EDS Byron Nelson Championship Preview + Betting Odds

[Shame About Ray]

You’re going to have to put a little extra effort into your golf betting research over the next few weeks – Tiger Woods is temporarily out of action as he recovers from knee surgery. That means there’ll be some new favorites at the top of the PGA Tour’s tournament odds lists until the world’s top-ranked player is fit enough to play once again.

Woods had arthroscopic surgery on his left knee shortly after he finished ‘only’ second at The Masters. The procedure is expected to keep him out of action for at least four weeks, which means he’ll most likely miss The Players Championship (which takes place from May 8 to May 11). Barring a setback, though, he’ll be back for the U.S. Open.

So the PGA Tour will be forced to carry on without Woods for the next little while. He wasn’t expected to play in last week’s Verizon Heritage (at Harbour Town Golf Links in Hilton Head, South Carolina) anyway, so it wasn’t a big shock to see Jim Furyk pegged as the tourney favorite for that event. Furyk, though, came up short and finished fourth.



Furyk actually ended up four strokes behind first-place Boo Weekley at the Verizon Heritage, even though Weekley stumbled slightly with a 71 in the final round. Aaron Baddeley and Anthony Kim finished in a tie for second place at the event (three strokes behind the leader), while unheralded Cliff Kresge finished five strokes back in fifth spot.

Scott Verplank finished a forgettable 53rd at Hilton Head last week, so he’ll be looking for a better result this week when he arrives at the TPC Four Seasons Resort in Irving, Texas for the Byron Nelson Championship. Verplank held off Luke Donald to win this tournament by a single stroke last year, picking up a purse of $1.1 million for his efforts.

Phil Mickelson, Jerry Kelly, Rory Sabbatini, and Ian Poulter all ended up three shots behind Verplank in a tie for third place in 2007, while Fredrik Jacobson and Ken Duke were four shots back, and Ryuji Imada was five strokes behind. Rod Pampling, Brett Wetterich, and Steve Marino all ended that event in a tie for 10th place, six shots behind.

That made two solid results in a row at this tournament for Wetterich – he grabbed the trophy in 2006. Ted Purdy was the winner in 2005, Sergio Garcia finished in first place in 2004, and Vijay Singh got the victory in 2003. Singh also had a decent result in the event last year – he tied for 13th. Big shots Ernie Els, Mickelson, and Woods won this tourney in consecutive years from ‘95 to ‘97 when it was the Byron Nelson Golf Classic.

Those three, though, won’t be in the field this week, and Singh will be giving the event a pass as well. That leaves golfers like Verplank, Donald, Sabbatini, Garcia, and Adam Scott as the best bets to fill out the top of the leaderboard on Sunday. On the ‘odds to finish in the Top 10’ chart Scott is the favorite at -110, followed by Donald and Trevor Immelman at +125, and Sabbatini at +145. Garcia sits in fifth on that list at +225 odds.

Other top contenders to pick up Top-10 finishes this week include Sean O’Hair (+250), Verplank (+275), Leonard (+275), Kim (+275), Chad Campbell (+275), and Hunter Mahan (+275). 2006 champion Wetterich is farther back on that odds list at only +625.

Meanwhile, the golfers on the European Tour will continue their swing through China this week as they hit the links at Tomson Shanghai Pudong Golf Club for the BMW Asian Open. This event was won by France’s Raphael Jacquelin last year, but he’s well down the list at +4500 odds to repeat as tourney champ. Henrik Stenson and Retief Goosen are the tournament co-favorites at +800 odds, with Graeme McDowell behind them at +1500.

Jeev Milkha Singh is next at +2000 odds to win the BMW Asian Open this week, while 2004 champion Miguel Angel Jimenez is at +2200 odds. Other top contenders for the event include Martin Kaymer (+2500), Jyoti Randhawa (+2800), and Soren Kjeldsen (+2800), while Markus Brier and Mark Brown are each listed at +3000 to get the victory.

The European Tour returns to Europe next week for the Open de Espana at the Real Club de Golf in Seville, Spain, while the PGA Tour’s next stop is at the Wachovia Championship at Quail Hollow in Charlotte, North Carolina. The Players Championship then gets going on Thursday, May 8 at TPC Sawgrass in Ponte Vedra Beach in Florida.

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