Dan Roebuck’s WGC Bridgestone preview: Side with Mickelson

If you had wagered £10 each way on Phil Mickelson in every tournament that he has played in 2013, then you would be looking at very satisfying £717.50 profit – who said golf betting was difficult?!

Of course, we advised him to win the Open Championship, so are basking in a certain amount of reflective glory, but we’ve not made the most of Lefty’s brilliant year so far, and it’s about time we did. The advice this week, therefore, is to back him to continue his blistering run of good form and win the WGC Bridgestone Invitational at Firestone Golf Course at 14/1.

Mickelson has won two and been runner up in a further two of his last five worldwide starts – an incredible run that shows no signs of stopping. And while his form at Firestone’s South Course isn’t brilliant in recent years, if you delve further into the archive you can find a win in 1996, three subsequent second places through until 99 and three more top-10 efforts, the latest of which came five years ago. His scrambling, putting and iron play has been terrific over the past few months and he cannot be ignored in his bid to win three tournaments on the spin.

While Mickelson won at Castle Stuart and Muirfield, Henrik Stenson was third and second respectively behind the American. The Swede ranked top for driving accuracy and greens in regulation in the Open Championship and only needs a little luck on the greens to win a big event – this could easily be his week at 33/1.

Angel Cabrera has three top-15 finishes heading into this week, including at Muirfield, and, with three top-four efforts at Firestone on his CV, he looks massively overpriced at 66/1 to again raise his game and trouble the judge.

My three off the tee – Mickelson, Stenson and Cabrera.

All Odds and Markets are correct as of the date of publishing.