World Golf Championships

Dove Mountain, Arizona plays host to the Accenture World Matchplay Golf Championship this week with the wolrds top players taking part. Any one of a host of players could win the event and with the match play format some players will struggle will some will prosper with upsets possible in any match. When looking for a winner to back in this there are key factors to consider. Starting with experience in matchplay golf. A player competing in matchplay for the first time may not get accustomed to the format in time and could struggle against a weaker player who has played lots of matchplay. So players from America and Europe can be given and advantage given that the Ryder Cup is a matchplay tournament. However, this year the advantage can be with Americans and Internationals after the Presidents Cup last Autumn although it doesnt seem to have played a huge part in the opening round with Adam Scott losing to in form Robert Rock. At the time of writing the majority of matches were still on the course so im going to be discussing the potential winners from almost a full field.
The first competitor to discuss has got to be Tiger Woods. He's been slowly returning to form and looks to be hitting stride in the last few outings. He's got a real shout at winning the tournament if he brings that good form to Arizona. He's in the Sam Snead group and faces stiff competition to progress from Ryo Ishikawa and Lee Westwood. Westwood blew a chance at victory last week but his overall play was good and so he cannot be ignored. Ishikawa has got the game to go far and he will almost certainly be a major winner in the future and this tournament could act as a spring board to a successful year for the man from Japan. With those 3 in the one group the man who progresses will certainly have earned it. Despite the quality of those 3 i think the man to progress could be Nick Watney. He's had a poor start to the season but he's got a good habit of making birdies and in matchplay if you consistently hit birdies it puts huge pressure on your opponent. A possible second round clash woth Tiger Woods would be a real mouth-watering clash and i would expect that Watney would progress from that and i think he could manage Westwood and Ishikawa if he met them too. At 25/1 Watney is a great price to win the tournament and around 6/1 to make the final 4 which would mean progressing from group Snead. Woods is 3/1 to progress from the Snead group and 12/1 to win outright. Woods cannot be ignored and if he beat Watney he could very well go all the way.
From the Ben Hogan group i think Bubba Watson could be the man to beat, i think he's got the game to go far and he could very well qualify from the Hogan group. Other contenders from here are Steve Stricker who has the ability if he can find some form and im also going to mention Martin Kaymer who is the favourite to progress from this group. To win outright Watson is a tempting 20/1 with Stricker at 25/1 and Kaymer at 14/1 while to progress from the group all players are quarter their outright odds.
From Gary Player group any one of 4 can go through in my opinion and any one of them could go on to win the tournament. Rory McIlroy, Charl Schwartzel and Jason Day all compete. McIlroy is the obvious contender but im tending to look elsewhere for a player to progress and Jason Day is consistent enough to have a good week. Charl Schwartzel is always there abouts and will be difficult to beat but my pick for this group is Keegan Bradley. Big things are expected from Bradley and this could be the week to really show his ability and progress with a few big scalps. At 18/1 he could be worth a bet while the obvious choice in McIlroy is 10/1 with Day and Schwartzel around 16/1.
The Bobby Jones group contains 3 players i really like. Luke Donald, KJ Choi and Dustin Johnson. Those 3 are very capable of big things. Johnson played immaculate at times in the Pro-Am 2 weeks ago and Choi is always a danger in these events. Luke Donald is world number one and is obviously a favourite to win the tournament although a tough task against Ernie Els in the first round could be fatal. Donald is around 14/1, 16/1 in some bookmakers to win outright while Choi is a very tasty 40/1. Dustin Johnson is 18/1 to make it to victory.
To win outright is going to be tough and its very difficult to pick that winner. The main 4 im looking at for a top 4 finish are Nick Watney, Dustin Johnson, Keegan Bradley and Bubba Watson. Other likely popular bets will be Tiger Woods, Jason Day, Charl Schwartzel and the in form Robert Rock is likely to be attracting a lot of interest. There is a lot of players to choose from and getting right isn't always easy but i've given my suggestions as to the likely contenders.