2007 PODS Championship Preview
shlinklincoln March 6th, 2007
Preview
This week is the PODS Championship (formerly the Chrysler Championship). Last season K.J. Choi beat Paul Goydos and Brett Wetterich by four strokes for his second career win in this event (Choi also won here in 2002).
I’m going to start a new trend in my previews and post the top Vegas odds for each tournament and then comment on those golfers I think have a shot to win.
Props to golfodds.com for posting the weekly odds. Remeber, odds are for entertainment purposes only. 
PODS Championship
Westin Innisbrook Resort - Palm Harbor, Florida
Vijay won here in 2004 and could very well win here again this week. Last year he finished T19, with only one round in the 60’s (69 on Sat.). The narrow, hilly, tree lined fairways and scattered water hazards could pose a problem if VJ’s not driving well. He ranks 88th in Driving Accuracy, which isn’t bad. But his is not a course you want to miss the fairway on. Iron play will be key.
VJ is currently 3rd in FedEx cup points, mostly on his Mercedes win. But besides the season opener in Hawaii, Singh has only one top 10 (FBR Open). Vijay is not the dominant Vijay of old, but this week is prob one of his best shots to get another win, with no other Top 10 World Ranked golfers in the field.
Defending champ K.J. Choi has a very good chance to repeat. Like Vijay, Choi is a very good ball striker (24th in GIR) and on this course a good short game will go a long way. K.J. has two top 10’s on the young season and should at the very least add another top 10 here, if not an outright win.
Sergio Garcia will also benefit this week from the weaker field. Sergio has only played two events on the PGA thus far but has finished no worse then T17. I like Sergio this week for no other reason then a hunch. Sergio is definately due for a win (hasn’t won since mid 05) and something tells me he will make a charge on Sunday.
Other players to watch this week are Boo Weekley and Camilo Villegas, both of whom lost in a four way playoff last weekend. It will be interesting to see how each bounce back after that disappointing finish. They’ve definately got the skills to breakthrough for their first wins on tour, which I suspect will happen for them both sometime this year. Could this be one of those weeks?
Anybody know a good bookie?
Wait, don’t answer that.
