Novell Utah Showdown

With several Senior players competing in the PGA Championship and a few others taking the week off, this week's field has a rather thin look to it. Bruce Fleisher and Gil Morgan are the headline players, but apart from last week's winner, Bruce Lietzke, there are not too many household names on view this week. They play at the long 7,327 yard Park Meadows Country Club, which is  links course designed by Jack Nicklaus. Apart from the occasional lake, there is not a great emphasis on accuracy off the tee. As a result, despite its length, scoring is usually low and a shootout rather than a showdown has been the feature of this event in recent years.

The three selections this week are Gil Morgan, Dana Quigley and Jim Ahern. Morgan has a great record in this event and is selected as a win-only play. He won this event in 1998, finished 5th in 1999 and lost out in a very close head-to-head with Tewell last year. His scoring average in those nine rounds is 66.78 against a par of 72. He comes into the event from finishing 3rd last week in a far stronger field and should not be very far from the top of the leaderboard all week.

Quigley gets the 2nd place selection because of his great record in this event as well. He holds both the 18-hole and 54-hole tournament record and shot 62-64 in the 1999 event to equal the Senior PGA Tour record for the final 36 holes. It was enough to earn him a place in the playoff, which he lost when he missed a 3-foot putt. Despite that miss, he came back strong last year and was tied for the lead going into the final round. He fell back to 4th, but this course obviously brings out the best in his game and with him playing some of the best golf of his Senior career at the moment, he looks to be a serious contender this week.

Jim Ahern does not have the course record that the other two selections have - he finished 43rd on his first visit last year - but he is tremendous form at the moment.  He has finished in the top-7 in five of his last six events and was runner-up in the Farmers Charity Classic. Each of those events has had a stronger field than this and to see him available at 80/1 is amazing! Surrey offer 33/1 for Ahern. Stan James, who offer the 5 places option, did have him at 100, but that price has now been halved, but a top-4 finish would be extremely nice!

Outright plays:

Gil Morgan to win 6/1 available generally

Dana Quigley to win 25/1 e.w. @ Stan James [5 places option]

Jim Ahern to win 80/1 e.w. @ Simon Bold or BetSmart

Final update: 0-3 and -3.00 units

Very poor. Ahern finished in 51st place (of 78 contestants) and Morgan finished down in 29th place with neither of them threatening to finish any higher. At least Quigley had a chance of a place finish after his 2nd round 66, but he fell back to finish 12th overall and conclude a winless week with the beards.