USPGA Preview
Y.E. Yang will aim to retain his PGA Championship title as the elite tee off at Whistling Straits. A certain Tiger Woods is likely to stir the most interest among spread punters however, as the only man to have ever won back-to-back titles in the year's final major. He's done so twice, in 1999/2000 and 2006/2007 and as the tournament's spread favourite will be bidding for his fifth win in 'Glory's last shot'.
Both buyers and sellers of his win index spread will be more than aware of his patchy form since his return from the break, but buyers know as well as Sporting Index's golf traders that Eldrick is written off at peril. Besides, that he has underachieved - by his standards - at the year's other majors will only spur him on. Perhaps his underachievement should be put in context for any spread bettor buying or selling his finishing position though: Tiger was tied-23rd at the Open, but finished tied-fourth at both the Masters and the US Open. Back on American soil, this suggests finishing position sellers should be the more confident of their position, but the Lake Michigan course's similarity to British links courses gives a boost to those anticipating a repeat of Woods' disappointing St. Andrew's effort.
Vijay Singh was the victor last time the PGA Championship was held here, in 2004, which will surely swing a number of spread punters to buy his match bet supremacy spreads. However, sellers of his finishing position and buyers of his win index spreads will note his poor season which has seen him post just two top-tens but cut in five tournaments, including the Masters.
The Straits course itself is a gigantic 7,514-yards, making it the second longest course to host a major after last year's Hazeltine National. As such, this would suggest plenty of spread betting support for big-hitters like Rory McIlroy and Anthony Kim, although Sporting Index's traders have of course factored this into their spreads. It would be worth paying attention to these two for another reason - each could well shoulder the hopes of their respective teams when the Ryder Cup is contested on this course in 2020.
The rolling greens, deep bunkers and grass-topped dunes might be expected to suit the European boys and will only add to the number of win index spread buyers of Paul Casey, a contender at the Open until a poor final round, and Lee Westwood, who has an outside chance of walking on to the tee as world number one. Padraig Harrington is another that has tempted plenty of sellers of his finishing position. He won the event two years ago at Oakland Hills, in neighbouring Michigan, and was tenth last year but results prior to that make better reading for buyers of his finishing position spread. Working backwards from 2007, 'Pod' has finished 42nd, cut, cut, 45th and 29th.
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