Valero Texas Open

In addition to our bet on Jim Furyk yesterday, I have to take a little on Zach Johnson, this time including to win the tournament. Johnson is a clubgowi favourite and has won for us several times at big odds, including at 28-1 three years ago. Johnson is an 11 time winner on Tour, posting victories in seven of the last eight years and we can definitely expect him to go in again at some time during 2015 and if not this week, I am pretty certain that we will find the right time to back him later in the year, this is a golfer we know well and what suits him and his game. Two of his wins have come here in the Valero Texas Open, which he won back to back in 2008 and 2009, infact, with the schedule changes the two wins were within seven months of each other, the event was played on a different course then, but still in San Antonio and Johnson will clearly have positive mental memories of the area. Last year was only his second start in the event since his 09 win and he finished in a tie for sixth, he said afterwards that he hit the ball well for four days, yet barely holed a putt and still managed a very high finish, if the flat stick gets even lukewarm this week, let alone hot,  he could go very close.

Speaking this week about the TPC San Antonio he said:"There have been some minor changes here and there but you've got to hit it straight and rely on your putter and I like that."Obviously this tournament has changed venues, but I like what this golf course demands now, totally different than the previous, this one's certainly very difficult."I think it's a ball striker's course where you've just got to keep the ball in front of you, keep the course in front of you.

He arrives here in good form with a T9th at the Arnold Palmer Invitational, his fourth top-10 finish in nine US tour events this season, he shot 68-66 over the weekend and commented that he felt he was in "ominous" shape returning to SA and spoke about his round last week....."I had a good day on the Saturday, a pretty clean card that day, four birdies and I shot four under. "Then Sunday was a rollercoaster, fitting for Orlando I guess."Certainly way more positives, but it was a day of capitalising on opportunities and missed opportunities."I don't really know how to describe it. "It was a day I've never had. It could have been really, really, really low, really low."

Johnson is a very unassuming and modest guy, a committed christian and if he says he is in good form and playing well, then he is. My only real issue is that he has just turned 39 yo (Feb 24) and that is a problem year for many golfers, but we are very early into that 12 months and if there was one guy on Tour it is unlikely to bother, that would be Johnson. Eight of his eleven wins have come before the end of May and this is clearly the time of year he is at his peak, ZJ is also a golfer who holds form incredibly well once he finds it . He finished 1-8-3 in consecutive weeks early last year, went 2-6-4-8-5 in a month in 2013 and then won a couple of weeks later and in 4 consecutive starts in 2012 posted a win and two second place finishes.

So, we have a golfer in form, who is happy with his game and invariably plays well in multi events once he has hit his stride, a player at his peak in Spring, with a strong liking for the course and with pmm of the city where he is a two time winner and he can play in the wind which we spoke about yesterday, playing a Tour high 39 rounds in such conditions in 2014 and ranking 20th, he surely has to go well.