Mexico Senior Classic

The weakest field of the year as the Senior PGA Tour arrives in Mexico. The top-3 in the money list - Larry Nelson, Gil Morgan and Bob Gilder - are not present, while Hale Irwin has decided not to return. It would appear to make this winning this tournament wide open, but only a possibility for a fraction of the field. This is reflects in the odds offered by BetSmart who are the only online book pricing up this event. No fewer than 13 players have odds of 16/1 or less   This is very poor, let's hope that there is some competition to BetSmart in the next few weeks!

The course was only opened in 1999 with the inaugural event played last year. The course played very easy - 25th hardest course of 38 on the Senior PGA Tour last year - with Hubert Green winning with a closing 62, though there have been measures to toughen up the course for this year.

The three outright picks are Jose Maria Canizares, Dana Quigley and Bobby Walzel. Canizares has been in sparkling form over the past two weeks, finishing 5th two weeks ago at the ACE Group Classic and 9th last week at the Verizon Classic despite being in 2nd place with one round to go. Combining that with a weak field this week and a 5th place finish last year, he looks to be good value even at this week's shortened odds.

The odds are very short on Dana Quigley. He is offered at 12/1 when he was generally available at 50/1 a month ago. The fact that his last three finishes read 5th, 2nd and 9th are a major reason for this and having competed and finished 15th last year, he looks a serious contender to win this title. Maybe the same can be said for Bobby Walzel who has finished 8th and 2nd in the past two weeks. He has certainly made an impact since graduating to this Tour and completes a trio of players who could very easily win this event outright; not something that can be said every week!

Outright plays:

Jose Maria Canizares 16/1

Dana Quigley 12/1

Bobby Walzel 50/1

All prices are each-way and available with BetSmart  

Final update: 1-2 and -1.50 units

Walzel never held the lead, but had challenged for it all week. But an untimely bogey on the 16th put an end to his chances on the final day and he finished in joint-4th place on a tightly-packed leaderboard. Canizares never fully recovered from a poor 1st round and finished in 6th place, while Quigley didn't even manage to break par all week and finished down in 43rd position.