The PGA Tour leaves America this week to head north to Canada for the RBC Canadian Open. This tournament has settled in the spot after The Open and even though the third major of the year took place last week and was delayed a decent field has still been assembled for this competition.
Tim Clark edged out Jim Furyk in this tournament 12 months ago and he defends the title but there are plenty of big names looking to snatch the crown from his grasp. On a good golf course this should be a good week of golf.
Clark won the tournament on the Royal Montreal Golf Club but the tournament has moved back to the Glen Abbey Golf Course in Ontario this week, the scene of Brandt Snedeker’s win in 2013. Snedeker has pulled out of the tournament with a hip injury leaving Jason Day as the 17/2 favourite with Sportingbet.
The Glen Abbey course is a quirky one in that it is a par 72 and measures 7,253 yards which isn’t long at all by today’s standards. The quirk comes in that three of the par fives come on the inward nine which will be the scoring nine.
Length isn’t really the issue this week. Accuracy very much is. Two years ago only 51% of the fairways were hit around here and I’ve read one or two comments about how the greens are so firm it is hard to stop approach shots on them so you need to be coming in from the fairways. In true Jack Nicklaus style you need to have a good short game around here as the greens are small and not easy to find.
So I’m looking at players who hit fairways and who have a good short game this week and the first one who catches my eye is Luke Donald. Donald has had his struggles over the last 12 months or so but every time I’ve seen him recently he has looked better and better and this track should suit him nicely.
Donald has a good short game and hits a lot of fairways and we know his putter rarely lets him down but he has been flag hunting for a while in both Scotland and in The Open. The confidence of his top 10 in the Travelers has been carried forward over in Europe and this track suits him perfectly. With the confidence he has behind him I’m expecting a very good run from Luke here.
The other guy I like is a man I took last week in Charley Hoffman. In fairness Hoffman didn’t go great last week but he wasn’t disastrous until the temperatures dropped which didn’t suit him but we’ve seen in the last few months in America that Hoffman hits a lot of fairways and has a good short game. If he finds his fair share of greens, and he’s long enough to be hitting short irons in from the fairways so in theory will find it easier to stop balls on the greens, then I would expect Hoffman to score well here.
Back L.Donald to win RBC Canadian Open (e/w) for a 1/10 stake at 29.00 with Coral (1/4 1-5)
Back C.Hoffman to win RBC Canadian Open (e/w) for a 1/10 stake at 51.00 with BetVictor (1/4 1-5)
