Stadion Classic

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The University of Georgia Golf Course is a Par 71 Robert Trent Jones layout measuring a little over 7200 yards and typical in his design in that bunkers feature prominently and strategically making accuracy a premium and greens are prestine but all have heavy slope and undulation. Support for this can be found in comments last year made by marco Dawson who said, "You can talk to a lot of guys that hit the ball well today and shoot 75 if their ball didn't catch a slope right or did catch a slope and went the other way".  The Athens course also features four Par 3 holes so I shall be focusing on those players who rank highly in Par 3 Performance and also those who lead in Par 4 birdie average as eleven Par 4s feature. Finally, being a Par 71 course I'm going to keep those players with a decent scoring average on my radar, someone with an average below 71 is a must for me on this tricky track.

My picks are as follows.

Darron Stiles - Nationwide Tour veteran Stiles fits my profile perfectly - he's 7th in DA, 15th in PA, 9th in Scoring Average (70.00), a respectable 43rd in Par 4 birdie or better leaders and 25th in Par 3 performance. However, it gets better, not only has he been Mr Consistent so far this season with only one missed cut but he comes here on the back of a respectable 11th in the South Georgia Classic where he shot four rounds of par or better. Stiles also has course expericence having played here twice before in 2010, finishing 50th and more impressively last year where he finished 12th, recovering from a poor first round of 3 over with a 65, 68 and 71. He can go low here then and his experience and good start to this season means I want him onside. 1pt e/w @ 33/1 Various

Brice Garnett - Now this guy seems a stand out to me and im a little disgruntled that I missed the 125/1 that Paddy Power initially put up on him but im more than happy to take their (still market beating) 66/1. Garnett ranks a top notch 4th in DA, 40th in PA, 21st in Scoring Average with 70.5, 25th in Par 4 birdie or better. He is a course virgin but I'm happy to side with him based on his stats and on the back of a respectable 18th last time out in the Georgia Classic. 0.5pts e/w @ 66/1 Paddy Power

Hudson Swafford - Im siding with Swafford for the second week in a row and its no coincidence that this week's event is again in Georgia. As mentioned before, Swafford is a Georgia University graduate so will have played the course reguarly and should, theoretically, know it like the back of his hand. Couple this with the fact that last year's winner Russell Henley was a fellow Uni of Georgia alumini, and an amateur at the time, and it becomes apparent that course knowledge is imperative, if not critical. However, it is not just course knowledge that draws me towards Swafford, I like the look of his stats too, most notably his Par 4 birdie or better ranking of 16th and Putting Average of 1.741 (9th) which will be a distinct advantage on tricky greens that he will know. Throw into the mix a Scoring Average of 70.96 on a Par 71 course and the fact that he can hit it off the tee an average of 296yds with decent accuracy and I cant not back this young guy again. 0.5pts e/w @ 80/1 SkyBet

Total Staked - 4pts