The PGA Championship is the last major of the year and this year it is at Whistling Straits on the shores of Lake Michigan. This tournament is for the professionals only and there will be some unfamiliar names in the field, as 20 club pros are invited to take part. The USPGA was last held at Wisconsin in 2004 when Vijay Singh triumphed. At 7507 yards, it is a very difficult course but, despite the numerous bunkers, it still favours long hitters. Pete Dye designed the course to be similar to the links courses of Ireland and Scotland. The greens are much larger than average, so putting will be important. There are 2 players from Wisconsin taking part – Jerry Kelly and Steve Stricker. It is a very scenic course with beautiful views of Lake Michigan from all 18 holes.

Value match bet with Ladbrokes:

10/11 Stricker v Els 6 units

Stricker has recovered from his injury now and is back in form. He has played 14 times this year and not missed a cut. He will have home advantage as he is from Wisconsin . Ernie Els played poorly in the 4th round last week and missed 3 consecutive cuts before that.

Value match bet with The Greek:

5/6 Watson v C.Wood 6 units

Bubba Watson is a long hitter and should be favoured by the course. Chris Wood finished third last time out, but had 2 consecutive missed cuts before that.

Value match bet with Hills:

21/20 T.Clark v Oosthuizen 3 units

Tim Clark is not a long hitter – but is an excellent putter – and this will give him an advantage on the enormous greens. He played at Whistling Straits in 2004 and leads Oosthuizen 5-0 in head-to- heads over a 3 year period. Louis Oosthuizen has not played the course before.

Value match bet with BlueSquare:

10/11 McDowell v Fisher 3 units

Graeme McDowell likes links courses, hailing from Northern Ireland, and has very good memories of the last Major which he won. He has been consistent since winning the US Open: 1 – - 21 23 – 31 22, and these are the sort of figures that you want for match betting. Ross Fisher won a tournament 2 weeks ago but trails McDowell 8-1 in head0-to-heads over a 3 year period.

Value match bet with Boylesports:

10/11 Donald v Fisher 3 units

Luke Donald is in good form at the moment and finished 24th in this event in 2004. He is a good scrambler, which is important on a difficult course. He leads Fisher 4-1 in head to heads.

Finishing positions:

Sell Stricker at 34 with Sporting Index for 0.3 units

Sell KT Kim at 62 with Sporting Index for 0.5 units

Buy Oosthuizen at 45 with Spreadex for 0.2 units

Whoever pulls the strings in Milton Keynes (or Salzburg) seems to believe the best route to the championship involves annoying and undermining their driver Mark Webber.

While the reasoning behind allowing Sebastian Vettel the use of a superior front wing in qualifying seemed logical in some respects, it would have been polite if the team management had let the Australian know.

Webber’s demeanour over the subesequent 24 hours revealed his frustration with the situation but his siege mentality arguably contributed to a fine win after outmanoeuvring his young team-mate in the first corner and never looking back.

The rivalry between the pair has highlighted the focus and ruthlessness of each but there is a palpable sense of paranoia within the ranks that could yet prove costly on the back nine of the championship scorecard.

As with Fernando Alonso and Lewis Hamilton at McLaren in 2007 the team never really expected their ‘second driver’ to pose a season-long threat to their principal contender so when the pressure is turned up, fissures turn into cracks and irreperable damage can result.

The team has already ceded serious ground in the title chase – despite securing nine poles from 10 races between them, both their drivers sit behind their McLaren contemporaries in the standings.

In fairness Vettel, who trails Webber by seven points and title leader Hamilton by 24, has produced some admirable drives amid a catalogue misfortune and does not deserve to be painted as the villain of the piece.

Still only 23, he continues to deliver on-track despite his team’s unsettling antics and his car proving less than robust on several occasions.

Vettel is a deserved 2/1 favourite for his home grand prix at Hockenheim, ahead of his team-mate at 10/3 with Hamilton and Alonso next up for McLaren and Ferrari.

Ordinarily at this stage we’d be picking one or other of the feuding Red Bulls for pole position or perming them in a forecast bet, but the current weather forecast suggests that both Friday and Saturday running could be affected by rain.

We’ve seen already this season that the RB6 can lose its advantage on a damp track, so while the pair remain worthy favourites the 4/11 on a Red Bull pole or the 4/5 on a front-row lockout is best passed over.

That’s not to say we’re particularly enamoured by the odds on the McLarens in qualifying either.

Any rain could enable McLaren to repeat the kind of performance we saw from Jenson Button in Melbourne or Shanghai but there remain concerns about the effectiveness of the car’s new exhaust-driven diffuser, which was ditched after two sessions at Silverstone.

The team ideally need at least two dry sessions to calibrate and optimise the device so variable track conditions on the Friday would not be welcomed by the Woking team.

Over at Maranello, however, Fernando Alonso might be worth a small bet to put behind him the wretched luck which has so far blighted the middle part of his season.

The Spaniard must still be having nightmares about safety cars after having his last two races wrecked by the appearance of the silver Merc.

He had the pace to win in Canada but had to nurse his tyres in the latter stages, while he was sitting pretty and looking at potential podium placings in Valencia and Britain before ill-timed interventions, the latter compounding a harsh penalty for an earlier overtaking indiscretion.

