BMW Championship

Aidric

The third leg of the fed ex playoffs takes place at Crooked Stick GC. Rory McIlroy sits on top of the standings after last weeks victory in Boston. The positions of the Irish players after leg two are:
Padraig Harrington (56), Rory McIlroy (1) & Graeme McDowell (41).

The top 30 in the standings after this leg will advance to the final leg of the play offs, the tour championship.

I'm going for the hugely consistent Snedeker this week @ 33/1 with betfair.

Tee Times

Odds

ssbob

Aidric wrote: »

I'm going for the hugely consistent Snedeker this week @ 33/1 with betfair.

Looking forward to seeing this venue, in my opinion it will suit long hitters who putt well on fast greens and have no problem moving the ball either way so therefore my tip would be:

Bubba @ 41/1

I think Dustin Johnson is in a great run of form aswell but may run out of steam. Also think Sned might run out of steam aswell especially seeing as he has got his pick.

You would have to fancy Sergio aswell especially after taking a week off to rest. Such a great ball striker and putts better on faster greens. You can get him at 26/1 on Betfair.

Aidric

According to Poulter the rough is longer then the US Open. Looks like a testing couple of days ahead.

Ian Poulter ‏@IanJamesPoulter
The rough is longer than the US Open so will need to keep it in the fairway. The winner will hit most fairways.

mag

fancy furyk or dufner in this

blockic

Aidric wrote: »

According to Poulter the rough is longer then the US Open. Looks like a testing couple of days ahead.

Hope it's not a bogey fest. Kills the entertainment of it.

heavyballs

blockic wrote: »

Aidric wrote: »

According to Poulter the rough is longer then the US Open. Looks like a testing couple of days ahead.

Hope it's not a bogey fest. Kills the entertainment of it.

Not for me,harder the course the better,also maximize my bet Luke Donalds chances.

pistolpetes11

I think Rory could be the Man again , he has not won back to back yet and this is the perfect chance for him to do it, its a course that rewards a big hitter although he will need to be a lot accurate with his driving .

A little outsider for me would be the big hitter Graham Delaet (300.0 bf )


A good review here of things from the punter on BF

It's not often you see our man reject Phil Mickelson or back Rory McIlroy but that's exactly what he's done this week. Read why here...

Tournament History
The BMW Championship, formally the Western Open, dates right the way back to 1899 and it's the third professional golf tournament in the world. Only the Open Championship and the US Open date back further. It changed its name to the BMW Championship in 2008 when it became part of the FedEx Cup playoffs.

Venue
Crooked Stick Golf Club, Carmel, Indiana

Course Details
Par 72, 7,516 yards

Crooked Stick, in common with TPC Sawgrass, TPC Louisiana, TPC River Highlands, Harbour Town, and two of the last three US PGA Championship venues, Whistling Straights and Kiawah Island, is yet another Pete Dye design.

Having opened in 1964, the track hasn't been used on the PGA Tour since the 1991 US PGA Championship, so we haven't got too much to go on. Many will remember that week, when John Daly, a ninth alternate, shocked the golf world completely, endearing himself to all with his "grip it and rip it" three stroke victory.

It was used again for the U.S Senior Open when Fred Funk (also a winner at Pete Dye's Sawgrass) amassed a 20 under-par total.

At over 7,500 yards, it's a very long track but on the evidence of Daly's -12 total and Funk's -20, it can't be described as long and difficult.

The fairways are described as generous and the greens are smaller than average and running at 12 on the stimpmeter.



TV Coverage
Live on Sky all four days, 8.00pm on Thursday and Friday and 5.00pm on Saturday and Sunday.

Last Five Winners
2011 - Justin Rose -13
2010 - Dustin Johnson -9
2009 - Tiger Woods -19
2008 - Camilo Villegas -15
2007 - Tiger Woods -22

What will it take to win the BMW Championship?
Given that the event is being played on a track not used on the PGA Tour for more than 20 years, spending hours and hours trying to gauge what it will take to win could be an exercise in futility, resulting in nothing but wet trouser bottoms!

Given how long the course is, distance off the tee is in all probability going to be the most important factor but Fred Funk's win in the US Seniors Open confounds that theory somewhat. So short is Fred off the tee, that he once wore a skirt at the Merril Lynch shootout after Annika Sorenstam had out-driven him. And stick with the video; it's worth it for Tiger Woods' one-liner if nothing else.

The Ryder Cup effect
Davis Love yesterday announced his four wildcard picks and it will be very interesting to see how those in and those out respond at Crooked Stick.

