Posted on
2/27/2008 1:26:33 PM
Golf Betting - PGA Heads to Palm Beach Gardens
By BetUS Staff
The PGA Tour heads to Palm Beach Gardens, Florida for the Honda Classic this week, but the world’s top player won’t be on the course when the tourney begins on Thursday. That means you will have to look elsewhere for golf betting options for the time being.
Tiger Woods trounced Stewart Cink in the championship round of the WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship on Sunday as he continued his red-hot start to the 2008 golf season. Woods also knocked off Henrik Stenson, K.J. Choi, Aaron Baddeley, Arron Oberholser, and J.B. Holmes en route to that win; Baddeley stretched him to 20 holes.
Woods, though, won’t be in the Honda Classic field at the PGA National Champion Course this week. Also not participating in the PGA event this week is Phil Mickelson, who is coming off a forgettable result in the WGC-Match Play Championship – he was knocked out in only the second round of that tournament (2-and-1) by Stuart Appleby.
However, the Honda Classic will feature a big name in Ernie Els, who fared even worse than Mickelson in last week’s match play tournament. Els was beaten by unheralded Jonathan Byrd 6-and-5 in the first round of the event after starting out as a No. 1 seed.
Also playing in Palm Beach Gardens this week is Mark Wilson, who picked up his first-ever PGA Tour victory at the Honda Classic last season. Wilson beat Jose Coceres on the third playoff hole to secure that win in 2007. Boo Weekley and Camilo Villegas tied for second as well in the tourney, with Tripp Isenhour, Robert Allenby, and Steve Stricker ending their respective weeks a single stroke back of those playoff participants.
Other past Honda Classic winners slated to be in the field this week include Luke Donald (2006), Todd Hamilton (2004), Justin Leonard (2003), Matt Kuchar (2002), Jesper Parnevik (2001), Dudley Hart (2000), Mark Calcavecchia (1998 and 1987), and Tim Herron (1996). Padraig Harrington, the 2005 tourney champ, is not part of the field.
The BetUS golf oddsmakers have pegged Els as the +1200 favorite to get the win in the Honda Classic, with Donald and Justin Rose sitting behind him at +2000 odds. Leonard and Sergio Garcia have each been listed at +2200 odds, while you can get +2500 odds on Boo Weekley taking the tourney. Allenby is sitting just back of that grouping at +3000.
Meanwhile, the European Tour will stage the Johnnie Walker Classic at the DLF Golf and Country Club in Gurgaon, India this week. Woods and Els have actually each won this event twice in their respective careers, but obviously neither will be in the field this week. Still, the tournament has managed to attract some top golfers, including Adam Scott (who won this event back in ‘05), Vijay Singh, Ian Poulter, and Colin Montgomerie.
Miguel Angel Jimenez, the 2004 champion, is slated to play as well, as is defending champion Anton Haig, Denmark’s Thomas Bjorn, and India’s own Jeev Milkha Singh.
Scott and Vijay Singh are the favorites to come out on top in the Johnnie Walker Classic; Scott is pegged at +500 odds, and Singh is a little behind him at +800 odds. Poulter and Jyoti Randhawa are pegged at +1800 odds, with Arjun Atwal at +2200. Jeev Milkha Singh and Montgomerie are both pegged at +3000 odds for this weekend.
The European Tour stays in Asia next week for the Maybank Malaysian Open at the Kota Permai Golf Course. The PGA Tour will stage the PODS Championship at the Innisbrook Resort in Palm Harbor, Florida next week. The latest we’ll see Woods again is March 20-23, when the two tours converge for the WGC-CA Championship in Miami.
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