. His scrambling skills could be better but he is playing good enough to trouble the scorer come the end of the week. He finished 3rd last year…

Charles Howell III is having something of a renaissance year this year with 5 Top 10’s and a solo 2nd and 3rd to his name also. He comes here in good form with 2 top 20 finishes from his past 2 events and can hopefully figure among the leaders come Sunday night. He is 36th in Driving, 49th in GIR plus he can boast of being 5th in the Scrambling stats. He also sits 6th in GIR from other than the fairway, the rough basically, so he fits nicely into what we are looking for here…

John Merrick - As usual when I put up the stats you need in your locker to do well at a course I pick one who isn’t a tight fit for those stats and John Merrick is one of them. This will be his 6th visit here and he has progressed further up the leaderboard with every year that has past, to where last year he finished a solo 2nd to Dustin Johnson. Im picking him solely on his ability to do well around here, and not on his stats…

Jimmy Walker has a mixed bag when it comes to playing here at TPC Southwind, but he has been playing well this year, and im hoping he can add to his 4 Top 10’s for the season. Sits 11th in Driving and 44th in Scrambling and 52nd for GIR, he also sits 2nd for Scoring Average on the par 4’s and 5’s. His is consistent across the board in many of the top stats and if it all clicks he will have a good chance…

Ryan Palmer @ 25/1…
Charles Howell III @ 33/1…
John Merrick @ 50/1…
Jimmy Walker @ 50/1…

All done in the usual £2.5 e/w… PadPow pay ¼ odds top 6…

 

Hey Red

I think this is the 1st time since we shared golf tips that we agree on a player

Charles Howell III 33/1
Brendon De Jonge 45/1
Billy Horshel 28/1

Goodluck mate

 

Great minds then...

 

Leaderboard after the 1st round...

Leaders, 6 of them, @ -4

T27 - John Merrick............... -1
T57 - Brandt Snedeker.......... E
T57 - Brendon de Jonge ........ E
T78 - Charles Howell III......... +1
T78 - Billy Horschel............... +1
T102 - Jimmy Walker............. +2
T102 - Ryan Palmer............... +2

By the sounds of it the course was the winner yesterday with many players breaking par, 56 of them, but not one player smashing the track apart. This of course means that non of our picks can be ruled out as you would only need a good round and your right back in the thick of it...

 

Leaderboard after the 2nd round...

Leader - Harris English @ -10

T22 - Charles Howell III.......... -2
T38 - Brendon de Jonge ......... -1
T38 - Ryan Palmer................. -1
T50 - John Merrick................. E
T50 - Billy Horschel................ E
CUT - Brandt Snedeker
CUT - Jimmy Walker

Harris English leads the way with a super score of -10 after the two first rounds in what has been testing conditions for the golfers these past two days. Could have been 1 shot lower had he not bogeyed the 18th last night...

Its not too late for any of the picks to make a placing, but to win it, well we will have to see something special...

 

Leaderboard after the 3rd round...

Leader - Shawn Stefani @ -12

T8 - Ryan Palmer................ -6
T18 - John Merrick.............. -4
T18 - Charles Howell III....... -4
T35 - Brendon de Jonge ....... -3
T41 - Billy Horschel............. -2

So a bloke who was 200/1 before the off and sounds like he should be the leader of a pop group, Shawn Stefani is our overnight leader going into the final round on Sunday. It must be his sort of course as you wouldn't have picked him with what he has done so far this year, but that has been the case for most of this years tournament im afraid...

If none of my selections return any money then it will be 5 straight tournaments without a penny back...!!! My worst run ever...

I shall be watching tonight hoping for some godly intervention otherwise the cat's gonna get kicked...

 

I did something i rarely do and placed an in-play bet for tonights action with ladbrokes earlier on

Went to do my usualy lucky 15s for the day and had a quick bet on a winning greyhound, returned £45

Paid for my two luckys and £10 each on;

Mickelson at 6/1
Stallings at 7/1

 

Final positions...

Winner - Harris Enlgish @ -12

4 - Ryan Palmer................. -9
T10 - Billy Horschel............ -5
T39 - Brendon de Jonge ...... -1
T39 - Charles Howell III....... -1
T63 - John Merrick.............. +3


Smokin, youve got to feel a little peeved at Scott Stallings then after he gave away 3 shots in the last 4 holes...!!! You would be collecting on that extra bet you made my friend... As it was Harris English held on to claim his first PGA Tour title with a -1 par final round, to take it by 2 shots...

Ryan Palmer got me my money back after his solo 4th finish, which felt like a win after not hitting anything for a month previous to this one. So lets hope i can find one in this weeks US Open at Merrion golf course...