2012 The Tour Championship Free Golf Betting Preview and Tips

• East Lake GC • Atlanta,GA, Yards: 7,154
• Field: Top 30 FedExCup Pts. Standings •
• Purse: $8,000,000 •Winning Share: $1,440,000
• odds from ppower

The Course

East Lake Golf Club was designed by Tom Bendelow and redesigned by Donald Ross. As well as being home to the Tour Championship since 2004 East Lake is also well known as Bobby Jones' home course. A measure of the difficulty can immediately be seen by looking at the card; the par-3 18^th can play 235 yards from the back.
Players hitting fairways off the tee have a huge advantage here. The rough is always tough.
After Tiger Woods got it to 23under in 2007, Rees Jones was employed to convert the greens from Bentgrass to Bermuda. That moved brought the course from statistically the easiest par 70 on the PGA Tour that year to one of the toughest since. Since 2008, the four round score hasn't been lower than 9-under 271.

Phil Mickelson 12/1

With Tiger and Rory pretty much unbackable at 4/1 with most bookies there’s much better value for Phil Mickelson each way from 12/1. That’s not to say Leftie can’t win this week. He shot a final round of 65 in 2009 at East Lake on his way to winning and has two other top 10’s since 2008 besides. Phil will be fancying a tilt at the big money this week after his fourth in the Deutsche Bank and tied second at the BMW.

Adam Scott 18/1

I think Adam Scott left this tournament after him last year with a third round of 74. In the end he only lost out by two shots and will rue that Saturday performance. An in-form Scott can win at East Lake, a feat he accomplished back in 2006. Eleven out of his twelve rounds in the Deutsche Bank and BMW have been in the sixties, good enough for two top sevens and an each way shout this week.

Jim Furyk 22/1

With only 30 players in the field this week, it’s hard to get really long odds and at first glance you might think Jim Furyk’s odds are pretty mean. However when you look at his Atlanta record, you’ll see they’re not. A win, a second and two more top seven finishes in the last six stagings is a pretty awesome record around here. That win came in 2010 edging out Luke Donald (he also won the Fed Ex Cup). He’s had his fair share of bad luck recently but Furyk loves these tough tracks.

Sergio Garcia 25/1

With his win at the Wyndham, third in the Barclays and 24^th at the BMW Sergio has clocked up an impressive 33 under par total for the three events. El Nino has always been a man for tougher tracks with his ball striking ability and he came close here in 2008, losing in a playoff to Camilo Villegas.

