FINAL RESULT: 2-1; +1.63pts

Micheel 14th
Van Pelt 5th
Purdy 5th

It looked good for a while. Van Pelt and Purdy are players that are better coming off the pace and Van Pelt did that very well, just a bit too early! He was 4-under-par for his first five holes and Sunday and held the lead. It was clearly much too early as he then missed from 5 feet for a birdie on the next hole and was over-par for the rest of the round. They had to be content with a three-way share of 5th place.

Outright plays (total stake per play: 1.5pts)

Shaun Micheel to win 33/1 e.w. @ Ladbrokes
Hopefully Micheel's 50th place finish last week will have enabled him to coast a little and be better prepared physically for this week's event. In fact, anything must be better preparation that playing eight rounds of golf in four days across the Atlantic! But he did play so well in the World Match Play event, just he has done in the past month finishing 2nd in the PGA Championship and 7th in the Deutsche Bank Championship. Those were two very strong fields and this is not. He shot four rounds in the 60s last year to record his highest finish in any event for over 18 months so this is clearly a course that suits. A similar performance in his current form should result in a victory.

Bo Van Pelt to win 40/1 e.w. @ Ladbrokes
Van Pelt finished alongside Micheel in 5th place last year and there are signs that he will finish high on the leaderboard again this year. He finished 20th in the Canadian Open three weeks ago, but ranked an impressive 2nd in greens in regulation, and though he only finished 51st in the 84 Lumber Classic the following week, he ranked 5th in greens in regulation. But there is more to that week than good tee-to-green play: he started the final round two shots off the lead, but shot 82 in the final round, including back-to-back sevens on his card. With no reports of any injuries, he clearly lost all interest once he lost significant ground on the leaders and so that round can be ignored. Hopefully it won't happen again as he is clearly playing well enough to put himself into contention again.

Ted Purdy to win 50/1 e.w. @ BetInternet, Ladbrokes and Tote
Purdy went through a similar experience last week: in 2nd place after 54 holes and playing in the final group on Sunday, he had a quadruple-bogey eight early in his round and lost interest thereafter. He shot 78 and finished 21st, but as he had done the reverse and shot 67 in the final round of the 84 Lumber Classic the previous week to finish 4th (and was ranked 1st in greens in regulation), it is easy to also discount this final round collapse. He has played on this course once before (2004) and shot 70 or better in every round to finish in the top-20, so there should be optimism that he can contend again and hopefully, this time, make amends for last Sunday.