There is some great looking golf betting to look at this week as the 14th annual World Golf Challenge tees off. This is just an 18 man field is out in California at the Sherwood Country Club. There is a $1 million prize purse for the winner and all of the proceeds will benefit the college-access programs of the Tiger Woods foundation. Naturally Tiger Woods is here at his own event and is joined by a pretty strong field. It could be a pull a name from a hat time for this one as there is some tremendous value around. Woods is the strong outright favourite in the betting and that is because last season at the Sherwood Country Club, Tiger Woods finally broke his winning drought. It was the fourth time that Woods had secured the title of his own golf tournament.
He came close the year before as he lost in a play off to Graeme McDowell and so will probably go very strongly again here. It has been a pretty good season for Woods, getting back to his best, winning titles and looking confident. Plenty of rest as well will help his cause here. Hard to look past him as a straight up option for value. Behind Tiger Woods things do get complicated for this one. Graeme McDowell and Jim Furyk are the only other past winnesr in the field and you would expect that to have some kind of impact. The latter will be the stronger option really, because for McDowell the past winner stat is probably all that you will be relying on with him though as he hasn’t been looking that strong through November.
You can’t really ignore the form that Ryder Cup hero Ian Poulter has been in over the close of the season. He has been right smack at the top of his game. Struggled a little last week at the DP World Tour Championship in Dubai, where he couldn’t recover enough from a slow start and took a T26 finish. Still, his form was brilliant before that and could be a really good fit this week to get the job done. Likewise Dustin Johnson was a man on fire at the back end of last season and there was only an anomalous round of 84 at the WGC HSBC Champions which has been any hint of a blot on his copybook. Supreme when he is swinging well and has a massive distance advantage off the tee over a lot of the field.
Jason Dufner is up there in the betting odds because of a pretty stellar season. he is a double winner in 2012 and landed eight top tens in 22 starts. His all round game is just ranking superbly as well as his driving and scoring average. Finishing second in the FedExCup regular season points and has just come on leaps and bounds. It will be a surprise if he is not pushing hard at the 2012 World Golf Challenge. There are so many names in the field you can associate with consistency, like Hunter Mahan, Matt Kuchar and Jim Furyk, this should be a massively competitive field.
At the other end of the scale you can look for the exciting talents who can blitz a field at any given moment. There you look for the likes of Keegan Bradley, Jason Day and Rickie Fowler. So all the way down the field there is really great value and you can bring up extra coverage in taking solid wagers in the Place Market where a lot of the strong challengers are hovering around the 3/1 mark for your golf betting this week.
2012 World Golf Challenge Betting Odds at online bookmaker Paddy Power
Tiger Woods 11/4, Jason Dufner 11/1, Ian Poulter 14/1, Jim Furyk 14/1, Dustin Johnson 14/1, Bo Van pelt 14/1, Zach Johnson 16/1, Brandt Snedeker 16/1, Matt Kuchar 16/1, Bubba Watson 18/1, Webb Simpson 16/1, Nick watney 20/1, Keegan Bradley 20/1, Hunter Mahan 22/1, Graeme McDowell 22/1, Jason Day 25/1, Rickie Fowler 33/1
There is a good Golf Betting special available for the World Challenge at online bookmaker Paddy Power. If Tiger Woods wins this week, then the popular bookie will refund all losing outright bets on golfer who finishes second. Online bookmaker Paddy Power offer a free £50 bet for new customers registering an account with them. The bookie will match the value of your first stake on a new account with a free bet, and also provide superb live in running golf markets.
