RBC Canadian Open Tournament Matchups
RBC Canadian Open Tournament Matchups
St. George’s Golf and Country Club will host the RBC Canadian Open this week. As I stated in my blog yesterday, this tour stop changes every year so looking at last year’s results will do little good. This course has 103 bunkers, 5 par 3s, and very undulating greens. Par 5 positioning will be key to making birdies there while a lot of the par 4s are longer than average in length. At par 70 (34-36) 7,046yds this course is deceivingly long. However, I do think chipping and putting will determine the winner this week and not so much the power off the tees. With that being said, let’s take a look at some tournament matchups that I believe have value (note: all lines are from 5 dimes for consistency):
Paul Casey (-175) over Mike Weir: If you happened to catch my blog yesterday, you already know why I like this matchup. Paul Casey is back on top of his game and in my opinion was the second best ball striker last week at the British Open behind Oosthuizen. He was once ranked as high as #3 in the world before the injuries happened. If he can find his putter, I like his chances to win this week. On the other hand, Weir is going in the opposite direction. He missed the cut last week at the British and has been a struggle for him to find the top of the leaderboard much of the year. Granted -175 is a lot of juice for a tourney matchup not featuring Tiger, but I definitely see value on this still. Weir will have the crowd, but that will not be enough for him.
Matt Bettencourt (-115) over Nathan Green: Matt Bettencourt is playing some of the best golf of his year right now. He was a winner last week in the Reno-Tahoe even with a 75 in the third round. Of course the elite golfers were at the British, but that does not diminish his play. Nathan Green is the defending champion of the RBC Canadian Open; however, as I said time and time again: this is a new course. For the most part, everyone will be playing this golf course for the first time in their practice rounds. Whatever good vibes, course layout, or anything else that got his confidence up last year will have little effect on this year. He missed the cut last week at the Reno-Tahoe even with the elite players not there. He is not on form and in my opinion not contend this week.
Luke Donald (-135) over Tim Clark: Luke Donald has been playing some of the best golf of his career as of late. He got a 2nd in the BMW PGA, won the Madrid Masters, and 11th place finishes at both the Alstom Open de France and the British Open last week. I expect him to contend this week. Tim Clark on the other hand started out the year very well. He has won the players, T2nd in Bob Hope and numerous other top 10s. However, he missed the cut last week at the British. Although Tim Clark is statistically ranked higher than Donald this year, this is a case of one player getting hot now and the other one cooling off. Donald is a slight favorite here, and I expect him to get the W in this matchup.
GL Everyone!
