Davis Loves the Pebble Beach Pro-Am
Pebble Beach Pro-Am odds: Two-time winner Davis Love III lives in the Top-10 at Pebble Beach
- WHAT: AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am
- WHEN: Thursday, February 12 to Sunday, February 15
- WHERE: Pebble Beach Golf Links in Pebble Beach, CA
- KEY STATS: Love III has seven career Top-10 finishes at Pebble Beach
- PICK: Davis Love III
When sports betting players look at golf, they usually classify tournaments as majors, serious non-major tournaments and duds. The Pebble Beach Pro-Am isn’t a major, of course, but the multi-course event (Pebble Beach, Poppy Hills, Spyglass Hill) certainly qualifies as a “serious non-major” and warrants a good look at the offshore sportsbook.
Few tournaments are as storied as the Pebble Beach Pro-Am. Tracing back to its early days as the Bing Crosby National Pro-Am, the tourney’s past champions are among the greatest in golf history, including Jack Nicklaus, Tiger Woods and Tom Watson, among many others. With Tiger on the shelf and the legends, er, retired, who will etch his name in Pebble Beach Pro-Am betting lore this year?
Phil Mickelson quickly jumps to mind for any golf betting fan mulling the Pebble Beach Pro-Am lines. After all, Lefty is a three-time champ at Pebble Beach (1998, 2005, 2007). However, while his tournament history makes him an attractive pick on paper, Mickelson hasn’t found his game in 2009, to put it lightly; he ranks outside the PGA’s top 100 in putting, scoring average, greens in regulation and scrambling so far this PGA betting season. Ouch. That’s not the Mickelson we know and “love.”
Another past winner to strongly consider: two-time winner Davis Love III (2001, 2003), who has seven career Top-10 finishes in the tournament. While he does have a missed cut this season, Love did finish second in the Mercedes Championship to Open the PGA betting season. Since he looks solid early this year and has history on his side, he warrants serious consideration in the Pebble Beach Pro-Am odds.
Like Love, Mike Weir has a missed cut this season but has looked quite strong aside from that, finishing third in the Bob Hope Classic and ranking third in scrambling on tour. Weir’s accurate game should help him in the Pebble Beach Pro-Am line and he has multiple Top-10s at this event.
Those who bet on golf know they can never ignore anyone coming off a win. Fresh off his FBR Open victory two weeks ago, Kenny Perry is a man possessed right now. He’s been known to string together wins in the past, but he hasn’t played this tournament since 2005 and has missed the cut five times here. I’d stay away from Perry.
Two darkhorses to consider are veterans and major champions Jim Furyk and Vijay Singh. Furyk hasn’t played yet this season and Singh is coming off knee surgery, so both could be unusually good sportsbook values. They have 11 Top-10 finishes at the Pebble Beach Pro-Am between the two of them.
MARCO’S PICK: There’s no shortage of appealing picks this week, but Davis Love III is the best bet. He consistently performs well at this tournament, he’s no stranger to winning it all and he’s playing fairly well in ’09 already.
For more sports betting odds, bookmark the betonline.com Sportsbook.
Marco Sussman isn't too bad on the links, reportedly a five handicap. But, he's great in the sports betting game. He'll watch just about anything you put in front of him, but golf is what really gets his juices flowing. Thoughts or questions?
