U.S. Senior Open

FINAL RESULT: 1-2; +3.25pts

Irwin 25th
Haas 22nd
Weibring 2nd

Tough loss in this event. Doyle had set the mark at 10-under-par in the clubhouse and Weibring only had to par the last two holes to lift the title, but he found neither fairway and neither green in regulation and finally missed from 10-feet to force a playoff.

Outright plays (total stake per play: 2pts)

Hale Irwin to win 16/1 e.w. @ available generally
Playing in very cold temperatures and 30mph winds in North-East Scotland is far from ideal preparation for the following week's event. Even moreso when that event is in Ohio, it is a major and it involves the over-50s! These three selections share one important criteria: they didn't travel to Scotland last week. With Irwin, there is plenty of evidence of a return to form after losing confidence in his game in March-June. He finished 7th in the Bank of America Championship last month and it took an extremely impressive finish by Peter Jacobsen to deny him the Ford Senior Players Championship, the last Senior major, last month. With a record in this event from nine starts that reads two wins, two runner-ups finishes and a top-5 finish in every year bar two, he looks ideally suited to profit this week.

Jay Haas to win 20/1 e.w. @ SkyBet and Ladbrokes
Maybe I have missed some news item about Haas losing his clubs or something, but I can't see why Haas' odds have more than doubled since the last major three weeks ago. The impressive Senior debuts of Loren Roberts and Greg Norman will have played some effect, but he was not so low down the odds list last time out. And this is a player who, despite only finishing 18th on that occasion, improve his leaderboard position in every round. He is still a player who has finished in the top-3 in three of six Champions Tour starts, including last year's U.S. Senior Open, and finished in the top-20 in five of his last nine U.S. Opens.

D.A. Weibring to win 33/1 e.w. @ Sportingbet and Sporting Odds
Weibring has proved to be a frustrating player to back since winning the Bruno's Memorial Classic in May. He finished 2nd in the Allianz Championship, but has then finished 6th, 4th, 6th and 5th resulting in either near-misses or low payout from dead-heats when backed. Not surprisingly, he finished 6th in this event last year. So many near-misses can become irksome, but 33/1 is ample compensation for a player who contends so regularly that he ranks 1st in Top-10 Finishes and in the top-5 for Scoring Average on the Champions Tour.