John Deere Classic

Outright plays (1 unit):

Vijay Singh to win 10/1 e.w. @ William Hill
It is not encouraging that he intends to play every event until the end of the season. Even the hardest-working pro on Tour will not be able to maintain a high level of intensity every week. That said, this is a fairly ordinary field beyond Singh and Love and double-digit odds are a bonus on either of them. Vijay has yet to play on this course - and was likely to stay that way with the event's old place on the Tour schedule - but he has been remarkably consistent this year. He has finished in the top-10 in six of his last seven events and in the top-20 in all but one event since the Players Championship in March. Looks good to get a top-5 place return even if he doesn't win the event.

Tim Herron to win 25/1 e.w. @ Victor Chandler and UKBetting
Herron has been nowhere near as consistent this year. He missed four straight cuts in July/August until the PGA Championship when he finished 14th and has then finished 2nd and 5th. With good course experience (including 7th in 2000) and on top of his game, he is likely to feature at some stage this week.

Kirk Triplett to win 25/1 e.w. @ Bet365, Victor Chandler, Paddy Power and UKBetting
Triplett has featured every year this event has been staged at Deere Run. He lost out in a tight duel with Michael Clark in the first visit to this course despite shooting 62 in the 3rd round; he recovered from a poor opening round in 2001 to finish 15th and finished 3rd last year. He denied Herron (who had been a selection) the win in the Reno-Tahoe Open three weeks ago, so he should be full of anticipation for this week. Hardly a prolific winner, but then again, neither was Kenny Perry until this summer!

Matchup plays (1 unit unless stated):

Niclas Fasth to beat Paul Azinger -118 @ Expekt [3 units]
Zinger was unlucky to be incur a two-shot penalty last week after a TV viewer 'shopped' his caddie, but he is still struggling to make cuts on Tour. Fasth was a top-10 finisher in the PGA Championship last month, which is difficult to imagine for Azinger, so a strong play on the European.

Fred Funk to beat Briny Baird -111 @ Victor Chandler
Can't argue with Baird's course form (two top-5 finishes), but his game has certainly cooled in the last month. Not so for Funk whose finishes of 7th, 14th and 6th in his last three events have been against some very strong fields. He may even have finished higher last week, but his fortuitous hole-in-one on the front nine on Sunday thrust him into the lead a little too early for his nerves!

Paul Goydos to beat Matt Gogel -111 @ BetandWin
Could be two high finishes from this matchup. Both finished in the top-10 on their last visit to Deere Run and both have had a good number of top-20 finishes in the last two months - Gogel has two in his last three starts and Goydos has four in his last six. Goydos just seems to be in the frame more often and certainly has not been missing as many cuts - just one in his last seven against four in Gogel's last seven.

2nd round plays (1 unit unless stated):

Skip Kendall to beat Jonathan Byrd +100 @ Carib [2 units]
Billy Mayfair to beat Jonathan Byrd -118 @ Five Dimes and BestLine [2 units]
Paul Stankowski to beat Mike Heinen -112 @ Five Dimes and BestLine
Davis Love to beat Vijay Singh +150 @ Carib [3 units] (can scalp with Singh -125 @ Five Dimes & BestLine)

2nd round update: 1-3-0; -6.36 units

Kendall/Byrd LOST by 7
Mayfair/Byrd LOST by 4
Stankowski/Heinen WON by 7
Love/Singh LOST by 2

Mid-point update:

Fasth/Azinger All Square
Funk/Baird WON (Baird wd)
Goydos/Gogel Leads by 1

Singh 3rd
Herron mc
Triplett 39th

As with the Lancome Trophy, heavily opposed a outright selection who was high on the leaderboard and lost. Keeps the outright selection very much in the hunt for a win, but given the other losses on day two, also need the outright selection in this event to win the event just to cover day two losses! Maybe I should start to make scalps official plays.

No further plays this event.

Final update:

Matchups: 3-0-0; +5.00 units

Fasth/Azinger WON by 4
Goydos/Gogel WON by 1

18-holes: 1-3-0; -6.36 units

Outrights: 1-2; +4.00 units

Singh 1st
Triplett 58th

Glad to come out of the event with a profit following Friday's plays. Singh came through when it mattered and everyone else stumbled over their laces, while Fasth recovered from an opening eight in his final round to complete the sweep in the matchups.