Nationwide

Wichita Open

One of the original six events on the Buy.com Tour back in 1990, it can boast some impressive former winners: Tom Lehman (1990), David Duval (1993) and David Toms (1995). They all competed on a different course to the one used this week though. After seven years at Reflection Ridge GC and four years at Willowbend GC, the event moves across town to the North course at Crestview.

This is a short (less than 7,000 yards), tree-lined, Robert Trent Jones course with much water in play. Without any decent course information, it would appear that it should suit the straight rather than the long-hitters, but with caution in mind as it is a new venue, for first outright selections for this Tour are based primarily on current form and with a preference for accuracy off the tee.

The selections are Heath Slocum, Richard Zokol and David Gossett. Slocum's form has been outstanding in the past month. Coming off three missed cuts, he then finished 1st, 3rd, 1st before taking a week's break before this event. He made his debut on the Buy.com Tour in 1997, but played poorly and now he is almost certain to graduate to the main Tour next year. In this form and with good stats for this course, he should be a very strong contender.

Richard Zokol is very much a Tour veteran - he made his debut at the Hawaiian Open in 1982. This year, he has played most of his tournaments on the Buy.com Tour and with some success. In eight tournaments, he has finished no worse than 36th and won the Canadian PGA Championship. Not the best of drivers, the rest of his game is very strong and like Slocum, is in the top-5 in All-Around Ranking on the Buy.com Tour. With a much lighter schedule than most of his competitors, he should be able to put in a strong performance in his first event in three weeks.

David Gossett made a steady start to his professional career, but has in the past month improved his performances considerably. He secured a top-30 position on the main Tour at the St Jude Classic and has had three top-10 finishes in the past three weeks on the Buy.com Tour. The 1999 US Amateur champion was the low amateur at last year's Masters and shot 59 during Q-school for the main Tour. He did not get his card, but he is certainly playing as well now as he did as an amateur. He has risen to 6th in the All-Around Rankings and should be another player whose momentum should carry them on to a good week this week.

Outright plays:

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

Richard Zokol to win 16/1 e.w. @ Simon Bold

David Gossett to win 20/1 e.w. @ Simon Bold

72-hole plays:

John Elliott to beat Jamie Rogers -110 @ Camelot
Rogers has had a difficult first year on the Buy.com Tour with just 3 top-50 finishes from 13 starts. Expect the experienced Elliott to win this one

Jonathan Byrd to beat Todd Barranger -110 @ Camelot [3 units]
This is a short, tight course and while they are both big-hitters, Byrd ranks in the top-20 in driving accuracy to Barranger's 94th. Byrd is also the top-ranked in the All-Round Ranking stats and is much the better player. Barranger is also playing his seventh event in seven weeks which is surely too long a stretch

Update:

Profitable event so far. Both the 72-hole plays are winners at the cut. Elliott beat Rogers and Byrd beat Barranger, both by six shots. In the outrights, Slocum missed the cut, but with both Zokol and Gossett lying in 12th place, just five shots out of the lead, then a return on these plays may happen as well.

Final update: 2-0-0 and +4.00 units

Two convincing wins as both were decided at the cut. Wish they were like that every week!

Update on outright plays: 1-2 and +0.00 units

First foray in Buy.com Tour outrights and break-even. Slocum missed the cut and Zokol fell back with a poor 3rd round to finish 21st at the end. The win came from Gossett who finish 2nd, though was always at least a couple of shots out of the lead. Maybe we'll see Simon Bold offer Buy.com Tour lines again ...