The Players Championship:The 5th Major.

[Chief77]

The unofficial 5th major starts today at the pretty difficult course that is Sawgrass. Stephen Ames won this last year but hes been in pretty poor form of late so I reckpn we can discount him. The machine that is Tiger won again last week in Wachovia and is 5/2 to win this weekend. However he had a pretty poor tournament here last year and I'm clinging to the hope that he won't be at his most Tigerlike this week.

Just two picks for me this week. Gonna go for Vijay to win out this week. He played well last week at the Wachovia and would have had a top 5 finish but for a horrible triple bogey on his last hole. He finished 8th here last year and if anybodys able to challenge the Tiger this week then Vijays the man.

Padraig Harrington has finished 2nd twice here and he showed last week that hes not very far from having a very good tournament. If he can sort out his swing he'll have a great chance as his putting has been excellent of late.

Verdict:
15 Points E/W:Vijay Singh @16/1
10 Points E/W: Padraig Harrington @33/1

[Chief77]

I'm also taking Mark Wilson to win his 3 ball today at a pretty generous 2/1. He's up against a woefully out of form Darren Clarke and Sean O Hair whos struggled with injury problems this year and withdrew last week from the Wachovia due to personal problems.

Wilson showed hes a decent player by winning the Honda Classic earlier in the season and represents decent value here I reckon

Verdict:
Mark Wilson to win his 3 ball V Clarke and O'Hair @2/1

[Chief77]

Oooooh, stinker of a day for my fancies. Vijay on +2 and Harrington on +4. And they posted those scores without any mishaps on the 17th(both got pars). Harrington is probably right about on the cut line so he'll have to buck up his ideas today.

Joint leader Phil Mickleson is the new favourite at 5/2. Tiger shot a +3 75 and is available at 8's if you reckon he can claw his way back into contention.

Wilson lost his 3 ball badly finishing with a +7. Clarke withdrew after 6 holes with hamstring trouble but O hair layed well and shot a 72.

Oops just seen theres a thread already for this tourny. Can somebody with special powers merge the two threads please to save me from embarassment. Cheers!