Golf / Editor / 08 January 2009 / Leave a comment Bet Now

Tareq Quiroz looks at the betting ahead of the first event on the PGA Tour's 2009 schedule - the Mercedes-Benz Championship.

After a full eight days of waiting the 2009 PGA Tour season is finally upon us! I am a fan of how simple the PGA Tour season is compared to the European Tour. No messing around starting the 2009 season in 2008. It is straight down to business in the now traditional starting point of Hawaii. The Mercedes Benz Championship is always a great event that features everyone who won on tour last season.

The Course
There are few more spectacular courses in the world than the Plantation Course at Kapalua. It is a great place to start the 2009 season and is a course that always provides entertaining golf. This Bill Coore- and Ben Crenshaw-designed track is hosting this event for the 11th successive year and I would be very surprised if they ever move it from here. As with all courses in Hawaii the difficulty of the course depends entirely on whether the winds blow. Given a windless tournament we may well see a winning score around the 20-under par mark. However, you can be sure that the regular competitors here will relish the tradewinds coming in as that will give them a definite edge over their less experienced rivals.

The Favourite
There are no surprises as to who the jolly is this week. Vijay Singh won the last event played in the US, loves this course and was the leading money earner on the PGA Tour last season. They are just a few of the reasons why the big Fijian is the market leader. I am loathe to jump straight on the favourite in the opening event of the year but he is a must back at odds of around [6.6]. As well as the reasons given already the one thing you can guarantee about Vijay, that is not true of all the competitors, is that he will be ready to play his best golf from hole one on day one. His professionalism will not allow him to go and treat this as a New Year vacation in paradise. The man is there to do a job and it will take some great golf to beat him this week.

The Next Best Bets
The very nature of how the field is formed means that there is plenty of quality on show. An American has not won this event since 2001 and I am confident we will see that trend extended this year. It comes just so soon after the holidays that you see so many players come here with a rusty game. One person I don't expect that to be the case for is KJ Choi. The Korean tends to go through patches of form, but when he is hot he is very hot. I got the feeling towards the end of last year that he was starting to find his game and he will definitely enjoy coming to a place where he holds the course record. At current odds of [25.0] he certainly merits some support this week.

The Massive Outsider
In a limited field of just 33 there isn't quite the usual opportunity to capitalize on some big priced fancies. The rags in this field are just that and it would come as a big surprise if any of them were to even contend at Kapalua. I feel you will find some better value just short of these players. Daniel Chopra (pictured) was probably the biggest surprise winner of this tournament in the last 20 years when he prevailed last season. He had just come off a fantastic 2007 and rode the wave straight into the first event of 2008. The rest of the season wasn't quite so productive but back at a place he loves he certainly merits a small saver at odds of around [65.0].

Interesting Info
Over a third of this week's field are under 30 years of age. A possible representation of the changing face of the PGA Tour. The Plantation Course is ranked as one of the easiest courses the players will play all year with it coming in at 50th out of 54 in the hardest tour courses ranking last year. If the wind gets up that won't quite be the case, but even given an easy ride it is hard to see how anyone will ever match the incredible tournament score of 31-under par that Ernie Els shot here in 2003.