Golf Tips | RBC Canadian Open | 23rd-26th July 2015

AFTER a huge week at St Andrews it's back to the US Tour for Louis Ross (@LouisRoss67) this week.

RBC Canadian Open | Thursday – Sunday

I hope you had a good week at The Open. I clearly did not. Apologies to everyone as always after a week like that. We were in a very healthy position at about 5pm on the Friday. Four of the five had made the cut and the wind late Friday and Saturday was really in our favour.

Personally, I thought they could have played much earlier Saturday rather than wait for near perfect conditions but that's golf. Didn't get the bit of luck we needed. Delighted Zach won though.

On to this week and the PGA Tour moves into foreign territory for the Canadian Open. A tournament that has always had the awkward position of following The Open, usually meaning a weakened field. This year's event actually features some of the top guys in Bubba Watson, Jason Day, Jim Furyk and Matt Kuchar amongst others, but to be honest, it's not a high quality line up in general.

We've had a mix of big price winners like Tim Clark last year, but also well backed favourites such as Brandt Snedeker. The first four in the betting are a little short in the Outright market but that is understandable given the lack of depth and form behind them.

Glen Abbey Golf Club is the venue. Hosted here in 2004, 08, 09 and lastly in 2013. The last three events have seen winning scores of -16, -17 & -18. A Par 72 of some 7253 Yards, this is a classical tree lined golf course with some cunningly difficult stretches. Three of the four Par 5 holes are on the back nine which is rarely seen.

It's not a bombers course though. Quite short by modern standards, what we are looking for is someone who can put it on the fairways and has a fairly hot putter. Holes 11-15, known as the Valley Holes, will sort the men from the boys on Sunday afternoon. As always, the intention is to find one or two that can contend up to that point at least.

We need a guy that can make 20 plus birdies over the four days. JB Holmes has been that guy recently. Winner of the Shell Houston Open, runner up to Day at Torrey Pines and also 2nd at the World Matchplay and WGC Cadillac. JB missed the cut at St Andrews but the weeks before that saw a 27th at Chambers Bay and 22nd at the Greenbrier. He definitely fits the mould this week.

Brian Harman is not the most well known on Tour but he's a winner, makes plenty of birdies and his recent Sunday outing in the last group in New Orleans where Bubba won was really encouraging. Much like JB, he has the game and decent enough form to contend well here. 70/1 seems very generous.

I try and stick to certain criteria with these tournaments (I take a different approach at Majors) and the first things on my list are current form and course fit. Will this guy like playing here and is he playing well right now. I think that's a yes to both in the case of Scott Piercy. He won last week and I'm always a bit loathe to back people the week after, but he's a guy who it's easy to make a case for. 40/1? Well, it's not the best value you will ever see, but he was very dominant at the Barbasol last week, winning by three and doing his FedEx status no harm at all.

That win secured a number of big time entries but it also got him his card through to the end of 2017. That's a huge weight off his shoulders, he can now play relaxed and judging by last week's winning score can clearly make the required number of birdies on a fairly similar setup. I think he will go well.

Jim Furyk at 16s or Ryan Palmer at 33s. I can easily make a case for Jim. He's had many Top 5s in this event, but 16s is just a bit short for me. Ryan Palmer on the other hand is certainly my type of player in this type of event. I will spare you the Piercy length write up, but he makes plenty of sense and value at 33/1.

Finally a Top 10 price that I quite like. Daniel Summerhays is one of those under the radar players that often pop up on the leaderboard late on a Saturday and then don't quite see it through. He can be that birdie machine I have mentioned earlier and I think 10/1 for a Top 10 is quite a decent shout. 27th in the US Open is very respectable, this guy can play, and 8th at the John Deere a fortnight ago was typical of him. Can't quite see him winning it but a 7th or 8th would come as no surprise.

Best Bets

RBC Canadian Open – JB Holmes (40/1 each-way Coral)

RBC Canadian Open – Scott Piercy (40/1 each-way William Hill)

RBC Canadian Open – Brian Harman (70/1 each-way Stan James)

RBC Canadian Open – Ryan Palmer (33/1 each-way William Hill)

RBC Canadian Open – Daniel Summerhays Top-10 (10/1 each-way BetVictor)