PGA Tour: Buick Open
You can tell that the summer has finally arrived, as the PGA heads north this week to Grand Blanc, Michigan for the Buick Open at Warwick Hills.
Prior to last year this tournament had been a haven for both Tiger Woods and Vijay Singh. From 2002 to 2006 either Woods or Singh won the tournament every year, except in 2003 when Jim Furyk hoisted the trophy. One thing golf fans and bettors alike know for sure this weekend is that neither Woods nor Singh will get their hands on the trophy again. Woods is done for the season while Singh is skipping the Buick this week.
With Woods and Singh both out this week, the favorites are Furyk and Kenny Perry at +900. As noted before, Furyk won at Warwick Hills in 2003 but he’s come nowhere near the top of the leaderboard in his last four tournaments. Perry is also a former winner at Warwick Hills in 2001, but unlike Furyk he’s been playing some great golf in recent weeks. Perry finished tied for sixth place last week in the Travelers Championship, while at the beginning of the month he recorded a win in the Memorial.
Many of the golfers who were hot last week at the Travelers won’t have much of an impact on the odds for the Buick. Stewart Cink won the Travelers after shooting 18-under par, while Hunter Mahan and Tommy Armour III both finished one shot back at 17-under. Cink and Mahan are both taking this week off, and while Armour is scheduled to play this week he’s grouped in with the rest of the field on the PGA odds at +150.
Also finding himself dumped into the field is the Buick Open defending champion Brian Bateman. Last year Bateman shot 15-under par to finish one stroke ahead of the trio of Jason Gore, Justin Leonard and Woody Austin. That was Bateman’s first PGA Tour win and it remains his lone win a year later.