Dustin Johnson is delighted to have made the Ryder Cup team and given he's in fine form already; the added impetus of selection could give extra momentum to has challenge this week.

Conversely, it will be interesting to see if Rickie Fowler and Hunter Mahan (very unlucky not to be picked in my opinion) can lift themselves following the disappointment of rejection.

Market Leaders
Rory McIlroy heads the market and quite rightly so. His most impressive win to date, in the PGA Championship at Kiawah Island last month was a watershed week in the young Irishman's career and there's something Tigeresque about him now. (And it also advertised his liking for Pete Dye layouts).

The world and his aunt were impressed with his US Open win last year but Kiawah impressed me much more. Once clear at halfway at Congressional he was able to coast home, a bit like last week's adversary Louis Oosthuizen had done a year earlier at St Andrews, but at Kiawah he had to battle tough conditions and fierce opponents. I still have slight reservations as to whether he can handle really windy conditions but winning a second major was a massive step and he's now firmly on the next level and very much the world's best. And he knows it too.

On paper, he has all the right attributes for Crocked Stick and the only foreseeable problem this week is that he's only had three days to recover between events and that he's never before won back-to-back. But surely, that's only a matter of time isn't it?

The really frightening thing for his adversaries is that he didn't even have his long game in tip-top order last week and yet he still won. He ranked just 69th for driving accuracy and 35th for greens hit.

I've erred on the side of caution for years with Rory and rightly so. It's taken him a totally understandable length of time to learn the art of competing in the heat of battle at the highest level but I think he's just about there now. Kiawah has installed a new and deserved belief. He now knows he's the best and it's highly likely that the titles start stacking up now.

The bounce is most certainly a legitimate concern but that's more than in the price and he's a must for me this week.

Tiger Woods, who has never really shone on Pete Dye designed tracks, is less than a point bigger than Rory and I don't see how that's right. Yes, he's won three times on the PGA Tour already this year but each time it's been on familiar turf. He hasn't won anywhere where his record wasn't already superb.

He's found consistency in his game now for the first time in years but the big difference with the new Tiger is with the putter. Where he used to drain ten-footers like mere mortals tapped-in two-footers, they now slide by with regularity, or even worse, come up short, and even more so when he's in-contention it seems.

The unrelenting self belief has also gone now. He's lost his way in the mix at each of the last three majors and as hard as it is for him and maybe for everyone else to grasp, the simple fact is, he's not top-dog anymore and he shouldn't be priced up as if he is.

Selections
As highlighted above, Rory's onside this week and so is big hitting lefty, Bubba Watson.

Regular readers will know I'm a huge Phil Mickelson fan and that he's often a pick - in fact I see I got a bit of stick again for backing him last week, but I'm leaving him out this time because it's simply all about price with Phil (who won for me at Pebble Beach in February at a big price), as I believe it is with Bubba.

The two left-handers have very similar profiles in my mind and they both have a propensity to pop-up when you don't necessary expect them to do so. I backed Phil Mickelson last week at 65.0 on a course he'd already won at and I rejected Bubba at around 25.0.

This week, on a course neither has played before; I'm rejecting Phil at 23.0 and backing Bubba at an average of 48.0. Yes, Phil played well last week and Bubba was awful but that could all change this week and the overreactions in the market have been too big. Especially when you consider that Bubba has a far better record on Pete Dye designs than Lefty has.

Last up is Graham DeLaet again at a huge price. He hits it a country mile and could just do a John Daly and endear himself to everyone, and not just me!

Selections:
Rory McIlroy @ 8.4
Bubba Watson @ 48.0
Graham DeLaet @ 400.0

castletownman

My cousin is acting as a steward at it. Has met Furyk and a few others so far. Uncle's house is literally a mile away. Lucky fellas

sydthebeat

my fancies:

jeff overton : e/w @ 70/1
van pelt: e/w @ 50/1

(sticking with the locals... and as with last week, im hoping some of the US ryder cup team have one eye on medinah)

and something small on paddy @ 60's

hoping to cover these longshots by closaerts in the KLM @ 14's

blockic

McIlroy and Tiger playing excellent today so far... both tied first at the moment..typical the coverage doesnt start til 8!

They really are on form at the moment the both of them. great to see.

fullstop

ssbob wrote: »

Looking forward to seeing this venue, in my opinion it will suit long hitters who putt well on fast greens and have no problem moving the ball either way

Not many courses don't suit that type of player...except ones with **** greens.

dvemail

Well Rory is off again. Currently T1, thats some going from him so far.

