THE PLAYERS Championship - Winner Predicted.

Let's get one thing straight. Average golfer in no way supports or encourages illegal wagering of any type or form. The comments here are for amusement purposes only! Average golfer has never "knowingly" placed a wager on any type of sporting event, although he's been known to randomly profit from wagers he made after the fact or had no knowledge of before the event took place. There was certainly no alcohol involved in any of the aforementioned wagers.

That being said, here's the top players listed at the 2008 PLAYERS Championship with their current Ladbrokes odds listed. Armed with only that information we'll ferret out a winner. We're due, we had Geoff Ogilvy winning the Masters. Here we go.....

Phil Mickelson, 10/1....Defending champ. Playing well. Hard to go against. Recent putter change may tell all. Sprayed a lot of shots last week.

Adam Scott, 12/1....Won here in '04. No real weaknesses. Strong contender at least.

Jim Furyk, 16/1....Fairway hitting machine. Great irons. Comes down to the putter which has been uncharacteristically uneven of late.

Padraig Harrington, 20/1....Playing well. Won't be intimidated. 6/6 cuts this year. 69.78 scoring average.

Vijay Singh, 20/1....Home course advantage along with Furyk. Ball striking has been great after swing changes settled in. At 20/1 I see great value here.

Geoff Ogilvy, 25/1....Consistent all year. Stared down Woods earlier. Real shot here to validate US Open win.

Stewart Cink, 25/1....Seemingly 2nd to Woods all year. Great putting keeps him in any tournament.

Anthony Kim, 33/1....Riding high after last week. Possible, he's a great player, but two in a row's asking a lot from a youngster.

Ernie Els, 33/1....Playing on rep alone. Don't know what's distracting Ernie. Don't see him winning this.

Retief Goosen, 33/....Expected much more this year from Goose. Who knows? We'll see.

Sergio Garcia, 33/1....If the game was just tee to green he'd be undefeated. If he pretends it's the Ryder Cup, he'll win. Putter makes or breaks him.


After disseminating all the available data Average Golfer predicts the winner of the 2008 PLAYERS Championship is............Adam Scott. He's played beautifully all year and has the complete game to conquer a tough course and a strong field.

Others with a chance................Vijay, Furyk, Harrington, Cink.

There you go! THE PLAYERS Championship winner on the house, courtesy of me. You're welcome in advance.

Til' next,


*Average Golfer not responsible for reader's loss of home, wife, kids, car(s), pets, reputation, disposable income, or any other financial loss associated with trusting this column.