Delightful Day In Boston For Deutsche

The PGA Tour moves from New Jersey to Boston as the Deutsche Bank Championship kicks off on Friday.

The Tournament

The Deutsche Bank Championship made its debut in 2003, and is unusual for a PGA event in being played from Friday through to Monday. It received a significant boost in prize money and prestige when it became part of the Fed Ex Cup play-offs in 2007, and is the second of the four play-off tournaments, restricted to the top 100 players in the Fed Ex rankings as of the end of last week’s opening play-off event, The Barclays.

The Course

The venue for the Deutsche Bank Championship is the TPC Boston, in Norton, Massachusetts. It’s a par 72 of just 7,241 yards, so is not a venue where big hitters will be at an advantage. The layout has undergone several alterations in the last decade and with plenty of birdie opportunities, particularly on the home stretch, it is no longer regarded as a particularly challenging course.

In The Bunker

Opposing Rory McIlroy has not been the wisest punting strategy this summer, but it paid off at the Barclays, as he finished outside the top twenty, admitting that off-field distractions following his double Major success had affected him.

Those distractions may have faded, but he’s a momentum player, and with the Ryder Cup around the corner, may find it tricky to recapture his unstoppable best this week. Either way, he’s more or less the same price as last week, at 9/2 so I’ll be opposing him once again.

Recommended Bets

Since his fourth at the US Open, Jason Day has struggled for consistency for much of the summer, but he showed promising signs at the US PGA and improved again at the Barclays last week, recovering from an opening round of 72 to hit a magnificent second round 64 and finish in a tie for second.

He has a good record in six visits to this course, having twice made the top three and is a solid bet at 14/1.

It’s been a tough season for Brandt Snedeker but his form has been on a general upward curve since the Canadian Open. Consecutive top-fifteen finishes in the WGC Bridgestone Invitational and the US PGA were followed by his best performance of the year, a top five at the Wyndham Championship.

This is his last chance to do enough to earn a captain’s pick for the Ryder Cup and he’s worth backing at 40/1.

Although he missed out at the British Open and the US PGA, Cameron Tringale has been playing some of the best golf of his career in the last six weeks.

He finished fourth at the Greenbrier Classic, and was particularly impressive at the Barclays last week, where he led at the half way stage and finished second, his best performance on the PGA Tour to date. Back him each way at 100/1.