Predicition and Preview |
Many top players choose to miss the John Deere Classic and instead travel to Europe to acclimatise for the upcoming Open Championship. This doesn’t make the tournament any easier to win and certainly doesn’t make it any easier for golf betting fans who are trying to select a potential winner.
Steve Stricker is aiming to win the John Deere Classic for the third consecutive year and as the highest ranked player in the tournament –he is currently World Number five-must be on the shortlist of possible winners. He is the favourite for the event with sportsbooks and is the only player quoted in single figures in the betting at 6/1
The John Deere Classic hasn’t attracted too many International players this year and in betting terms it’s better to look for home grown winners anyway. There have only been seven International winners in the 40 years the tournament has been in existence and we feel it is safe to discount the International players who make the trip to Illinois this week.
In the John Deere Classic it pays to bet on players who are dependable drivers, who make the fairways regularly, and who also feature highly in the putting averages. Players like Heath Slocum 40/1 and Zach Johnson 16/1 fall into this category and along with veteran Paul Goydos 50/1 (who finished runner up in this tournament last year) could all be in contention come Sunday.
Don’t be afraid to back a longshot in this tournament if you feel they have a strong chance of winning. Big price winners have triumphed here before with some lesser lights on the tour managing to secure wins. Mark Wilson could be a player to bear in mind when making your final selection, even although he has missed the cut in his last two tournaments. Wilson has four top 10 finishes, and has won two tournaments from the 11 cuts he has made from the 17 tournaments he has started on the PGA tour in 2011. These are pretty impressive stats and as he will probably be available with some sportsbooks at around odds of 80/1 he might be a bit of a value bet.
It’s tough to win the same tournament in two consecutive years... to win three is almost impossible and so we are going to go against Steve Stricker winning again and selecting Zach Johnson to be the John Deere Classic winner 2011. Our longshot bet is Mark Wilson.
Al l prices quoted courtesy of Ladbrokes.com and were correct at the time of writing
