WGC - American Express Championship, County Kilkenny, Ireland

Vijay Singh is an unwilling absentee from this week's third leg of the WGC 'slam', which provides Tiger Woods with an ideal chance to close the gap on Singh at the top of the rankings.

Even with Vijay in the field, Tiger would have been an automatic favourite this week, on a course that he ripped to shreds back in 2002, recording a wire-to-wire victory with just the one bogey all week. He followed that up by successfully defending this event last year, held in Atlanta, his sixth WGC event out of the ten played since their inauguration in 1999! At 9/2 he may not be the best value selection this week, but he is worth a saver at least. This year's US Open champion Retief Goosen has been quiet of late, but looked to be coming back to the boil last week at Woburn, playing nicely without threatening the leaders. A one-shot runner-up to Woods back in 2002, setting a new course record in the process, he will find the more generous fairways here more to his liking.

The final pick goes to Luke Donald, who has sensibly had a week off to get over his Ryder Cup exertions, and comes here having taken two European Tour titles already this year. Hitting the well-guarded greens in regulation will be key this week, and Donald ranks as the 12th best player on the US Tour in this department. Currently 34th on the US Money List, a good week would also improve his chances of making the US Tour Championship at the end of the season - only the top thirty make it.

Nigel's Three Off The Tee... Tiger Woods @ 9/2, Retief Goosen @ 14/1, Luke Donald @ 40/1. Each-way 1/4 1-2-3-4-5.

Odds from bet365