Farmers Open betting preview

By Dave Tindall Last updated: 8th February 2010

Dave Tindall looks ahead to this week's US Tour event at Torrey Pines and makes Ryan Moore his headline selection.

It's taken an awful lot of time for Ryan Moore to show the potential he displayed when taking the amateur game by storm.

But there's been a pretty good reason for that. He's basically played his whole pro career injured.

So when his body finally started behaving last year and he started feeling totally comfortable over the ball again, good things were likely to happen.

And they did.

Moore gave himself a big confidence boost with a tied 10th in the US Open at Bethpage, finished fourth the following week in Connecticut and four starts later posted a long overdue first US Tour success by winning the Wyndham Championship in North Carolina.

Six months on and Moore is now playing the best golf of his career.

His last five starts have seen him tee it up in Las Vegas, Arizona, China, Hawaii and California and he's made the top 10 at each location. So after finishes of 7-8-3-6-10 on such diverse courses he's basically a threat anywhere he plays at the moment.

The American made mini-headlines by playing last season without a sponsor and although that's changed it's typical of Moore's doing-it-my-way attitude that he's signed up with a firm virtually no-one's heard of!

Moore is in fact now a part-owner of the golf equipment company Scratch Golf and plays their irons, hybrid, wedges and putter.

The man from Seattle says, with these new clubs, he actually spins the ball more now than anything he's played in the last five years so feels that the change to the new grooves has been really beneficial to him.

The proof is in the pudding of course but if you check his stats for the season-opening SBS Championship in Hawaii, Moore topped the Greens In Regulation stats, hitting an amazing 90%.

While current form can't be questioned there does appear to be question marks about his course form and four previous visits to Torrey Pines have produced three missed cuts.

But, as stated, Moore is now fully fit and flowing with confidence and the one time he did make the cut, in 2007, he finished 16th. That's enough to get us interested.

With a scoring average of 67.67 over his last five events (21 rounds) he's in cracking form and the 33/1 is well worth a bet.

US Open champion Lucas Glover would certainly appear to offer a spot of value at 40/1.

Glover flew out of the blocks in the season-opening SBS Championship in Hawaii, carding 15-under in his two opening rounds and still held the lead with a round to go.

However, a closing 76 saw him tumble all the way down to 14th to undo his hard work and give a false impression of how well he actually played at Kapalua.

Perhaps he was suffering a hangover when he opened up with a five-over 75 in the following week's Sony Open and a second round 69 wasn't enough to repair the damage although it did at least suggest he'd suffered no more than a minor blip.

Torrey Pines, of course, was the venue for the 2008 US Open so having won the 2009 running at Bethpage Black, Glover has winning form on a modern-day US Open track and the two have some common features - both being municipals and both measuring in at over 7,500 yards.

Glover didn't play here in the 2008 US Open but he's proven himself at Torrey Pines with a third last year and a fourth in 2006.

With the rough up after recent downpours, Glover, as a US Open champion who drives the ball long and straight, should be well equipped to handle the conditions and, if his putting holds up, he should be ready to put in a big challenge.

Troy Matteson finished off his 2009 campaign by winning the Frys.com Open in Arizona and showed he was still in good heart by moving up to third on the leaderboard going into the final round of the Sony Open a couple of weeks ago.

Although a Sunday 73 meant a modest 25th place finish, like Glover in the SBS, there were plenty of positive signs.

Matteson has some interesting history at Torrey Pines which isn't fully revealed by his form figures here of 28-23-11-MC.

Although they're a decent set of numbers, they don't tell the whole story. Three years ago Matteson went into the final round in fourth place but, paired with Tiger Woods, he watched on in awe as Tiger shot 66 to take victory while he fell away with a 76.

Matteson then opened with a 65 on the South Course (used for three of the four rounds this week) to take the first round lead 12 months later and, despite a 75 on the easier North Course the following day, he played well on the weekend to finish 11th.

Matteson won the Nationwide Tour's Mark Christopher Charity Classic in California in 2005 and both his full US Tour wins have come on the West Coast so he knows how to win on this side of the United States.

Long off the tee and boasting some very impressive Greens In Regulation stats in recent starts he could make a mockery of his three-figure odds.

Completing my line-up is another West Coast winner who gives the ball a real blast, Dustin Johnson.

With rain forecast this week, being able to handle soggy California coastal conditions will be an advantage and Johnson did just that when winning the weather-shortened Pebble Beach National Pro-Am last year.

The two-time Tour champ has finished 16th on both his starts in 2010 and although his massive hitting has taken the eye his best stats have been provided by his putter.

Johnson was third for Putting Average at Kapalua and 10th at Waialae and, as Martin Kaymer has shown in Europe, it's this part of the game that turns near misses into victories (Rory McIlroy will vouch for that too!).

Two starts in this event have produced finishes of 37th (2008) and 19th (2009) while Johnson also made the cut here in the 2008 US Open.

After three good looks, this could be the year where he really steps up.

"Cold and wet, it doesn't really bother me. You know, I really learned to play in it in college because it didn't matter what the weather was, my coaches made us play, practice, whatever, so we didn't have a choice," said Johnson at Turning Stone last year so if the poor weather forecast arrives he's a good man to have on your side.

Tips:

2pts e.w. Ryan Moore at 33/1 (General 1/4 1,2,3,4,5). A threat anywhere at present after five successive top 10 finishes.

1pt e.w. Lucas Glover at 40/1 (General 1/4 1,2,3,4,5). Two top four finishes here and was R3 leader in season-opener in Hawaii.

1pt e.w. Troy Matteson at 100/1 (Boylesports 1/4 1,2,3,4,5). Has some fine form here and a winner at back end of 2009.

1pt e.w. Dustin Johnson at 45/1 (Boylesports 1/4 1,2,3,4,5). Top 20 here last year and knows how to win. Hot putter.

RESULT:

LOSS -10pts

Dave Tindall