Ford Senior Players Championship

FINAL RESULT: 0-3; -6.00pts

Kite 7th
Thorpe 7th
Purtzer 54th

No chance of winning, but both Kite and Thorpe had decent chances of finishing the top-five for a place return and both had their chances wrecked by double-bogeys in the final round. For Kite it was as late as the 16th hole. They both finished one shot out of the place money. Did back the winner Mark James ... but a week too early!

Outright plays (2pts):

Tom Kite to win 25/1 e.w. @ SkyBet
Even with the late inclusion of Peter Jacobsen who was only an alternate, there are plenty of good odds available for this event and five places in a 78-man field. First up is Kite who has finished in the top-10 here in all four previous appearances, including a 2nd place finish last year after a final round 63. He has shown good form recently by making the cut at Shinnecock Hills and finishing 2nd the week after in the Bank of America Championship. Still gets placed rather than wins more than he should, but there still value at these odds.

Jim Thorpe to win 25/1 e.w. @ Stan James
Thorpe does convert his chances well and did so last week to lift the Long Island Classic. It is usually not a very good omen to win the week before a Major, but Thorpe has a habit of winning back-to-back. He won his first two events on this Tour in 2000 and they were back-to-back; his next two wins were in 2001 and they were back-to-back; he didn't win in 2002, but in 2003 he finished 2nd after his first win and his 2nd win was the last event of the season. In each of these wins, he was either a wire-to-wire winner or held the leading going into the final round, so he is clearly an extremely good front runner. The only exception to the above is when he won the Farmers Charity Classic last month, but finished 28th in a weather-shortened event the following week. But having won two of his last four events, he is in extremely good form and this course does suit his attacking style of play - he has finished 2nd in each of the last two years. There is a lot to suggest his is a capable winner this week.

Tom Purtzer to win 33/1 e.w. @ BlueSq
Purtzer was denied a win (as an outright selection) two weeks ago only by a final round 64 from Craig Stadler. He has failed to convert winning chances on a number of occasions, but he is still one of the best players on Tour. Of the Tour's 26 stat categories, he is top-ranked in six of them and is 2nd-ranked in scoring average and 'all-around ranking'. So with a top-5 finish here last year, he is a better player than these odds portray.