United Leasing Championship

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The Web.com Tour travels to Indiana this week for the inaugural United Leasing Championship at Victoria National Golf Club. This is the third time this course has been used for a Web.com event having only previously hosted the 2006 USGA  Senior Amateur Championship and a senior LPGA golf tournament previously.

Victoria National Golf Club, east of Evansville, Ind., is a Par 72 course, playing 7239 yards and was designed by Tom Fazio and opened in 1998. The venue  has the feel of a links course due to its large mounds and contoured fairways,  and was built around an existing surface coal mine. As a result, water-filled  lakes serve as hazards on 15 of the 18 holes. For this reason I shall be putting  a premium on accuracy this week while also focusing heavily on good scramblers  as the roughs are 'a blend of four bluegrass varieties' that are 'maintained in  their natural states', meaning that the rough will feel softer or faster than  most players are used to should it be found. It is also worth noting that sand  features heavily on nearly every hole on this course, often with bunkers  protecting the greens, so we will need to find a player who is adept to playing  out of the sand should they be unfortunate enough to find themselves in it.

One final thing to note is that the Scoring Average for last year was 73.237 meaning that the course plays tough and stats such as Birdie Average, Par Breaking and Putting Average will most certainly prove a distinct advantage in challenging for the title.

My tips for this week are as follows:

Carlos Ortiz - 1pt e/w @ 33/1 - There is no doubt that Ortiz is going to be a superstar, he has already shown us how good he is not only on the Web.com but on the PGA where he finished a respectable 65th at the Memorial despite two rounds in the mid 70s. Having won twice already on tour this year, Ortiz only needs one more victory to guarantee him automatic playing rights on the PGA next year and with his all-around game it could come this week. He is 1st in the All-Around ranking, 3rd in Scoring Average, 8th in Birdie Average, 13th in Driving Distance, 8th in Par Breaking, 5th in Par 4 Birdie or Better Leaders and 12th in Scrambling - all in all he should have the complete game to conquer Victoria National.

Steve Marino  1pt e/w @ 80/1 - It is interesting to see Marino drop down a class this week and I think it is a great chance to get on a very solid player who has struggled with injuries but is well on the way to getting back to his best. In six PGA outings this year he hs only missed the cut twice (early on in his comeback from injury), finished 28th in the St Jude Classic and carded a 66 in the first round last week's Traveler's Championship. He is consistently long off the tee and has always been a very adept putter so should be up there challenging this week. 66/1 represents decent value for a player with decent Major form and experience.

Total Staked - 4pts