Panama Championship

Subscribe

Following a week long break after one event on the Tour we find ourselves in Panama for the 9th installment of the CLARO Championship in Panama City. Reigning champion Matthew Goggin is not in the field this week but there is plenty of other fine talent on display as well as a few vetrans who will be highly motivated following Skip Kendall's win in the season opener two weeks ago.

There are three things I will be focusing on this week in terms of making my picks the first of which is Scoring Average on the basis that the Panama course ranks as one of the hardest on the Nationwide tour with last year's scoring average coming in at 70.956. I shall also be looking for good short iron players as Panama GC seems to be a shot makers course if Erik Compton is to be believed, "I thought my wedge game was a little poor at Riviera and there you have a lot of long irons. Here we have a lot of short irons". Finally, and most obviously, I shall be looking at players with good solid form on this course as it is a tricky course and as previous winner Scott Dunlap puts it, "I've always known what to do around here. On some courses you feel lost, you don't know what lines to take, you don't feel comfortable on the greens. Here, if I play badly, it's not because I'm confused, it's because I just don't play the shots."

This leads me to my first pick.

Scott Dunlap - Yes he withdrew after the first round after carding an 80 in Mayakoba last week but this doesnt deter me as he wasnt injured, just suffering from a stomach bug. Ok, he has 9 straight missed cuts on the PGA and Nationwide Tours but that is why his price is in the hundreds. The fact is, as mentioned earlier, Panama is horses for courses and Dunlap is most certainly a horse. Winner in 2008 is impressive enough but it is his 2010 perforance that catches my eye as he carded rounds of 65,67 and 69 before imploding in the final round scoring 77, couple this with a round of 65 in 2008 on his way to the title and we can see he is most certainly adept to this course. He also ranks 1st this year in GIR approach shots from 75-100yds and 100-125yds so his short iron play is still the best part of his game. Im prepared to have a shot on the vetran (who all tend to perform well around this track) at a large price. 0.5pts e/w @ 200/1 Bet365, Paddy Power

Jeff Gove - In three showings here Gove has produced two MCs and a 3rd, the 3rd coming most recently in 2009 (his last appearance here) and more impressively carding four rounds of par or better. He missed the cut two weeks ago in his season opener in Colombia but his season finale last year in the Tour Championshiop saw him finish 5th so we can put that down to rustiness. Last year he was 10th in GIR and 41st in SA which is very impressive considering the list of quality graduates who have since made a successful step up to the PGA Tour. 0.5pts e/w @ 66/1 Various Bookmakers

Vance Veazey - Up until last year Veazey had not finished worse than 38th in this event and had managed to win it twice, most recently in 2009 where all four rounds he carded were under par. On his way to his other victory in 2005 he shot a 65 and a 66 so there are no doubts that he can extremely low here.He managed to make the cut in his season opener in Colombia, playing 'steady' golf after a lengthy lay off and it is for this reason that we have to look back to his 2011 PGA stats to see that he ranked 1st in GIR approaches under 75yds and 1st in approaches from 50-125yds. In short if he is back to ful health then his short iron play is top notch. i shall take the risk with his stellar course form and three figure price. 0.5pts e/w @ 100/1 Sky Bet

Total Staked - 3pts