SUNDAY was a great day when three of my four picks finished 1st, T2, T2 at the British Masters for a profit of 103pts and hopefully I can follow that up with another good weekend.
The Tour moves on to the Portugal Masters at Vilamoura and, believe it or not, the PGA Tour returns for a new season starting in California with the Fry’s.com.
Race to Dubai points are up for grabs in this week’s Portugal Masters and with two tournaments to go before the Final Series there will be a few players fighting to get into the top 110 or trying to keep their status.
Looking at his stats at the British Masters I’m going to give 6ft 6in Englishman Chris Wood another chance He didn’t do much wrong with four rounds under 70 (69 69 69 67), if you add his two 65s at St Andrews the week before that’s good scoring.
As I said last week he’s missed five cuts since winning the Lyoness Open but with a T4 at the Alfred Dunhill followed by last week’s T9 he looks to be back in the groove.
It’s taken me some time to finalise my other pick for the Portugal Masters but finally I’ve decided on Bernd Wiesberger. At the Dunhill Links he also looked back in form finishing a T4 with four solid rounds (70 68 69 64). His driving accuracy stats aren’t that great (53.9%) but makes up for that with his GIR stats (73.58%) and putts per round of 29.
Over at the Silverado Resort in Napa, California, GIR seems to be the important stat this weekend at the Frys.com. Hideki Matsuyama finished a T3 here last year in what was a good first half of season with eight top-10 finishes.
He dried up a bit in the middle of the year but managed to take part in the four FedEx Cup Playoffs, finishing T13, T25, T7 and T12. If we add in his half and two wins in the Presidents Cup I definitely think he can get a result here.
His driving accuracy is 65% (49th), GIR of 69% (21st) and strokes gained:tee-to-green 1.338 (8th) so all round looks in good nick.
Argentinian Emiliano Grillo did not have a bad season at all on the American circuit. He had two top-10 finishes from five on the PGATour and a win, second and ninth from four on the Web.com Tour (winning the Web.com Tour Championship in the process). The 23-year-old is my rookie to follow for 2016 and with stats of 64.4% in driving accuracy and GIR of 71.6% a place finish isn’t out of the question.
As a final pick I’m looking at the San Antonio Championship on the Champions Tour and can’t see past Jeff Maggert. The American is just 39 points behind Colin Montgomerie in the Schwab Cup and has won three times in the last eight outings.
Recommended Bets
Chris Wood 1pt ew (20-1, Ladbrokes, William Hill)
Bernd Wiesberger 2pts ew (12-1, Ladbrokes, William Hill)
Hideki Matsuyama 2pts ew (18-1, 888sport, Unibet)
Emiliano Grillo 1pt ew (50-1, BetVictor, bet365)
Jeff Maggert 2.5pts ew (16-1, Betfred)
Ace Venturer
I think I’ll stick with Wood too and I’m tempted by the 66/1 for Ricardo Gouveia with home advantage e/w GL.
Duncan, who’s Gouvela – don’t know him?
Great tipping last week although i was disappointed that my pick of araphabarnrat didnt get the job done at 55/1. I like the look of wood this week
MR F ,24 yo, player from Lisbon played in the Palmer Cup winning team last year and for University of Florida He will have played this course plenty of times, GL.
Duncan, just noticed he’s tipped in the RFO so you could be on to something.
Excellent week Ace. Was on Fitzpatrick too and Sunday was a great watch
Portugal Masters
C.WOOD 20/1
S.KJELDSEN 20/1
A.OTAEGUI 150/1
Frys Com.Open
B.SNEDEKER 45/1
R.KNOX 80/1
Paddy Power paying 1/4 for first six at Frys ,but check the odds
Or the pressure of the home crowd could get to him ,time will tell ,around 11/2 for a top 10 finish GL.
Agreeing with all above. Just going to add colsaerts, who looks like coming back to his best golf atm
Well last week a few of us agreed about Matty Fitz, Mr F included i am sticking with the gang this week and going with Chris Wood as my main bet so hoping history repeats itself. but also going to stick by Pieters just a while longer (some player when on song) Going both 1st round leaders too (served me well last week)
Going with J.Thomas and T.Finau (both going to have a bug year in my opinion)in the Fry’s again both 1st round leader too..
Good Luck all, and again awesome tipping ace. (Do you keep a yearly point total? if not you should because i am guessing you will be smashing it..
Good Luck guys.
Craig, I’ve got a small stake on the Portuguese lad Guiveia who is being tipped in a few places but main bet will be on Wiesberger who has good course form.
Little bit on Hatton too..
A levy and J thomas are the two im going with this week.
Daft EW double
Olesen 50/1
Koepka 22/1
Small bet on the Portugese lad Gouveia
Portugal..hatton hebert dunne aitken.
Frys..henley blair jones finau.
Asia..chia horne gw.kim norris tabuena.
Lpga..choi norquist yang korda
Japan..r.oda kondo inamora..
Bol guys..
Portugal wood 20-1, Fry’s koepka 16-1.
dont know much about golf. Can wood still win after his first day. is it still worth putting a bet on him. cheers
Not sure Winston, that’s betting if you bet now you will have a run for your money, i have had singles AND doubles on Wood/Pieters and J.Thomas/T.Finau crossed the doubles. but if your asking is it still worth a bet after round 1? impossible to answer….depends how much u can afford to lose and it would take a brave man/woman to answer that one. i would say if you do not know much about golf either follow ace every week or leave it alone..
Amazing! Had 1pt e/w on Grillo and a 0.25pt e/w double on Grillo and Wood. Cheers Ace!
Grillo you very nearly gave me a heart attack there. £80 back of a £1.25 e/w bet!!! Hats off to Ace, you sir are a legend, absolutely unbelievable. Golf’s very own Mystic Meg.