"It's Tiger Time !!! "

" After a year of close encounters, Woods is ready for Troon."

This title is an excerpt from an article in the latest Sports Illustrated. Makes sense to me and goes along with what I've been thinking the past few weeks.

1 unit on Woods to win British Open Championship 7/1. I played this with my local on Sat. Bodog has him at 5.5/1 as of this writing. A lot of online books have no odds listed yet. After watching and waiting the last few weeks i think this is the week to jump on Tiger. Reasons :

1. Equipment....After stubbornly staying with a regular length, regular sized head,steel shafted driver ; Tiger made the switch in Chicago last week to a new Nike oversized head, long, graphite shafted driver. The results were a big improvement as he averaged 313.9 yds, hit 61% of the fairways,including 11/14 on a windy Sunday. This could be huge on Troon's bear of a back 9 that's loaded with long par 4's that play into a prevailing wind.

2. Distractions : Tiger has cleared the air with former swing coach Harmon and shouldn't have to field questions on that issue next week. He was pissed at Steve Williams for his behavior involving photographers. Steve has publicly apologized to the press and privately made ammends with Tiger.

3. Tiger is in the British Isles early playing a little golf and doing a little fishing. By the time he gets to Troon next week he should be rested, brushed up on the nuances of links golf , and acclamated to the time change. In other words, ready to get back to winning his next major.

Some other plays I'm looking at :

Davis Love III to win 22/1

One of the top 5 players in the world IMHO getting some pretty good odds. DL III is capable of winning anywhere,anytime,against any field and played well in Chicago last week.

Colin Montgomerie to win 85/1

These odds are so high due to Monty's poor play as of late. He made the cut in The Scottish this weekend but shot close to 80 yesterday. He is still a world class player with a sweet swing. Troon is the track Monty grew up playing and his father is a past captain there. A return to familiar surroundings may revitalize his game.