BC Open

This event is fated to be a poor relation to a major event elsewhere. In previous years it has fallen on the same week or the week before the Ryder Cup and now it has a new home, the same week as the British Open and the Women's US Open! Very few betting , opportunities on this event, apart from the outrights, so let's follow suit: be brief and divert attention back to the British Open!

The course has had a lot of work on it as the greens have been prone to flooding in the past. The greens remain small and raised, and the narrowing of the fairways in recent years has resulted in a rising stroke average. The type of player who plays well here is fairly straight and accurate, rather than a power-house. The list of recent winners - Brad Faxon, Chris Perry, Gabriel Hjertstedt, Fred Funk, Hal Sutton - are testimony to that. They to be above-average putters as well.

The top-ranked this week in an uninspiring field is Jonathan Kaye. He was 4th last year in a much stronger field that included Tom Lehman, Phil Mickelson, Payne Stewart, Chris Perry and Mike Weir, though in fairness some of them would have been preoccupied with the Ryder Cup the following week. Yet to win on Tour, but he should have no better chance and in the core stats is inside the top-30 of this field in all of them. Should go close with 25/1 the best odds on him, so the e/w bet on the 1st four places at Ladbrokes is the play. Much better than the 16/1 offered by Victor Chandler.

Victor Chandler is the place for the next pick, Bill Glasson, who is available at 14/1 with the e/w bet paid on the first five places. The 1988 winner of this event is in an extended run of top-30 finishes and that is more impressive than anyone else in this field has achieved in the past two months. Recent form on this course has not been that great, but he and Kaye are a sizeable distance ahead of the others in the Tour-Tips ratings for this event and he looks a difference class to the others.

There are two dark horses this week as I can't pick between them: Ed Fryatt and Grant Waite, both available at 50/1 with Sportingbet [Fryatt also 50/1 at Ladbrokes] and are both e/w plays. Fryatt was a good 5th in the Greater Hartford Open and while he has never played this course, he does have some of the best all-round stats in this field. He knocked on the door of success a few times, not inconceivable that he will not follow fellow European Gabriel Hjertstedt and win this event. Grant Waite showed signs of good form when finishing 14th last week and he does have good course form: 20th, 8th, 40th and 39th in the last four years here. Could be the low-key week to break out of my PGA outright plays slump!

72-hole plays:

At the moment there are only the four matchups from Sportodds available for this tournament, so from these just one looks good at their odds:

Jonathan Kaye to beat Brad Faxon -118 @ Sportodds
Tops the ratings for this tournament and should have the edge over the defending champion who was in Scotland until Monday trying (and failing) to qualify for the British Open. Not ideal preparation for this event and with the added ardours of being defending champion will be rather tired

Final update: 0-1 and -1.18 units

Surprised to find Faxon as the winner of this tournament - British Open qualifying on Sunday/Monday, then this event ... impressive. Kaye trails home nine shots behind the winner in 18th place.

Update on outright plays: 1-3 and -1.25 units

Waite and Glasson were pushing hard for at least a place finish all week, but only Glasson remained there. He finished 3rd for a small win, Waite fell to 10th after a closing 71. The other two were more disappointing, Kaye finished 18th and Fryatt missed the cut by one.