Australian PGA Championship

Outright plays (1.5 units):

Nick O'Hern to win 22/1 e.w. available generally
Can't see why he is at such a high price. He ended the European Tour season in great form and has very good form on this course. He won the last Coolum Classic to be staged here in 1999 and finished 8th last year. He did falter at the weekend in last week's event, but he showed enough form over the first two rounds to justify his retention as an outright selection this week.

Rod Pampling to win 25/1 e.w. available generally
Did consider retaining Craig Parry at 16/1, but with him having failed to par the last hole to win last week's event, I am not yet in the forgiving mood! Pampling was only two shots out of that playoff last week and was in contention throughout the event, which was an impressive performance given that he was returning from minor surgery at the end of a very successful PGA Tour season. He has decent form on this course, but is arguably playing better now than at any stage in his career and should feature this week.

Greg Norman to win 50/1 e.w. @ Victor Chandler
Back injury has restricted his tournament golf this year, but he will make a well-publicised entry this week with close-friend Lleyton Hewitt on the bag. He says his game is on the verge and in his home-State, he could very well be competitive again. He has remained competitive in Australian events despite problems elsewhere - his last five finishes on this Tour have been 4th, 6th, 6th, 4th and 25th - and while I would have preferred SkyBet to have offered place-only terms, these are certainly generous odds.

Final update: 1-2; +0.94 units

O'Hern 14th
Pampling 2nd
Norman 20th

Rather a sense of deja-vu. Exact same result as last week with one outright finishing 2nd and O'Hern playing great for the first two rounds, but indifferently thereafter. At least last week Parry had a great chance to win as Pampling was rather flattered to finish just one shot behind Senior. Profitable event, but all three selections had been in the top-5 after the first round and I was very hopeful of getting the winner out of one of them. After two second-place finishes in the last two weeks, maybe it will be third time lucky in the last event of the year.