BellSouth Senior Classic

A week after the Senior PGA Championship when +5 was the cut line, the Senior professionals are treated to a nice easy recovery course. Of the 38 courses used last year, only Serrano CC (Gold Rush Classic) played easier. Despite being a par-72, winning scores under 200 are common and with five of the ten par-fours measuring under 400 yards, it is no surprise. It also enabled Gary Player to shoot his age last year (64) and so become the youngest player in Senior Tour history to do so. After the demanding conditions at Ridgewood, this is a nice piece of scheduling by the Senior PGA Tour!

Hale Irwin is the defending champion and after his 2nd round ended his chances of victory last week, he will be very keen to hold onto this title. But he has won only 3 of his last twenty events and he is not, by results, the dominant that he was and that the bookies still think he is. Instead, this week's selections are Bruce Fleisher, Allen Doyle and Dana Quigley. Fleisher has won two of his last five events and has proved to be an excellent front-runner. He was never really on the pace last week and finished 7th, but that will only strengthen his resolve this week as he is a former winner of this event (1999) and finished in the top-10 as defending champion last year despite being affected by the death of his father the week before the event.

Doyle and Quigley remain standard selections each week. Yet again Doyle was placed last week, though his inability to convert contention into wins must be a concern. He finished a lowly 21st last year, but on current form he is a must, even at half the price he was last week. A much better price can be found on Quigley, who did threaten to join Doyle in the money last week until a 3rd round 75 took him out of contention. He has finished in the top-10 in each of his three starts here and hopefully we will see a continuation of his current seven-week streak of competitive golf that has followed higher-lower-higher pattern of finishing positions. His 15th place finish last week was higher than his 2nd the week before.

Outright plays:

Bruce Fleisher to win 15/2 @ BetSmart

Allen Doyle to win 12/1 e.w. @ Surrey

Dana Quigley to win 33/1 e.w. @ Surrey

Final update: 0-3 and -3.00 units

Quiet week as none of Five Dimes' matchups were particularly attractive at the lines they posted. So just the outrights and though all three players finished in the top-7, none recorded a return on the play. Fleisher finished 3rd, five shots from victory, while Doyle finished one shot back in 5th place and Quigley two furthers shots back in 7th. A blank on the week, but can't be disappointed in the performance from the picks.