Tour Championship     [Outright picks for the Southern Farm Bureau Classic can be found here]

FINAL RESULT: 0-2; -3.00pts

Furyk 13th
Howell 24th

Furyk was never really in contention, but Howell certainly was. He was inside the top-10 throughout the event until the final round, but shot an eight-over-par round (the highest of the day) when there was a good chance of a place return. 

Outright plays (total stake per play: 1.5pts)

Jim Furyk to win 16/1 e.w. @ Ladbrokes and Tote
Backed a lot of frustrating players in recent weeks and Furyk was one of them: he three-putted the last hole to enable Wes Short the opportunity to force a playoff for the Michelin Championship, which he won. But that said, these odds are a couple of points higher than anticipated and the fact that Furyk ranks 3rd in Scoring Average on Tour this season suggests that he should be a little closer to Tiger and Vijay than these odds suggest. He is good on the small number of Bentgrass greens in Georgia as he has shown in the Masters and on this course: finishes of 3rd and 18th in his two attempts. He was tipped at 14/1 when winning the Western Open in July and that was after he had been so cruelly denied at least a playoff for the Barclays Classic after he had been in control in that event. A little repetition of history is in order here!

Charles Howell to win 40/1 e.w. @ Centrebet and Tote
Sitting in 30th in the Money List (and so in the last automatic qualifying place for this event), it was an impressive performance by Howell to finish 16th last week under such pressure. It allowed him to secure his place and jump two places ahead of Ogilvy and Maruyama who missed the cut and finished 27th respectively. Such a burning of mental energy could force a letdown this week, but Howell is playing in his home town and that should not be a factor. When he qualified for this event in 2002 at East Lake, he battled Vijay Singh all the way before finishing 2nd. And to show that it was not just home advantage, he followed that with another 2nd place finish in this event in 2003. On both occasions he held the lead heading into the weekend. So two appearances and two 2nd place finishes makes the in-form home town player definitely worth backing at these odds.