Nationwide

Ozarks Open

One of the original six on the Buy.com Tour, this is only one of three that has been held at the same course every year. Plenty of course form to work with, but not many people stay too long on this Tour! The event can boast an impressive list of winners in the last five years, including Stewart Cink and Chris DiMarco. Maybe this year's winner will turn out to be just as successful in the next five years.

The Robert Trent Jones-designed course is short at just over 7000 yards with relatively tight fairways. The rewards to finding the fairways are good though as they are of the Zoysia grass variety, which makes the ball sit up much better than on other grass varieties. The players than hit to large, undulating greens and with this in mind, it is no surprise that the event has tended to be reduced to something of a putting contest.

The three selections this week are Heath Slocum, Pat Perez and Matt Peterson. Slocum's hugely erratic form was a reason for bypassing him last week and he did finish outside the top-4. He did shoot every round under par and had a good Sunday. The signs are that his explosive form of June may be returning, so on a course on which his lack of length off the tee is not prohibitive, he could add to the two titles that he has won already this year.

Pat Perez will be trying to accomplish something that no other player has achieved on the Buy.com Tour: successfully defend his title. Last year he beat Mike Heinen and last week's winner, Pat Bates, in a playoff to take the title. In the past two weeks he has shown a return to form with a 9th and an 11th place finish and being one of the best putters on Tour, he could at least make a decent shot at creating history this week.

Matt Peterson disappointed last week. He finished 36th as an outright selection and lost to Kuchar in the matchup play. He can redeem himself this week! He can boast top-15 finishes in four of his seven visits to Highland Springs including 4th last year when he was only one shot out of the playoff.  He is very short off the tee, but as with Slocum, that should matter little this week and sitting on top of the greens in regulation stats, he is obviously striking the ball very well this year. Should do better than last week.

Outright plays:

Heath Slocum to win 14/1 e.w. @ Simon Bold

Pat Perez to win 25/1 e.w. @ Simon Bold

Matt Peterson to win 28/1 e.w. @ Simon Bold

72-hole plays:

Heath Slocum to beat Pat Bates -111 @ Simon Bold
Bates may have won last week and lost in a playoff last year to Perez, but am expecting a hangover from that win. Slocum is back on a roll and should be very hard to beat this week

Tim Petrovic to beat John Rollins -111 @ Simon Bold [2 units]
Rollins may have hit some form with two top-15 finishes and a win in the last four weeks on the Buy.com Tour, but he had been woeful beforehand. Petrovic has been much more consistent this season, ranking 2nd in scoring average, 4th in birdie average and 5th in money won. Fully expect him to recover from his missed cut last week and post a strong performance this week

Jason Dufner to beat Joe Daley -111 @ Simon Bold
Dufner created a stir when winning the Wichita Open on only his 2nd Buy.com Tour start two weeks ago. The poor 1st round last week was to be expected, though he did recover to finish 35th. With the win hangover out of the way, he should post another good score this week

Final update: 2-1-0 and -0.22 units

Won both the 1-unit plays, but lost the 2-unit play. In an event shortened by the weather, Petrovic finished two shots behind Rollins. Both Slocum and Dufner recorded four shots victories. Forgettable event!

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

If only one of the events in Europe had been reduced to 36 holes instead! Peterson finished one-shot shy of a place win and just three shots behind the declared winner, Steve Haskins, but was denied the chance to make up the ground. The other two were very poor. Perez finished 57th and Slocum 77th.