Champions Classic

Another LPGA event that has gone through numerous name changes and now has a rather grand title indeed! Annika Sorenstam and Karrie Webb tee it up this week, but their head-to-head in this important-sounding event will not be on view; this is one of the LPGA events that is not televised. The defending champion is Annika and she obviously like Ohio: she has won three times in six events in that State.

Once again though she is available at extremely short odds and is passed over. So is Karrie Webb who returned from a win in Japan last week, but finished some distance off the pace. Instead, the three outright picks are Mi Hyun Kim, Nancy Scranton and Heather Bowie. Kim missed the cut at the Chick-fil-A two weeks ago, but had recorded two 2nds and a 7th place finish in the three weeks beforehand. She should be able to regain that form easily and especially on a course for which she is the joint record-holder. That 63 was en-route to a 5th place finish last year and the year before she had finished 4th. It all points to another good week from the South Korean.

Nancy Scranton has been in excellent form of late with finishes of 9th, 5th and 4th in her last three events. That's a nice improvement each week and she can also boast a 4th place finish on this course two years ago. This may be Annika's tournament to lose, but Scranton is another who should be on the leaderboard on Sunday. 

The third pick, Heather Bowie, has also shown a marked trend in her finishes of late: 53rd, 36th, 25th, 11th and 9th last week. She may have a high number of top-5 finishes in her career, but the momentum in her game is building and there is good reason to expect that she will improve on her debut at this course last year when she finished 16th.

Outright plays:

Mi Hyun Kim to win 20/1 e.w. @ Surrey

Nancy Scranton to win 28/1 e.w. @ Surrey

Heather Bowie to win 50/1 e.w. @ Surrey

1st round plays:

Dottie Pepper to beat Meg Mallon -137 @ Five Dimes [2 units]

Annika Sorenstam to beat Karrie Webb -160 @ Five Dimes

1st round update: 2-0-0 and +3.00 units

Delayed 1st round, but worth the wait! Pepper beat Mallon by four shots, while Sorenstam finished one shot ahead of Webb. In an event reduced to 36 holes, a fast start is imperative and at least Kim and Bowie have that. They are both in 9th place, just one shot out of a place position and four shots behind leader Wendy Ward who hasn't won on Tour since 1998. Scranton lies three shots further back in 44th place.

Final update: 2-0-0 and +3.00 units for the week

Nothing of interest in the 2nd round matchups, though very difficult to cap with only being a 36-hole event! Still, paid for the losses on the outrights.

Update on outright picks: 0-3 and -3.00 units

All three finished in the top-20, but none in the top-5 where it mattered. Kim finished 11th, Bowie 15th and Scranton 18th. If only there had been another 18 holes ...