Stanford St Jude Championship preview: Really, it's the David Toms Classic

There’s a bit of a knowledge gap at the top of this week’s leaderboard when it comes to the TPC Southwind course.

Vijay Singh, Adam Scott, Sergio Garcia, Padraig Harrington … the list of top players who have basically chosen to give the place a miss - certainly this side of the millennium - goes down quite a way. Singh last played it in 1992. What’s changed? The obvious thing is that it now comes in handy as a last-minute workout for the US Open the following week. That was why Phil Mickelson was in it before being KO’d by his dodgy wrist again.

But there’s one guy who has stuck by this tournament with such loyalty they should give him a free house. Not only has David Toms played this year in year out, he has dominated it so much that for both the last two years he started as favourite. He had back-to-back wins in 2003 and 2004 followed by second and tenth places. Some will say his form is not so hot at present, but he’s had three top tens this season, including 9th at the Masters, and hasn’t missed a single cut. After a couple of modest weeks he made 18th at the Colonial two weeks ago. He should also be well up for this as opposed to other luminaries who are likely to have one eye on next week’s affairs.

That’s certainly my feeling with Singh, whose stats suggest this is not entirely his cup of tea. While long drives help, accuracy off the tee was the compelling figure last year - winner Jeff Maggert topped the field for hitting fairways - and Singh comes more than half way down the pack in that department.

It’s my worry too with Sean O’Hair after last week’s off-colour finish at the Memorial. But O’Hair does have a couple of things going for him. He is usually a tidy player off the tee, so if he can recapture that form this track should be perfect. And he must be buoyed by winning his US Open qualifier on Monday.

You have also got to rate Scott, for all that he too was disappointing last week (if you can count fifth place as disappointing). If he can light a fire under his putter he should be a threat. Garcia has been having a decent enough season, but no track record here and the fact that his stats put him 110th for accuracy dim his prospects in my book.

Another player to highlight, though, is Fredrik Jacobson. He too made fifth place last week, a sign that his recent slump may be over, and although he missed the cut here last year, he had three top tens in a row before that. The only negative again is that he falls below 100th for accuracy.

Then, of course, there’s the defending champion Maggert himself, who was 12th in his last outing at the Colonial.

I shall be keeping a speculative eye on Briny Baird too. He was fifth here last year and 9th in his last outing at the AT&T classic. His stats suggest that if he can polish up his putting a bit he could do well. The stats also point up the outside possibility of Olin Browne, who missed the cut two weeks ago but was 9th at the AT&T the week before. When he played this track two years ago he came a handy 17th. His stats put him second in this field for accuracy; only weak driving lets him down.