The Players Championship 2012 - Results

This weeks PGA tour action is set at Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida - The Player Championship at TPC Sawgrass. Widely regarded as the fifth major, it's no surprise that this weeks event has attracted many of golfs big names! In fact, the only top 10 player missing from entry list is Masters winner, Bubba Watson. TPC Sawgrass is a Pete Dye designed course which plays over 7215 yards. Just the same as two weeks ago at the Zurich Classic (another Pete Dye design), TPC Sawgrass will demand both both length and accuracy off the tee as well as very good scrambling ability. 

Rickie Fowler saved the day for us a bit last week after quite a few of my picks failed to match up to my expectations! Hopefully this week we can have a few more challenging for the top spots!

Steve Stricker 2pts E/W @ 40/1 (Widely Available) 

Stricker is in pretty solid form at the moment having posted 4 top 10's this year from his 7 starts including a T6 in his last start at the Zurich Classic - Another Pete Dye design track as mentioned above.

Stricker has some promising stats from the Players with only the one MC in his last 6 starts at TPC Sawgrass. He is showing signs of improvement year year on year so should be challenging for the top spots this week. Not the longest off the tee (171st on tour) Stricker makes up for it with accuracy - Ranked 7th in GiR % and 13th in Scrambling. He has all the ingredients to feature strongly this week.

Result: MC - Never looked to be at the races...  Only 3 birdies across both his first 2 rounds.

Nick Watney - 2pts E/W @ 50/1 (Bet365)

After a very strong 2011, this year has been a bit disappointing so far for Watney with just 2 top 10s from his 11 starts. That said, Watney is coming off the back of his best result of the year (8th at Wells Fargo) & coming into a course he has shown reasonable form at in the past posting results of MC, T63, MC, T17, T4 since 2007. TPC Sawgrass tends to be a track that rewards experience & Watneys results back this up with him showing gradual improvements in recent years. I think Watneys price may be a little shorter than ideal but think he's still worth a look - It surely can't be long until he's is back to his winning ways.  

Result: T56 - Started strongly but two poor rounds on the weekend saw him slip down the leaderboard

Ben Crane 2pt E/W @ 66/1 (Ladbrokes or Bet365)

Crane may not jump off the page as a major player this weekend but delve a little deeper into his stats and you'll see he is coming in under the radar somewhat! He has excellent form at the Players having posted finishes of 6th, 5th, 4th & 45th in his last 4 starts here - His 45th last year can be put down to a poor 2nd round and doesn't reflect just how consistently good he has been at this track. Crane has an excellent start to the season with a number of top 10s including a 2nd place at the Phoenix Open however has gone through a bit of an average patch. He is starting to show signs of coming back to form however having posted his best ever finish at Quail Hollow last week - It'll be interesting to see how well he does this week. One to watch.

Result: MC - An excellent first round saw him threatening the top of the leaderboard but a terrible 2nd round of +6 saw him plummet & miss the cut by 1 shot.

Ben Curtis 2pts E/W @ 80/1 (William Hill or StanJames)

The other Ben...

Curtis is coming into this weekend off the back of an excellent run of results - 1st at the Texas Open, T13 at the Zurich and T5 last week. While Curtis' record at the Players isn't great, he does have experience here and has been regularly making the cut here in recent years. He comes into the this week in his best form for many years & is shaping up for another good run this week.

Curtis, like Stricker, is another who isn't very long off the tee but makes up for it in many other areas - Ranked 5th in GiR%, 4th in Driving accuracy & 2nd in Strokes gained. Curtis certainly looks like he could be dangerous again this week!

Result: T2 - Another very solid and consistent showing from Ben. He shot below par on all 4 of his rounds

JB Holmes - 1pt E/W @ 110/1 (StanJames)

Two top 10's already this season from his 11 starts, Holmes has made an unbelievable recovery from his brain surgery late last year! His record at The Players is excellent - Since 2006 he has finishes T38, T16, T10, MC, T13 & T6 last year! His only MC here was in 2009 amidst a run of poor form. Given his proven ability at this track, i wouldn't be surprised to see Holmes challenging come the weekend and given odds of 110/1 he has to be worth a look. 

Result: MC - A poor start only got worse in round 2 and he missed the cut by some way!

Chris Stroud 1pt E/W @ 125/1 (StanJames) 

Despite letting me down with a MC last week, I'm sticking with Chris Stroud for this week. Having posted 7 top 25 finishes & 2 top 10s in his 12 starts this year, Stroud has shown some pretty solid form this year. Stroud always seems to perform well at the Players having posted T10 and T12 finishes in his only 2 starts here. Ranked 6th on tour in scrambling and sporting some impressive putting stats, Stroud has the tools required to post another strong finish here this week. 

Result: MC - Another under performer. Nothing dramatic to report, just 2 distinctly average rounds didn't allow him to make the weekend. 

Others to consider... 

Luke Donald 4pt Win only @ 16/1 (Bet365) - Very short odds but i do like Donalds chances this week. Coming off the back of a 3rd place finish at the Zurich & with a T4 finish here last year... Donald always performs well on Pete Dye tracks. Another reason Donald looks so appealing this week is his ability on the Bermuda greens - All 4 of his wins have come on Bermuda greens and three of those have been in Florida! All very good signs for this week!

Result: 6th - Best of the big names... Even par in rounds 1 & 3 left him with too much to do to be able to challenge for the win on Sunday. 

Zach Johnson 2pt E/W @ 66/1 - Only just missed out making my main list. Johnsons results of T16, MC, T32, T22, T12 here since 2007 show a gradual and very promising improvement year on year. Ranked 10th in Driving accuracy, 9th in Scrambling and 25th in strokes gained putting suggests he has many of the key skills required to do well at this track. Can't be long until Johnson's back to winning ways!

Result: T2 - Very solid performance this week. A +1 round 3 spoiled what was otherwise a perfect tournament.

Graham McDowell 2pt E/W @ 66/1 - Another who only just missed out making my main list. McDowells results here don't look anything special but delve a little deeper and you'll see he's improved year on year... T33 last year here but was let down by an awful final round. Expect him to bounce back this year!

Result: MC - Missed the cut by 1 shot, let down by his poor opening round. 

Jason Day 1pt E/W @ 45/1 - Showing signs finding some form again after his T9 last week, Day finished T6 here last year so has shown he's got whats required to perform here.

Result: MC - Never managed to get anything going - Shoot +1 in round 1 and an even par round 2 left him 1 shot shy of the Cut mark.

Peter Hanson 1pt E/W @ 80/1 - Having posted an impressive T19 finish here in his debut here last year & having 3 top 5 finishes from just 6 starts already this season, Hanson on paper seems just too good to leave off my list this week (even if it is starting to get a little long!)

Result: T15 - Got better as each round passed but left himself too much to do on the weekend after a battle to even make the cut.

Overall Result this week: +38 points