Louisiana Open

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The Nationwide lands back on US soil for the first time this year at Lafayette, Louisiana. Le Triomphe Country Club is a Par 71, 7006 yeard layout with forgiving fairways and few hazards. Based on this and also the fact that the course boasts four long Par 5s and nine Par 4 holes averaging around the 440 yard mark, I shall be selecting players who are both long off the tee and high in the GIR stat.

My Picks are as follows.

Cameron Percy - Riding on the crest of a wave is Aussie and Nationwide Tour veteran, Cameron Percy who finshed 2nd in Panama and 28th in Chile. His form here is pretty poor on the face of it with one showing and a missed cut but Im willing to look past that on the basis that over the last half year he has ranked 4th in GIR and 19th in Total Driving. Its a bit of a momentum play on my behalf but coupled with his stats I feel his price was big enough to take a risk. 0.5pts e/w @ 50/1 Bet365, Sky Bet

Joesph Bramlett - Coming off the back of a 2nd place in the Chile Classic, Bramlett immediately looks a big price here. However, looking further into this player who played a full season on the PGA last year, I notice that over the last six months he has ranked 9th in both Total Driving and GIR and therefore fits my profile. While some course form would have been nice to back this up I will have to rely on momentum from Chile. 0.5pts e/w @ 70/1 Stan James

Bubba Dickerson - I've backed big Bubba this week solely on the fact that he has some terrific course form and the fact he can hit the ball a long way, simple as that. Dickerson can boast a Win and a 3rd in five oputings here and the 3rd place was as recently as last year so I cant see why he is 100/1. I can understand his recent form has been poor, with a MC and two other efforts not worth mentioning but he obviously has an affinity to this course and seems to play well on other courses he has performed well on in the past. 0.25pts e/w @ 100/1 Various

Aaron Watkins - I tipped Watkins in the first week of the tour and held high hopes for him but he failed to deliver. After two missed cuts on the Nationwide and one on the PGA at the start of the season he finally bounced back last week and placed 28th in the Chile Classic, most noticably closing on a 67. Over the last six months he ranks 18th in Total Driving and 6th in GIR so ticks the boxes for me there. In terms of form, he can boast three showings here, yielding an 8th, 21st and 68th yet always managing to card a 66 in each year, had it not have been for a horrendous 79 in his final round here last year then he would have placed much higher. It is also worth nothing that in the 2009 Zurich Classic on the PGA Tour, also in Louisiana, Watkins managed to muster up a 7th placed finish in much better company so he obviously likes the State. 0.5pts e/w @ 125/1 Various

Total staked - 3.5pts 

(Not that my tips have been mildly profitable as yet (just missed out with a poor final round from Tullo last week!) but you can follow me on twitter @billwoddie for bets as I do them)