Deank

That bloody stupid ruling again cost GMac 2 strokes, FFS the rules need to be reviewed big time, it was a leave in a bunker and he tipped it, same scenario (sort of) as Petterson's at the PGA, archaic rules like this are unreal and not really vaild in modern day golf. Rant over.....:(

Rory looks really strong, let's hope he can keep it together for 3 of the 4 rounds and carry on to next week, Tiger looks revived too, he's finally figured out how his putter works.

Where has DeLaet come from, my god he can hit a ball and has a lovely touch overall...

FANTAPANTS

Deank wrote: »

Where has DeLaet come from, my god he can hit a ball and has a lovely touch overall...

dude had him tipped at 400/1 on betfair on this lol pistolpetes11 hope he has e/w

Deank

FANTAPANTS wrote: »

dude had him tipped at 400/1 on betfair on this lol pistolpetes11 hope he has e/w

I spotted his name on the leaderboard last week and thought nothing of it, saw him play a few holes tonight, he's a big prospect if he keeps it solid like he has done the last month or so.

For me though it's a shootout between Rory and Tiger, if they are 1 and 2 going into next week that'd be sweet, sparks would fly :eek:

slave1

Very entertaining evenings golf last night, great quality play in the main group, lets hope Tiger takes it through to the weekend so we can see Rory V's Tiger head to head with both playing well.

GreeBo

Deank wrote: »

That bloody stupid ruling again cost GMac 2 strokes, FFS the rules need to be reviewed big time, it was a leave in a bunker and he tipped it, same scenario (sort of) as Petterson's at the PGA, archaic rules like this are unreal and not really vaild in modern day golf.

How does a loose impediment in a hazard become archaic or invalid?
Sure the rule could be changed, but I dont see how its validity changes due to time or "modern golf"?


Some really great play by Tiger and Rory yesterday, nice chip in by tiger to stay in touch.

Dr_Colossus

What's the original reasoning for the loose impediments ruling in a hazard? Why can't you remove stones in particular from a bunker if there isn't a local rule classifying them as movable obstructions?

Granted bunkers are hazards but they're supposed to be sand based and therefore not cause damage to both clubs or person by hitting a stone. With all the rain over our so called summer bunkers around the country are sometimes compact and in certain cases alot of the sand has been washed away revealing a number of stones and pebbles. The absence of a local rule classifying these stones as movable obstructions defeats the original purpose of the sand traps.

Similarly a woodland course on a windy day (especially now that we're into autumn) could result in alot of debris including leaves and twigs in the bunkers but I've never seen a local rule declaring such unintended obstructions as movable obstructions.

I think it would make sense to change the rule and allow such obstacles be removed from hazards. The penalty was very harsh on GMac and as said it is a stupid rule, what advantage would there to be gained by removing the leaf provided it didn't result in the ball being moved?

slave1

The penalty was harsh but it's a black or white rule so at least it's clear, GMac was advised of the rule before taking his shot so I actually don't feel that bad for him as he should have been extra cautious.

ssbob

slave1 wrote: »

The penalty was harsh but it's a black or white rule so at least it's clear, GMac was advised of the rule before taking his shot so I actually don't feel that bad for him as he should have been extra cautious.

Anyone have a link to the shot, I missed it last night!

rrpc

slave1 wrote: »

The penalty was harsh but it's a black or white rule so at least it's clear, GMac was advised of the rule before taking his shot so I actually don't feel that bad for him as he should have been extra cautious.

His caddie told him "You can't move that" which he took to mean that he couldn't remove it from behind his ball. Not quite the same thing.

To be fair, he also said that he knew he'd touched it at address and he reported that fact to the rules official himself, so he was very honest about it although he couldn't see what advantage he could have gained by that slight touch.

AGC

Scoring looks like it will be excellent again today

AGC

PH flying

RikkFlair

AGC wrote: »

PH flying

Normally doesn't do well on birdiefest courses but he's not doing too bad here.

This fedex cup seems all set up to be a Tiger v Rory shootout

abff

AGC wrote: »

PH flying

Finished with an eagle for 65. Two more of those and who knows?

Jazzzman

Any idea why the coverage is already over?

heavyballs

Jazzzman wrote: »

Any idea why the coverage is already over?

Poxy forecast

Jazzzman

Stupid American weather!

blockic

There is a repeat of todays coverage at 9pm if interested!

Aidric

Super round from Harrington, giving himself a right chance of making the tour championship. McIlroy & Woods will play together for the third day in a row tomorrow.

bigtimecharlie

Aidric wrote: »

McIlroy & Woods will play together for the third day in a row tomorrow.

No they won't.

http://www.pgatour.com/tournaments/r028/tee-times.html