HP Byron Nelson Championship Preview
by BetUS Staff
The PGA stays in Texas this week on the golf betting schedule, as they head to the TPC Four Seasons Resort in Irving for the HP Byron Nelson Championship.
The Tour teed off in San Antonio last week in the Valero Texas Open. Zach Johnson entered the tournament as the defending champion and he carried off the trophy again after defeating James Driscoll in a playoff. Johnson finished the tournament at 15-under par, which was one stroke better than Paul Goydos and Bill Haas who were tied at 14-under. Johnson will be taking the week off and skipping the Byron Nelson, but Driscoll is committed to appear. Even after his runner-up finish last week don’t expect to find Driscoll anywhere near the top of the golf odds this week.
Johnson may have posted a rare repeat victory last week, but it may take a miracle for Adam Scott to do the same in Irving. Scott won last’s year’s Byron Nelson Championship after out-dueling Ryan Moore in a playoff. Scott returns to the course this week looking to repeat, but he’ll need to improve his game a lot to get back on top of the leaderboard. Scott has been struggling lately and has missed the cut in his last five tournaments. Scott would likely pay out very well on the golf odds if he does post an unlikely repeat victory, but judging by his recent results that’s not expected to happen.
The favorite on the Phil Mickelson had to pull out of the PGA tour due to his wife Amy's breast cancer diagnoses. The No. 2 ranked player in the world took last week off after tying for 55th place in The PLAYERS Championship. Before that disappointing finish it looked like Mickelson was finding his game again after back-to-back fifth-place finishes in The Masters and the Quail Hollow Championship. Lefty has won the Byron Nelson Championship before, but it was more than a decade ago in 1996 when the tournament was held on two courses, the Calinas and Cottonwood.
The only other golfer ranked in the Top 10 scheduled to appear this weekend is No. 9 Vijay Singh. Singh recorded his first Top-10 finish of the season two weeks ago in The PLAYERS Championship after he tied for ninth place. Singh has also won the Byron Nelson Championship before back in 2003. If Singh can turn back the clock and win this event again he would definitely pay out better than he did six years ago on the golf odds.
Along with Scott, Mickelson, and Singh there are four other former Byron Nelson Championship winners looking for a repeat win this week; they are 2007 winner Scott Verplank, 2005 winner Ted Purdy, 2002 winner Shigeki Maruyama, and 2000 champion Jesper Parnevik.
Looking ahead the U.S. Open is only four weeks away at Bethpage Black in Farmingdale, New York. The early favorite is of course defending Open champion Tiger Woods at +275. However, the way Woods has been playing lately, failing to put together solid final rounds to challenge in the Quail Hollow Championship and The PLAYERS Championship, this may be the first year where betting against Woods is the best move to make. Of course, it may be a little too early to count out Woods just yet. He’s still Tiger Woods after all, and the last time the Open was played at Bethpage Black in 2002 Woods claimed his second Open title after winning by three strokes.
