With the US Masters just a week away, the Shell Houston Open is the last chance for many of the worlds top players to fine tune their game for the first major golf tournament of the season.

With Tiger’s astonishing victory last week he takes a well deserved week off, the result being a wide open field, headed up by Phil Mickelson at 7/1 with totesport.

Other protagonists at the head of the betting in this high quality field include in-form Aussie Geoff Ogilvy (14/1), slick American Steve Stricker (16/1) and European duo Sergio Garcia and Padraig Harrington (both 22/1 shots with totesport). Add to that the combined precocious talents of Rory McIlroy (25/1) and Camilo Villegas (25/1) and we have a mouth watering hors d’ oeuvre to next weeks main at Augusta.

Further down the field however there’s the chance of some value bets, notably via former winners of this tournament Stuart Appelby and Vijay Singh.

Appleby has won this tournament twice before, including once on this track three years ago. He finished in the top twenty here again last year and with a top ten finish at the Transitions Championship a fortnight ago he comes here in good form again, certainly worth a nibble each-way at 33/1 with totesport.

Singh has gone one better winning this tournament three times, twice on this track. Vijay’s struggled so far this season with only one top 25 finish to his name, hence the potentially massive 45/1 you can get on him here. However, the more he plays the better he seems to get so I wouldn’t count out the big Fijian for this one.

Finally, Lee Westwood could also represent some smashing value at a massive 50/1. The Englishman has had a quiet start to his season but all his efforts will have been in the lead up to next weeks Masters and he’ll be keen to show some form here.

If each-way betting is your thing you can now bet each-way on the outright market of any European or PGA Tour golf event and if your selection finishes sixth, on his own, totesport will refund the place part of your stake with a free bet on the following week’s tournaments!

For all your golf betting this week visit totesport.