posted May 30, 2007 at 15:43 in Golf Articles

The PGA Tour’s top golfers will be back in action this week when they participate in the Memorial Tournament at Muirfield Village Golf Club in Dublin, Ohio. Each of Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson, Jim Furyk, Vijay Singh, and Ernie Els has been confirmed for the event, but none of them are the defending champ at the Nicklaus-designed course.

That title belongs to Carl Pettersson, who beat both Brett Wetterich and Zach Johnson by two strokes in 2006 to claim the $1 million first-place prize. However, the oddsmakers at BetUS.com aren’t sold on Pettersson’s chances for back-to-back Memorial titles; he’s pegged at a longshot +9000 odds to pick up the victory on Sunday.

The 2005 Memorial Tournament champion, though, is an even bigger underdog this week. Unheralded Bart Bryant topped Fred Couples by one stroke that year, and picked up a cheque for $990,000 for his efforts. Woods finished four shots back of Bryant in a group of three golfers. Bryant, though, is way back at +15000 odds to get the win again.

So who’s the favorite to win the tournament? It’s three-time champion Woods of course, who is listed at +200 odds.

 

Woods walked away with the Memorial title in each of 1999, 2000, and 2001, topping Sergio Garcia by seven strokes to win $738,000 in 2001. Mickelson is second on the current list at +700 odds, followed by 2002 champ Jim Furyk and 1997 champ Vijay Singh (both at +1500 odds). 2004 champ Ernie Els is at +2500.

Tied with Els at +2500 odds are both Garcia and Johnson, while Luke Donald and Adam Scott are each pegged at +3000 odds.

Here are the rest of the top contenders:

Odds To Win Memorial Tournament

• Tiger Woods +200
• Phil Mickelson +700
• Jim Furyk +1500
• Vijay Singh +1500
• Ernie Els +2500
• Sergio Garcia +2500
• Zach Johnson +2500
• Luke Donald +3000
• Adam Scott +3000
• Geoff Ogilvy +4000
• Stewart Cink +4500
• Sean O'Hair +4500
• Paul Casey +6000
• K.J. Choi +6000
• Trevor Immelman +6000
• Jerry Kelly +6000
• Steve Stricker +6000
• Stuart Appleby +7500
• Anthony Kim +7500
• Jose Maria Olazabal +7500
• Rod Pampling +7500
• Ian Poulter +7500

Meanwhile, Retief Goosen will headline the European Tour’s Celtic Manor Wales Open in Newport, South Wales this week. Goosen is pegged as the +750 favorite in that event, with 2006 champion Robert Karlsson second on the odds list at +1300 right now.

Two other past champions who will tee it up in Wales this week are England’s Simon Khan and Scotland’s Paul Lawrie. Khan, who won this tournament in 2004, is back at +5000 odds to win again this time around. Lawrie, the 2002 champ, is an underdog +8000 odds.

Here are the top contenders at BetUS.com to win the tourney Sunday:

Odds To Win Celtic Manor Wales Open

• Retief Goosen +725
• Robert Karlsson +1300
• Bradley Dredge +1600
• Raphael Jacquelin +1800
• Richard Sterne +1800
• Colin Montgomerie +2000
• Nick Dougherty +2200
• Simon Dyson +2200
• Anders Hansen +2200
• Graeme McDowell +2600
• Paul Broadhurst +3000
• Thongchai Jaidee +3000
• Martin Kaymer +3000
• Francesco Molinari +3000
• Jyoti Randhawa +3000
• Fredrik Andersson +4000
• Alejandro Canizares +4000
• Gonzalo F-Castano +4000
• Peter Hanson +4000
• David Lynn +4000
• Philip Archer +5000
• Robert Derksen +5000
• Alastair Forsyth +5000
• Simon Khan +5000
• Marc Warren +5000

The golfers of the PGA Tour will play in the Stanford St. Jude Championship in Memphis next week, before heading to Oakmont Country Club for the U.S. Open from June 14-17. The European Tour will next stage the BA-CA Golf Open at Fontana Golf Club in Austria before their top players head overseas to play in the U.S. Open as well.

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