Matchup Picks - PGA Tour

Final Result

Crane beaten by DiMarco by 4

Love tied (!!!) with Singh

Rose beat Choi by 5

Bets: 3 Wins: 1 Losses: 1 Profit/Loss = 0.00pts

Additional Matchup bets: (Total Stake: 2pts)

Ben Crane to beat Chris DiMarco -110 @ Ladbrokes & Victor Chandler

Was tempted to go with Crane against Appleby, but I have a poor record at interpreting

Appleby's form so will stick with this one. Crane chances of winning last week were hampered

with a poor second round of 72, 3 shots worse than any other top-5 finisher. Nevertheless

it was an encouraging display after returning from injury. His course form here is average

with one missed cut and an 18th place finish. DiMarco's early season form was terrible and

although things have improved he does seem to be reserving his better finishes this season

for the bigger events. He also has average form here very similar to Cranes but does have

a second place finish here from 2002. In the h2h's this season Crane leads 11-7, partially

down to DiMarco's very poor early season form. But in h2h's where both players have made

the cut Crane lead actually improves to 6-2, including the last three events. DiMarco has

had a long season of mixed emotions and nobody could blame him for counting down the

minutes until the season ends. Crane has had the better, more solid form this year and is

still showing that improved current form over DiMarco. I make him a -120 shot here.

Matchup bets: (Total Stake: 2pts)

Davis Love to beat Vijay Singh +125 @ Pinnacle

I hesitated over this one for such a long time, worried that this was prematurely jumping on the

Love bandwagon based on one performance. But looking at the facts it just doesn't seem that way.

Admittedly over the last two years his game has been dogged by chronic inconsistency but Love's

winning performance last week was based on an excellent short game, which will be of value here

as well, and when he has missed the cut it has been in either one of the bigger tournaments or was

due to one abysnal round. This field is hardly a classic and he has repaetedly shown a liking for this

course with five top-10 finishes here. Singh obviously deserves to be favourite but his form has

deteriorated rapidly this season with the impression that a lot of the drive has went out of him since

his being replaced as world number one by Tiger. If so then this end of season tournament is hardly

likely to get his juices flowing. At this price I just can't leave Love out and I make him a +105 shot.

Justin Rose to beat K.J. Choi +100 @ Stan James

Choi holds a quite significant lead on the h2h's over Rose, 8-4 over the season, which is probably

the main factor for him being the outsider. But Rose looks to perform better on the easier courses

where making birdies is of more importance. Choi has performed with admirably consistency this

season but his record in Florida is considerably more shaky with missing the cut in almost 50% of

his starts. On the other hand Rose's consistency continues into Florida. He did miss the cut last

week but he has a pretty decent record of turning in a decent performance after a missed cut.

In terms of previous course form Choi has 2 missed cuts from 3 starts while Rose has a couple of

finishes of 24th and 3rd last year. Given the conditions should favour Rose I alomst make him

favourite here.

Tipster: Neil