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It’s alternate event week on the PGA Tour. In other words a great opportunity for a youngster to breakthrough, a journeyman to sneak through a gap in the fence, or an old-timer to turn the clock back. In the four times that the event has been held Scott Piercy, Aaron Baddeley, Grayson Murray and Troy Merritt have prevailed at Keen Trace Golf Club. It’s a par-72 in Nicholasville, Kentucky and there has been a lot of rain in the area in the last few days which harks back to the comments of Billy Horschel ahead of last year’s event: “This is great little golf course. It's unfortunate that they've had so much rain here a few days ago. I think we're going to have some rain this week, so it's going to be really soft. “The greens are in absolutely incredible shape. Course is in pretty good shape with all the rain they've had. I think the scores will be really low. I think it's going to allow some guys to be aggressive into the greens. I think you'll have to go low, so 18-, 20-, 22-under par is I think the winning score.” He got that right as Troy Merritt won with 23-under. How did Billy explain the low scoring? “You're going to have to be really sharp with iron play from about 150 in. You're going to have a lot of wedges, you're going to have a lot of short irons in.”
Angles to consider 1/ Greens in Regulation Troy Merritt ranked fifth, Grayson Murray third, Aaron Baddeley tenth and Scott Piercy first for hitting the putting surface. 2/ Recent Form All four of the winners had made a top 20 in their previous four starts and three of them in their previous two. 3/ Birdies It more or less stands to reason. The winners here feature highly in the birdie averages and they make buckets of them in the week of victory.
Selections The above angles have been used to create a shortlist from which the following players are selected. Sepp Straka The Austrian-American ranks 15th in the field for Greens in Regulation, 33rd for Birdie Average on tour and he was T11th three starts ago. Adam Schenck Schenck shone last time out when T6th and he can make a run off of that. He ranks 11th for Greens in Regulation and 63rd for Birdie Average (the vast majority of those above him are not in this week’s field of course). Hank Lebioda He was 14th six weeks about ranks 17th for Greens in Regulation in the field and 26th for Birdie Average all year.
Tips: 1-2; +2.50pts 1pt e.w. Sepp Straka at 30/1 (Unibet 1/4 1,2,3,4,5) 3rd 1pt e.w. Adam Schenck at 40/1 (Unibet 1/4 1,2,3,4,5) 18th 1pt e.w. Hank Lebioda at 28/1 (Unibet 1/4 1,2,3,4,5) 70th
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