84 Lumber Classic

FINAL RESULT: 1-2; +1.08pts

DiMarco 3rd
Maruyama 20th
Barlow mc

DiMarco did get close to Vijay in the 3rd round, but once again he failed to deliver in the final round. A share of a place win was increased with the lay at the mid-point.

Post-rd2 play (1.5pts):

Lay Chris DiMarco 7.8 @ Betfair  [alternative: 'Field wins 84 Lumber Classic' vs Chris DiMarco -980 @ Five Dimes]
Opposing the yesterday's low round as it is always difficult to follow - the 2nd best score was 67, compared to DiMarco's 65. He will need the same score again to catch Vijay and that is a tall ask and even if he does, he will surely be too mentally tired on Sunday after such a draining week at Oakland Hills. Had hoped that Vijay would not get off to such a flyer, but now that he has, it is best to close out the win part of the each-way play on DiMarco for a profit and hope that he still manages to get placed.

Outright plays (1.5pts):

Chris DiMarco to win 25/1 e.w. @ Bet365 and BlueSq
If any U.S. player came out of the Ryder Cup with any credit it was DiMarco. He was the leading American points scorer with 2.5pts from 4 games and with his only defeat being in the foursomes with Jay Haas, it meant that he was unbeaten when he had his own ball in his hand. If he can carry his form of the last two months into this event, he could certainly profit from what should be a soul-searching first PGA Tour event after last week's one-sided match. He should have the motivation after winning in the inaugural year of this event (2000) and finished in the top-10 on this course last year.

Shigeki Maruyama to win 40/1 e.w. @ SkyBet
Maruyama finished alongside DiMarco in the top-10 last year and while there have been course modifications, primarily on the greens, course experience is always beneficial. He is more than capable of winning in this company and wasn't too far from doing so in his last outing, the Deutsche Bank Championship. If there is a fallout from last week, he should go even closer.

Craig Barlow to win 200/1 e.w. @ Ladbrokes
I don't normally look this far down the odds lists and it is certainly not because Bart Bryant won last week. Rather I find it very strange that Barlow is more than half these odds and if he keeps on getting himself into contention, he might drawn enough lessons from the experiences and finish the job very soon. In the Canadian Open two weeks ago, he was 4th heading into the weekend, in the Reno-Tahoe Open and the Buick Open last month, he was 12th after three rounds and 8th after two respectively. His tee-to-green game has been particularly good over the last month and on returning to a course on which he shot every round in the 60s and finished 8th last year, he could contend once again.