FINAL RESULT: 0-3; -4.50pts

Furyk 17th
Van Pelt 12th
Maruyama 25th

Plenty of chances but no return. Furyk held the lead and was trading as low as 2/1 favourite until a triple-bogey at the 7th hole on Saturday and Van Pelt started the final round in 6th place, but never got any higher.

Outright plays (total stake per play: 1.5pts)

Jim Furyk to win 12/1 e.w. @ SkyBet, Victor Chandler, Ladbrokes and BetDirect
Struggling to find any value in this week's odds and there is certainly little value in Furyk at odds of less than 12/1. But this is a much weaker field than last week with only Furyk (5th) and Toms (9th) of the top-10 in the World Rankings making an appearance this week. And he is in such form. He won the Wachovia Championship two weeks ago, had finished 2nd in the Heritage in his previous start, 22nd in the Masters and 3rd in the Players Championship in his two previous starts. He did miss the cut last week, but having won the week before, he was certainly opposable. He has a good record on a course that should suit his game and warrants favouritism.

Bo Van Pelt to win 40/1 e.w. available generally
Van Pelt has yet to win on Tour and it is a reflection of the poor field and its small size (currently 114 players compared to the 156 in normal Tour events) that he is 40/1. However, he did show good form during 2005 and has continued in the same vein this year: in the last three months, he has five top-15 finishes. And he has been getting closer to that maiden Tour victory: he held the lead after the cut in the Wachovia Championship two weeks ago before finishing 6th and was 8th at the cut last week before fading to finish 26th. So with his form reaching a peak at the moment, it only needs a decent course history to suggest that he is backable at these odds. With finishes of 5th and 17th in two appearances at Colonial, he is certainly does have a good course history and should provide some interest beyond the first two rounds.

Shigeki Maruyama to win 50/1 e.w. @ Sportingbet, Sporting Odds, BlueSq, UKBetting and Totalbet
Last week's return to form was very timely in terms of this event as it is one in which he almost always plays well. Take out his missed cut in 2004 and he has shot 70 or better in each of his last eleven rounds at Colonial or in 22 of 24 rounds since his debut in 1997. And as his strengths are his short game and his putting, it is no surprise that he should play better in events like The Colonial and the Byron Nelson Championship (winner in 2002) than on the TPC courses used on Tour. He improved his score in every round last week to finish 6th (he had been 8th with one round to play the previous week) and that should set him up nicely for this week.