Mercedes Championships    

Final Result: 3-1-6, -3.06pts.

Not a great start to the season, but it's often difficult until things settle down.

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Round 4

Back Kenny Perry to beat Carl Pettersson to win 1pt @1.91 at Tote - tie (lost)

The gulf in class between these two players is far bigger than this price suggests.

Back Jason Bohn to beat David Toms to win 1pt @2.54 at Pinnacle - tie (void)

Toms faded baded yesterday, and while he is still obviously the fav in this matchup this is basically too big a price on Bohn over 18 holes.

Back Bart Bryant to beat Justin Leonard to win 1pt @2.07 at Pinnacle - lost

Can't have the erratic Leonard as favourite in this matchup, and will side with the more consistent Bryant.

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Round 3

Nothing stands out today.

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adding two further round 2 plays:

Back Wes Short to beat Justin Leonard to win 1pt @2.66 at Pinnacle -won

Short played very well from tee to green yesterday, with just his putting letting him down. Being the first time he's played these tricky green he'll hopefully have learned from the experience and be able to get to grips better with the greens today. Leonard played fairly solidly yesterday, but I don't seem him as being such a strong favourite here as the prices suggest.

Back Geoff Ogilvy to beat K.J. Choi to win 1pt @2.03 at FiveDimes - won

Again opposing Choi.. I don't have it in for him I just think he's been overrated for this event, possibly due to his 2nd place the last time he played here. The last time he played here however the conditions were dry and relatively calm and the course was giving up very low scores, this week the winds are blowing and it is the total opposite. I have Ogilvy as favourite in this mythical matchup.

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Round 2

Not a great start with 3 losers and 1 winner yesterday. One play so far for the second round:

Back Kenny Perry to beat K.J. Choi to win 1.5pts @2.1 at Betdaq - lost

Wouldn't normally be expecting to give plays at the purple exchange, but thanks to their market seeding there seems to be a reasonable amount of liquidity in their matches. Whoever seeded the market has got this one wrong basically. Perry is unanimous favourite everywhere else and in my opinion justifiably so. Opposing Choi was the one play that copped in round 1 and happy to do so again.

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adding one further 1st round play:

Back Kenny Perry to beat Stuart Appleby to win 1pt @2.1 at Paddy Power - lost

Even with Appleby's record here I cannot have Perry as the outsider of these two. He is one of the most consistent players on the tour and has played well before here too. Appleby obviously has many positives this week but as ever this is a play based on favourable odds.

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It hasn't really been that long since last season ended, but even still it feels great to be just one day away from the thrills and spills of golf (and more importantly betting on it!) resuming.

As you will see there are changes to this site for the new season, one of which is the discontinuation of the Betfair page. We felt it had really run its course and served the purpose of introducing people to the benefits and differences of betting on golf at exchanges. For those who are new to Betfair, you can always read Shaker's excellent introductory guide by clicking on the link on the left panel of the page.

New for this season is 18 hole match betting, which (time permitting) will be updated with new plays day by day as the tournaments progress.

It's the season-opener in Hawaii this week, and while many of the big names have decided to give it a miss there are still 28 players here and plenty of opportunities for finding some value 18 holers.

Round 1

Back Heath Slocum to beat Carl Pettersson to win 1pt @2.37 at Ladbrokes, Stan James (also 2.44 at Betfair, which is more or less an identical price assuming 5% commission) - lost

Slocum has the advantge of having played the course before and his solid ball striking game should stand up to the expected windy conditions. Pettersson had an excellent finish to last season to regain his card, but so did Slocum, winning his last event. I can't really separate the two on overall ability, so will take these outsider odds on Slocum.

Back Mark Calcavecchia to beat K.J. Choi to win 1pt @2.15 at FiveDimes - won

Choi seems to be heavily fancied here, but I'm not so sure. He may have won last season to qualify for this, but he had a bad time of it other than that. While Choi has course form with his 2nd place here in 2003, Calcavecchia also fared well the year before finishing 5th. Again I see this as a pretty even match so to get Calc at these odds with ties pushing looks good value to me.

Back Brad Faxon to beat Peter Lonard to win 1pt @1.98 at FiveDimes - lost

The battle of the walking wounded! Both have had recent injury problems, so I can't really see any reason to favour one over the other on those grounds. Simply, Faxon is the better player, has played the event 3 times before and has the putting game to suit the big greens here. Lonard's putting on the other hand usually leaves a lot to be desired.