Children's Miracle Network Classic preview: What I don't like about the favourites

I always shudder when I think of Disney’s gaff at Orlando: it’s the very aptly named Tower of Terror that gets me going after I foolishly allowed my not-so-wee bairns to drag me up it, and down, and up again, and … you get the picture. Follow that with the Aerosmith roller coaster and see how much of a stomach you have left!

I imagine quite a few golfers families will be losing their stomachs this week while the old man toils round the Palm and Magnolia courses. And toil they will, because guess what? It’s been raining again. I doubt anything could be as soggy and slow as last week, but Scott Verplank for one was not sounding too enthusiastic. While the weathermen say most of the rain is now over, it looks like being plenty windy. My only hope is they speed it up a bit - not another Monday finish, please guys.

The last event of the season has a decent smattering of golfing names, but a reputation for throwing up first time winners like Joe Durant last year and Lucas Glover the year before. There’s every possibility it’ll do the same this week.

There’s plenty to commend the known quantities that lead the betting, but enough niggles to stay the hand in a very thin market. No one’s betting the house on this one.

Tim Clark is in front on the basis of his decent record at this tournament - top 10 three times out of four since 2002 - and an 18th place two weeks ago after a lengthy lay-off. Perhaps more pertinent was his seventh in the Tour Championship at a very soggy East Lake. But Clark seems to lack the killer instinct when in contention and I think some of the distances here will catch him out. There’s also the constant worry about his neck problem.
Glover needs the cash to make the money list top 30, but he was very disappointing in the wet last week when his putter went awol.
Sean O’Hair has the look of someone on the cusp, with two top fives in his last two outings. But those results hide dismal last day performances. I’m guessing accuracy off the tee will be fairly important here and that’s the department he’s struggling most with. Mind you, a look at all his recent stats has you wondering how he’s done so well.
Verplank is sounding cheerily relaxed and was 2nd here four years ago, but he’s not happy with the damp and his poor distance game could count against him.
Justin Leonard, a winner four weeks ago, has both the game off the tee and on the fairways. But he was another who lost his way in the dampness of Tesoro last week.
Fredrik Jacobson, came second last week, but that effort may have taken a lot out of him and his stats don’t cheer me up much. Given the amount of water around, we might as well factor in Aquaman Woody Austin, 14th here last year.

Tour virgins who look the part this week include Chris Stroud, 6th four weeks ago and 12th in the wet last week. Daisuke Maruyama fell away at the end last week but he’s getting there, and few here are more accurate off the tee or better with their irons than Kent Jones, a bit over $1000,000 away from the comfort zone. Briny Baird put in a strong showing last week and came 2nd here three years ago.

But I wonder if this year the winner might not be an in-between sort of guy, someone with the odd win way back when. Step forward Cameron Beckman, a winner in 2001. He is presently third among this lineup for finding greens and wields a handy putter. He finished 5th in the wet last week and has notched a 4th place previously in this tournament.