Backing the double world champion for the race, either each-way at 13/2 or for a podium place at 11/10 looks a sensible call given the question marks surrounding McLaren’s updates.

A further concern for all the runners is the curve ball thrown by Bridgestone, who are bringing their two most extreme tyre compounds to Hockenheim this weekend.

This is the first time there has ever been two steps between the grades of rubber and some team bosses fear the softest compound may not stand up to the forces put through them on this abrasive track.

We saw in practice for the Canadian Grand Prix that the super-soft was only good for a handful of laps before severe degradation set in, and a similar situation could occur here, especially with rain likely to wash worn rubber from the track in between sessions.

Bearing this in mind it seems sensible to hold fire on any other bets until we see which teams are coping best with their tyre usage and what strategies they could employ once qualifying is over.

One price which does stand out, though, is the 40/1 on Rubens Barrichello to finish on the podium for the resurgent Williams team.

Barrichello did us proud last time out to land a 6/1 shot when finishing fifth at Silverstone and he can deliver a similar performance while celebrating the 10th anniversary of his first Formula 1 win back when Hockenheim was, quite literally, all trees.

The style of victory – from 18th on the grid on the old, high-speed layout – summed up the Brazilian’s dexterity in changeable conditions, a skill which he hasn’t lost in the subsequent decade.

In fact the former Ferrari man is driving better than ever in a team which clearly trusts and respects him as a lead driver and Barrichello is thriving under the responsibility.

A tilt at the podium is ambitious buthis price for a third consecutive top six finish, 10/3, has had the value squeezed out of it.

So cross your fingers for conditions similar to those we saw here 10 years ago and enjoy watching him give us a run for our money.

Regarded as one of the best courses in Europe , let alone Sweden, a tour around Bro Hof’s website is enough to take your breath away; make no mistake, this place was made to host big-time golf tournaments and if I could I’d bet the Ryder Cup will be here one day.

So, we know we’re in for a spectacle, but can we find the winner?

With no course form to go on, let’s hear from course architect ‘RTJ2′ and see if we can establish what type of player we’re after:

“Placement is more important than length, position more important than distance.

“Just hitting the ball in the air isn’t enough – it must land in the right place. It is like chess – you have to establish a strategy for every shot or move, in order to be able to take advantage of your strengths.

“The greater your mental preparation, combined with skilled hitting, the greater your chances of mastering the course.

“Everything is big at Bro Hof! The holes are longer, the green are bigger, the course has more water and the bunkers are larger and well-placed. Besides which, the wind is always part of the game.

“On the dog-leg holes you not only have to hit the balls a long way, you also have to get them to stop. Mother Earth must have created this area for a golf course.”

You get the picture.

So it seems important we find ourselves a shot-maker, a ball-striker who can think their way around a golf course as well as find the length off the tee to ensure approaches aren’t impossible, while length is still a key asset even if not as important as accuracy.

Step forward Rickie Fowler, who might have the reputation of a grip-it-and-rip-it golfer, but the stats tell you otherwise.

Young Rickie currently sits top of the ball-striking stats on the PGA Tour, a stat that combines total driving (11th) and greens in regulation (2nd), while the fact that he’s seventh for top-10 finishes and 15th in the FedEx Cup race adds strength to the argument that he’s surely not far from his first PGA Tour win.

Of course, he can’t get that this week, but what he can do is really announce himself on the world stage with a win in Sweden on our version.

Last week he arrived to play in his first Open Championship and after an opening 79 managed to turn things around and finish in a share of 14th alongside Robert Karlsson and Dustin Johnson, who re-oppose here,.

If we forgive him that opening round, then there’s no doubt who impressed the most.

Fowler hit 15 out of 16 fairways in round two on his way to a 67, then made just one bogey during the weekend and that came on the Road Hole.

Impressive stuff then from the 21-year-old Californian and, while in this particular event it’s hard to be full of confidence about anyone, he does appeal as the most likely winner if he can carry that momentum forward.

An extra positive is taken from the fact he never threatened to win last week so, unlike Karlsson and DJ, should have spent the weekend enjoying himself instead of overly exerting on the mental front.

Take the 20/1 that’s widely available.

There are two interesting angles that I hope can pave the way to finding some other contenders this week.

First is a look at other courses designed by Robert Trent Jones Jr and the two that stand out are Celtic Manor, host of the Wales Open, and Penha Longa, used a week after the Wales Open as the site of the Estoril Open de Portugal.

Interestingly both tournaments were won with very low scores by players who have excellent form in the wind in Graeme McDowell and Thomas Bjorn. Neither tees it up this week but it can pay to search for players with a similar profile as wind looks set to play a big part in Sweden.

With that in mind and despite the fact I’d got him earmarked for the Irish Open next week, I’m going to get involved with Robert Rock.

The Englishman hasn’t yet won on the tour – the closest he’s come so far is that play-off defeat in last year’s Irish Open – but if he can build on recent form that should change soon.

