St. Jude Classic The St. Jude Classic is once again held at the TPC Southwind in Germantown, TN near Memphis. The par 70 layout will play 7,244 yards. It has 94 bunkers and 10 water hazards.
The important thing to remember this week in your handicapping is that next week is the U.S. Open at Pebble Beach and this event can and will be a work week, tune-up and freshener for many players on Tour.
[B]Camillo Villegas -130 [/B]vs. Ian Poulter
This is strictly another bet against Poulter who has a left knee injury that we believe he is trying to play through. His current form is dreadful with a missed cut at the Players Championship, the BMW Euro PGA and he basically quit on the weekend at Colonial to finish dead last after the cut.
[B]David Toms -135 [/B]vs. Retief Goosen
David Toms owns this tournament and the TPC at Southwind. He has had 2 WINS, a 2nd LY and 2 more top 10's in the past 5 years.
The Goose is making his first start back since the Masters, coming off a broken toe. He will surely be using this week as a feel/tune-up week for the U.S. Open.
[B]Tim Herron -135 [/B]vs. Jordan Spieth
Lumpy has made 8 straight cuts in this event. Enough said.
Spieth a 16 yr old prodigy, the top junior golfer in the country, a Texas native nearly won at the HP Bryon Nelson Championship. He clearly knew the TPC Four Seasons track very well. Since then, he played in the prestigious AJGA Thunderbird Invitational and finished a very disappointing T8 and on Monday played poorly in Sectional Qualifying and did not get into the U.S Open. Also, he has finished his Junior year in high school where he said on the Golf Channel that he just completed his Exams. We'll take our chances here with the veteran PGA Tour player.
[B]Lee Westwood -140 [/B]vs Padraig Harrington
Westwood is slowly becoming the best player in the World. If he wants to this week, with a very limited star studded field he could lap these guys and win by 10 shots. But, as we mentioned earlier, one must approach this week with caution as it is most definitely a prep week for the 2nd major of the year and that is especially the case for the Top players like Westwood.
Having said that Paddy has his own issues to deal with this week: "Sixteen days after having laproscopic surgery on his right knee, Padraig Harrington is a go to compete in this week's St. Jude Classic. "The operation has gone well and Padraig is ready to start playing again in Memphis," said his manager, Adrian Mitchell, on Tuesday. This is the first word since the golfer underwent the procedure on May 25."
Yes, this is Westwood's first go-round in this event and I kind of like that, he'll be treated very well and asked to come back next year. Paddy missed the cut here last year and also in '07.
[B]Rory McIlroy -130 [/B]vs Padraig Harrington
Rors was T10 last week at the Memorial. Add his win last month at Quail Hollow and you can clearly see he is a threat to win any event he enters. I'm pretty confident at worst one of our Top players will finish ahead of Paddy and we are more likely to go 2-0 than 0-2 with these matchups.
