Panama Claro Championship

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Jim Herman

After a 25th place finish on the Web.com money list last year, 35 year old Herman finds himself back on the PGA Tour. However, as there is no PGA sanctioned event this week, he has dropped down a class and returns to Panama where he has previously made three out of four cuts and finished as high as 4th (2009). It is clear that Herman has form here but I was more interested in his stats on tour last year where he ranked 7th in Par 5 performance, 39th in Par 5 birdie or better leaders and crucially posted a scoring average of 70.00. He seems to fit my profile and will have the advantage of having played competitive golf already this year with three PGA performances behind him, including a 51st at the Farmers Insurance and has the added bonus of being runner up to Casey Wittenberg in last year's Wichita Open.  0.5pts e/w @ 125/1 Sky Bet

Jeff Klauk

Another player who wont be rusty is Jeff Klauk who has played four PGA Tour events so far this year as he makes a comeback from brain surgery to cure epileptic seizures. It may be risky to put your faith in a player coming back from injury but Klauk returned in September 2012 at the Boise Open and encouragingly he finished 16th at the Phoenix Open at the beginning of the month amongst much better company than he will face this week.
If we look back to Klauk's last visit to Panama we see that he had a 2nd place finish, carding a 1st round of 64 and if we look even further back to 2004, we see that he also finished 9th, so he definitely likes it here. His stats so far this year aren't outstanding but he can still boast a Par 5 average of -4.49 and a scoring average of just over 70. Finally, in terms of Wichita form, Klauk is not only a previous winner (2003) but has also posted finishes of 2nd (2002) and 7th (2007). A player who fits the model and on his day is a cut above the rest deserves siding with. 1pt e/w @ 50/1 Various

Clodomiro Carranza

A graduate of the Latin American Tour, Argentine Carranza managed a win, two runner ups, four top 5s, 6 top 10s and 10 top 25s, missing only one cut in 11 starts in 2012. His win came at the Brazil Open where, like he will require here, he scored efficiently on the Par 5s (4.58) and held off seasoned Latin pros such as Sebastian Fernandez and Ariel Canete. While this is impressive, as is his season Par 5 average of 4.6 and scoring average of 70.5, what appeals to me more is his 2nd place in the Peru Open. The reason I take keen interest in this result is because previous Panama winner Scott Dunlap won this tournament three years in a row (1998,1999,2000) and another winner, Sebastian Fernandez has also shot some low rounds at Panama Golf Club. Carranza does have one outing on this week's course back in 2009 where he finished a very respectable 13th, carding rounds of 67, 76, 67, 69, so he definitely knows what it takes around here. 0.25pts e/w @ 80/ Paddy Power

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