Previous Top 10’s

2011

1 x-Bill Haas 68 67 69 68 10 -2 -8 272 $1,440,000
2 Hunter Mahan 67 68 66 71 11 +1 -8 272 $864,000
T3 Aaron Baddeley 68 69 64 72 - +2 -7 273 $418,667
T3 K.J. Choi 68 65 70 70 - E -7 273 $418,667
T3 Luke Donald 66 68 70 69 - -1 -7 273 $418,667
T6 Jason Day 67 67 69 71 - +1 -6 274 $272,000
T6 Charles Howell III 67 71 68 68 - -2 -6 274 $272,000
T6 Adam Scott 67 65 74 68 - -2 -6 274 $272,000
9 Bo Van Pelt 71 70 66 68 - -2 -5 275 $240,000
10 Phil Mickelson 68 70 67 71 - +1 -4 276 $227,200
T11 Keegan Bradley 64 71 72 70 - E -3 277 $210,400
T11 Geoff Ogilvy 69 68 72 68 - -2 -3 277 $210,400
T13 Jason Dufner 66 70 73 69 - -1 -2 278 $190,400
T13 Gary Woodland 72 68 72 66 - -4 -2 278 $190,400
15 Steve Stricker 68 70 69 72 - +2 -1 279 $176,000
2010
1 Jim Furyk 67 65 70 70 E -8 272 $1,350,000
2 Luke Donald 66 66 71 70 E -7 273 $810,000
3 Retief Goosen 71 66 66 71 +1 -6 274 $517,500
T4 Nick Watney 71 74 63 67 -3 -5 275 $330,000
T4 Paul Casey 66 71 69 69 -1 -5 275 $330,000
6 Charley Hoffman 71 67 69 70 E -3 277 $270,000
T7 Ernie Els 71 71 71 65 -5 -2 278 $247,500
T7 K.J. Choi 68 68 74 68 -2 -2 278 $247,500
T9 Zach Johnson 74 72 66 67 -3 -1 279 $208,125
T9 Camilo Villegas 73 69 68 69 -1 -1 279 $208,125
T9 Ryan Moore 70 72 68 69 -1 -1 279 $208,125
T9 Kevin Streelman 70 70 69 70 E -1 279 $208,125
T13 Tim Clark 70 73 70 67 -3 E 280 $178,500
T13 Geoff Ogilvy 66 67 72 75 +5 E 280 $178,500
T15 Justin Rose 74 68 72 67 -3 +1 281 $162,000
T15 Hunter Mahan 69 71 73 68 -2 +1 281 $162,000
2009
1 Phil Mickelson 73 67 66 65 -5 -9 271 $1,350,000
2 Tiger Woods 67 68 69 70 E -6 274 $810,000
3 Sean O'Hair 66 70 70 69 -1 -5 275 $517,500
T4 Padraig Harrington 67 69 71 69 -1 -4 276 $330,000
T4 Kenny Perry 72 66 64 74 +4 -4 276 $330,000
6 Steve Stricker 70 72 66 69 -1 -3 277 $270,000
T7 Jim Furyk 72 68 71 67 -3 -2 278 $247,500
T7 Steve Marino 69 71 67 71 +1 -2 278 $247,500
9 Ernie Els 71 66 71 71 +1 -1 279 $225,000
T10 Lucas Glover 68 71 72 69 -1 E 280 $202,500
T10 Jerry Kelly 71 67 71 71 +1 E 280 $202,500
T10 John Senden 70 70 69 71 +1 E 280 $202,500
T13 David Toms 74 66 70 71 +1 +1 281 $174,000
T13 Nick Watney 70 69 71 71 +1 +1 281 $174,000
T13 Angel Cabrera 72 67 70 72 +2 +1 281 $174,000
2008
1 x-Camilo Villegas 72 66 69 66 3 -4 -7 273 $1,260,000
2 Sergio Garcia 70 65 67 71 4 +1 -7 273 $756,000
T3 Anthony Kim 64 69 72 69 - -1 -6 274 $409,500
T3 Phil Mickelson 68 68 69 69 - -1 -6 274 $409,500
5 Ben Curtis 71 69 68 70 - E -2 278 $280,000
T6 Ernie Els 68 73 70 69 - -1 E 280 $238,000
T6 Jim Furyk 72 70 69 69 - -1 E 280 $238,000
T6 Mike Weir 70 69 71 70 - E E 280 $238,000
9 K.J. Choi 69 70 70 72 - +2 +1 281 $210,000
T10 Stuart Appleby 72 71 70 69 - -1 +2 282 $180,040
T10 Dudley Hart 73 69 71 69 - -1 +2 282 $180,040
T10 Trevor Immelman 68 73 71 70 - E +2 282 $180,040
T10 Justin Leonard 73 69 73 67 - -3 +2 282 $180,040
T10 Billy Mayfair 72 71 69 70 - E +2 282 $180,040
15 Kevin Sutherland 71 71 69 72 - +2 +3 283 $154,000
2007
1 Tiger Woods 64 63 64 66 -4 -23 257 $1,260,000
T2 Zach Johnson 71 66 60 68 -2 -15 265 $619,500
T2 Mark Calcavecchia 65 66 63 71 +1 -15 265 $619,500
4 Sergio Garcia 68 64 64 70 E -14 266 $336,000
T5 Scott Verplank 66 68 67 68 -2 -11 269 $266,000
T5 Hunter Mahan 65 68 65 71 +1 -11 269 $266,000
T7 Tim Clark 62 69 70 69 -1 -10 270 $231,000
T7 Vijay Singh 68 68 65 69 -1 -10 270 $231,000
T9 Camilo Villegas 67 68 70 66 -4 -9 271 $204,400
T9 Rory Sabbatini 68 68 67 68 -2 -9 271 $204,400
2006
1 Adam Scott 69 67 67 66 -4 -11 269 $1,170,000
2 Jim Furyk 69 71 67 65 -5 -8 272 $730,000
3 Joe Durant 68 68 70 67 -3 -7 273 $480,000
4 Retief Goosen 68 71 68 67 -3 -6 274 $345,000
T5 Luke Donald 73 67 69 68 -2 -3 277 $266,000
T5 Trevor Immelman 73 66 69 69 -1 -3 277 $266,000
T5 Tom Pernice Jr. 69 72 67 69 -1 -3 277 $266,000
T8 Lucas Glover 73 71 66 68 -2 -2 278 $215,000
T8 Vijay Singh 69 72 65 72 +2 -2 278 $215,000
T10 Stuart Appleby 69 70 72 70 E +1 281 $182,800
T10 Ernie Els 71 72 66 72 +2 +1 281 $182,800
2005
1 Bart Bryant 62 68 66 67 -3 -17 263 $1,170,000
2 Tiger Woods 66 67 67 69 -1 -11 269 $715,000
3 Scott Verplank 67 66 69 69 -1 -9 271 $461,500
T4 Vijay Singh 69 69 68 67 -3 -7 273 $283,833
T4 Davis Love III 68 71 65 69 -1 -7 273 $283,833
T4 Retief Goosen 64 66 69 74 +4 -7 273 $283,833
T7 Adam Scott 73 69 65 67 -3 -6 274 $209,625
T7 Stuart Appleby 70 65 71 68 -2 -6 274 $209,625
T7 Ben Crane 68 65 72 69 -1 -6 274 $209,625
T7 Padraig Harrington 71 66 68 69 -1 -6 274 $209,625
2004
1 Retief Goosen 70 66 69 64 -6 -11 269 $1,080,000
2 Tiger Woods 72 64 65 72 +2 -7 273 $648,000
3 Jerry Kelly 67 71 71 65 -5 -6 274 $414,000
T4 Stephen Ames 69 66 70 70 E -5 275 $248,000
T4 Mark Hensby 69 70 69 67 -3 -5 275 $248,000
T4 Mike Weir 69 69 67 70 E -5 275 $248,000
T7 Scott Verplank 74 67 68 67 -3 -4 276 $198,000
T7 Jay Haas 67 66 68 75 +5 -4 276 $198,000
9 Vijay Singh 69 73 70 65 -5 -3 277 $180,000