By Charles Jay
This week’s PGA Championship will unquestionably be filled with storylines, whether it is Tiger Woods’ rather surprising appearance or Rory McIlroy’s head of steam coming in, or the neck injury that is forcing defending champion Jason Dufner to simply try and play well enough to make the Ryder Cup team.
Aside from the guys who are the top favorites in the golf betting odds at VietBet, are there some others you may want to keep your eye on? Well, funny you should ask.
If you want to go back in PGA history, you will see that in the 1996 tournament, Kenny Perry was the first-round leader who dropped back to a tie for seventh at the end of the Saturday round, then came roaring back with a final round of 68 to tie mark Brooks and force a playoff, which Brooks took care of with a birdie on the first hole.
Perry is about to turn 54 years of age (in fact, it happens on Sunday), and as recently as 2009 he was able to take it to a three-way playoff in the 2009 Masters (where he lost to Angel Cabrera after tying for the second and third round lead).
Well, here’s the thing with Perry: he is from Franklin, KY, which means that he is very familiar with the course at Valhalla Golf Club In Louisville, and may have played there more than anyone else in the field. Has he had success? Well, that is where he orchestrated his tie in regulation at the 1996 PGA, and he was part of the winning U.S. Ryder Cup team that played in 2008 at Valhalla.
In many of these majors there is a player who is playing on what is practically his “home” course, and this is such a case. Perry is not exactly fetching a whole lot of respect from the oddsmakers at VietBet; he is priced at +75500 (755-to-1) to win this tournament.
He has won five PGA Tour events after the age of 45, which is very impressive. And in the last fourteen months on the Champions Tour, he has won five times, and that includes THREE majors – the Constellation Senior Players, the U.S. Senior Open and the Regions Tradition. He has, in fact, won three of the last six majors on the seniors’ tour. He tied for 28th in the “regular” U.S. Open this year.
Oh, and we forgot to mention – he is in great form, as he is coming off a victory at the 3M Championship in Minneapolis.
Still, he is not in this field because he necessarily qualified in any conventional way. He seems to have slipped through the cracks when it comes to that. Instead, he has received a special exemption from the PGA of America.
He does not have to win the tournament for VietBet customers to cash a nice ticket. Perry is priced at +5000 to reach the top five. many people expect that this might be his last major on the PGA Tour, so there has been an unusually warm welcome for him in his home area. That was reflected in the practice round. “There were a lot of people yelling out where they were from: Glasgow, Ky., Bowling Green, Ky., all these little towns that are around Franklin where I live who came to watch and support me this week,” he told reporters.
It is possible that the most spirited golf betting proposition VietBet customers may be faced with this week is that which involves the “Top Senior,” where Perry is actually the second favorite in a field with some big names, including Brooks, to whom he lost that Masters playoff:
Vijay Singh +360
Colin Montgomerie +500
Tom Watson +900
Mark Brooks +1600
Jerry Smith +5000
David Tentis +6000
Frank Esposito +6600
Steve Schneiter +7000
During the Wednesday press conference he spoke about the fact that if he had just made a couple of putts, those playoff losses could have become playoff wins, and that might have turned him into a Hall of Fame player. Perry certainly does not rule out some fireworks that could come from his hand this week.
He says, “When I get hot, things happen for KP.”
Keep that in mind.
Bet the PGA Championship at the place you’ve got the most options – VietBet!
