After the late withdrawal of Phil Mickelson for this tournament Ian Poulter finds himself catapulted to the head of the betting for the Byron Nelson Championship stateside. Mickelson’s wife has been diagnosed with breast cancer so Big Phil’s understandably taking some time off and we all wish him and his wife our best wishes.

Poulter’s been in good form, three top fifteen finishes on the bounce including a second place finish last time out at the TPC. He also has course form having finished second here two years ago. I like Poulter, despite his allegiance to Arsenal and I hope he can win this one but at 14/1 the price is a little to short for my reckoning.

For my money, I see some value in backing some stalwarts of the PGA Tour with dozens of titles between them. I’ve been banging on about if and when Vijay Singh gets back to form he’ll make a mockery of his odds and this week is no different. There’s no argument that Vijay’s form has been poor since his early season knee op, but there’s plenty of evidence that the 46 year old Fijian still has plenty to offer. After all, he was celebrating his fourth victory in five months as close as last December at the Chevron World Challenge and he showed enough talent in his final round 67 at the TPC to earn him a top ten finish in a difficult and competitive field. He won this tournament back in 2003 and take his last two months form out of the equation and he’d be starting favourite here. At 20/1 he’s a value bet.

David Toms and Scott Verplank have seventeen tour wins between them and both come here showing some good form. Toms has had two top ten finishes in his last three tournaments and Verplank has been chipping away in the top twenty-five of events and picking up some nice cheques in the process. Toms is a 22/1 shot with totesport and amongst this field I reckon he looks a decent bet. Verplank is a few points longer at 28/1, but has previous having won here two years ago and is another worth an each-way bet this week.

Further down the betting there are a couple of Aussies worth a squeak. I couldn’t go a post mentioning Vijay Singh without also mentioning another player whose struggling with form and his odds belie his talent. Adam Scott has missed his last three cuts and is playing some dreadful stuff, but at some point i’m banking on him clicking into gear and when he does the price is going to be massive. He’s touched 50/1 in recent weeks but he’s as short as 35/1 this week. This may have to do with the general quality of the field or something the compilers know that we don’t, but still a win for Scott at that price would be a right touch!

Another Aussie Rod Pampling looks a good each-way bet at 66/1 this week. Pampling has been playing some steady stuff on tour this year and has three top fifteen finishes to his name. He also has some course form having finished in the top ten in two of the last three years and he could be one of the outsiders to have a look at here.

For all your golf betting this week visit totesport.