This week in golf: Stenson can end long drought at Deutsche Bank
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Once again the majority of golfing peepers will be fixed on the PGA Tour Playoffs rather than the regular European Tour season as September rolls around, with the second tournament in the stateside post-season stealing the show.
No one is finishing this season hotter than the mercury melting Jason Day, whose moment in the sun is turning into more of a late-season bask more akin to the reptiles in his native Australia.
Oozing confidence from his maiden major triumph at Whistling Straits, Day recorded his third win in four starts when firing a phenomenal final-round 62 at The Barclays, with a display of long putting that will stay lodged in many a memory.
The question is whether or not anyone can stop the Australian – whose 2000-point haul from Plainfield now sees him second behind only Jordan Spieth in the FedExCup standings – heading to TPC Boston for the Deutsche Bank Championship?
The betting is understandably wary of a man in such total control of his game (and his vertigo) as Ladbrokes install Day as the 6/1 favourite to emulate five men before him who’ve strung successive PGA Tour Playoff wins together.
Having proved to be human after all, Spieth’s hugely unexpected missed cut at The Barclay’s will cast a small shadow over his chances, while reinstalled world number one Rory McIlroy is still a bigger gamble than his matching 8/1 odds suggest.
Finishing 17th was very respectable on his return from injury at the PGA Championship, but whether McIlroy can hit his full groove before the Tour finals remains questionable.
Instead, it’s another of golf’s big guns who gets the vote in Massachusetts and that’s Henrik Stenson, at 14/1.
It’s no secret that the Swede hasn’t rewarded punters in the outright market since his incredible finish to 2013, which saw him claim both tour titles simultaneously.
However, slowly but surely Stenson’s game has crept back towards those heights in 2015, highlighted by three top sixes in his last five starts – including runner-up spot at Plainfield behind Day.
The end to this unforeseen exile from the winners’ enclosure is close and few courses could be better placed to yield it when Stenson is in this sort of drive-crunching form.
When winning the Deutsche Bank in 2013, the former world number two tied the tournament scoring record of 22-under-par at TPC Boston.
Stenson ranks first on the PGA Tour for greens in regulation, total driving and ball striking which gives an indication of his game’s rude health right now.
All Odds and Markets are correct as of the date of publishing.
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