US Bank Championship preview: Perry's best chance for a starring role

You’d think Milwaukee was behind the old Iron curtain for all the news that’s coming out about the US Bank Championship. Either the poor hacks who drew the short straws and didn’t go to Carnoustie are drowning their sorrows in a local bar or they’re glued to the tele watching events in Scotland anyway (maybe both).

You can’t blame them. There’s precious little punter interest in this second string event. The cash being thrown at it is about 1% of the mountain of dosh chasing Tiger and his pals. Which is a shame because this does have a bit of golfing intrigue. You could bill it as ‘John Deere II, Revenge of the Vanquished’, although the US Bank wouldn’t be too happy. The chief protagonists are the players who failed to spot Jonathan Byrd until it was too late last Sunday. If none of them grab this little putt-boiler I would recommend they seriously consider taking up knitting.

Potential plotlines abound: will Tim Clark recover from the agonising calamity of last Sunday; does Kenny Perry find the secret code that keeps him going through the weekend; can Nathan Green overcome the stark fear that left him frozen to the fairways of Illinois? All this and more coming to a golf course far from you.

There’s no shortage of supporting roles, from Troy Matteson, who shared third place with Green, Heath Slocum who sneaked up with a Sunday 65, and Billy Mayfair, who shared 11th with Perry. A few of them even have half decent course form here. Perry of course is a past winner, but Green, Slocum, Mayfair, Jeff Gove and Jason Dufner have all had their Deer Park moments.

To add to the drama, Corey Pavin was absent last week but will fancy his chances of a back-to-back win, while there’s interest in wunderkind Anthony Kim despite his missed cut last week. I have even seen Shigeki Maruyama touted to shake off his season blues and repeat his 2001 victory. Not for me though.

The script I’m going for has Clark finding it hard to repeat last week’s effort, leaving the way for Perry, whose stats cry out for a win - second for greens in regulation, top ten for putting and driving, and 14th for accuracy off the tee. The only player that comes close to that is Briny Baird, who might be worth noting.

But if none of the above can set the fairways of Wisconsin alight, keep an eye out for an improving Jesper Parnevik, who only lacks course form, or even Bernhard Langer, snatching this opportunity to grab a headline or two - if only those pesky hacks would drag themselves out of the sports bar long enough to report it.

PS: The usual warning about in-play betting. Liquidity will be minimal so, if you go in, don’t expect to be able to get out in a hurry later.

PPS: I see Gary Player has lent weight to the chorus for drugs checks in golf. He says it is definitely in the sport and he should know. Must say it does not surprise me in the slightest. I have long harboured the suspicion that it’s the elephant in the locker room.