The Buick Championship

The Buick ChampionshipIf you are getting confused about which tournament this is then think The Greater Hartford Open at River Highlands and you'll be there. This event has always struggled to attract the really big names, but it doesn't detach from the fact that it is an interesting course. Kenny Perry is favourite with Stan James to win the title this weekend. The River Highland Course is not long. It weighs in at 6820 yards but what is does do is reward accuracy off the tee. If you have a habit of splaying it any which way with the driver then it will probably prove quite a challenge. There are some quirky holes as well including the 296 yard Par 4 15th which obviously very driveable. The make up and nature of the field means that the winner of this event could well be a first time winner. If not it could well be a journeyman as of last year when Woody Austin won it. The year before that Peter Jacobsen was the lucky recipient. Mickelson won it in 2001 and 2002, but prior to that the winners were Notah Begay (2000), Brent Geiberger (1999) and Olin Browne (1998). So you can see the trend for fancied golfers picking this prize up. Players with the best records here include Kenny Perry , Tim Herron, Tom Pernice and Olin Browne.This is one of those tournaments that's difficult to call. The quality at the top of the field isn't great with Kenny Perry the 10/1 favourite. In fact Zach Johnson is second favourite at 16/1 so this illustrates the lack of big name players in the field. Our own Darren Clarke will fancy his chances though and at 20/1 he could be very good value. The talking horses this week include Fred Funk and at 25's he does fit the profile of a potential winner. The Buick rewards steady tee to green play and being long is not such a big thing here. However big hitters will find fairly wide fairways so if you fancy going down that road then Scott Hend (300's), Brendan Jones ( 150's), Brett Wetterich (225's) and Scott Gutschewski ( 225's) all hit the ball a merry mile. Jason Gore is playing his first PGA Tour event as an official player after winning his card by virtue of winning three Nationwide Tour events on the trot. The chubby Californian is gathering a big following after his gallant US Open and he's 33's to win this week. We'll be hearing a lot more of this guy in the near future. Lee Westwood (28's) and Steve Elkington ( 40's) have chances and I like the look of the rejuvenated Elkington for Top International player at 11/1. SkySports are covering the event live and Stan James will be betting In-Running throughout.