I like the fact he was fourth at Penha Longa and shared the same spot at Celtic Manor too, suggesting he’s got a bit of love for RTJ2 designs, and the stats from both weeks bode well for this.

At Celtic Manor, Rock was 10th in driving distance and 19th in driving accuracy, while he also finished sixth in putts per round.

A week later in Portugal he filled the same spot for driving distance, clocked in at 21st for driving accuracy and 14th in putting.

Of course you could argue that these stats simply suggest he was in-form rather than represent a love for this type of course and whilst I’d differ, those of that school of thought can gain encouragement from his effort last week where only a second round 78 cost him a realistic chance of winning The Open. Three other rounds in the 60′s with greens-in-regulation figures of 17/18, 15/18 and 15/8 for a finish of T7 show what this man can do when on-song and a big performance here appears entirely possible.

Like Fowler he was never really in contention after that 78 and played with a smile all week so should arrive here fresh enough – snap up 33/1.

The second angle worth considering is the record of Scandinavians in this event.

We’ve seen already this year with Charl Schwartzel’s wins in Africa and the victory of Alvaro Quiros in Spain that having the home support behind you can be a big factor and two of the last three winners of this have been from Sweden and Finland, while in 2006 Robert Karlsson lost only after a play-off to Marc Warren.

I’m going to narrow it down even further here and zone in on a Swede and two caught the eye, namely Peter Hedblom and Pelle Edberg.

Picking Edberg over Hedblom wasn’t easy, with the latter arriving on the back of a week off following a season’s best 4th-placed finish in the Scottish Open and having a tie for 2nd here in 2007 to call upon.

However, Edberg has been in more consistent form all year, highlighted by his second in the Saint-Omer Open at the end of June and a previous fifth in Mallorca.

Statistics help to back that up too as Pelle is fifth in driving distance, something that will serve him well on this lengthy layout, and he can putt too as he’s fourth in both putts per round and putts per greens in relation.

Edberg is another tour maiden but that is more than factored into his price and hopefully the man who has seven top-30 finishes from 12 events this year can give us an each-way payout.

The three angles I thought it wouldd pay to look at are hopefully covered then; we’ve got a ball-striker, a local and a man with form on Robert Trent Jones Jr layouts on side.

So to complete the staking plan I’m going to suggest an investment on one player with form in this event and another who has never played in it.

Firstly it’s Raphael Jacquelin who ticks plenty of boxes, especially with his record in the Scandinavian Masters.

Last year at the not-dissimilar Barseback in Malmo he finished in a share of 43rd, not bad considering he opened with a 76 and closed with 78, while in 2008 he finished T8 and in 2006 T5 having missed the event in 2007.

From that we can see he plays well wherever they take this event – indeed in 2008 it was held at Arlandastad not too far from this year’s venue – and he arrives in rude health too.

At Loch Lomond a fortnight ago the bearded Frenchman took third, he was 18th in the French Open prior to that and a fortnight earlier finished second in the Saint-Omer Open.

Going back to an earlier angle too, Jacquelin played well at Celtic Manor earlier on this year and it’s about time this classic swinger of a golf club got back on the winning trail.

Arriving fresh having narrowly failed to qualify for St. Andrews a bold show can be anticipated.

Last then is James Morrison, who has rather gone off the radar of late following an earlier win in Portugal.

That was the highlight of a run that included four top-six finishes in five starts so he’svery much a player to get on while hot and, although it couldn’t be said he’s bang in-form at present, a tie for 55th at the Scottish Open hinted at a return to form.

A closer inspection of the stats enhances that belief as he was top 10 in putting and 35th in accuracy off the tee, something he’d been struggling with when missing cuts previously, and while he’s far from a confident pick and definitely not worth going crazy with my inclination is that he’s turning the corner.

We all know that once a player gets on a roll the bookmakers run for cover, but with Morrison I’m hopeful we might just beat them to the punch and there’s no way he’s a 175/1 shot on early season form.

At that price, he’s surely worth a small wager.

Personally, I rate Robert Kubica as the best racer in Formula 1, sadly in a slower car than his competitors. He’s rock solid and rarely makes mistakes, is near impossible to pass and he actually kind of reminds me of Schumacher in his prime, though, of course, at a lower level.

Massa, sadly, seems to have lost all his confidence. Recently he’s been mostly seen in the middle of the pack with no traffic just cruising around, and if I’m honest, he just doesn’t seem motivated to me. Doesn’t seem to enjoy life in the shadow of Fernando.

Now, stats. Kubica’s finishes so far, Q3 result in brackets;

Bahrain: 11 (9)
Australia: 2 (9)
Malaysia: 4 (6)
China: 5 (8)
Spain: 8 (7)
Monaco: 3 (2)
Turkey: 6 (7)
Canada: 7 (8)
Valencia: 5 (6)

So, he’s held his Q3 position or better in 6/9 races, and that lost place after quallifying as number 2 in Monaco is not a bad showing.

As for Massa;

Bahrain: 2 (2)
Australia: 3 (5)
Malaysia: 7 (21)
China: 9 (7)
Spain: 6 (9)
Monaco: 4 (4)
Turkey: 7 (8)
Canada: 15 (7)
Valencia: 11 (5)

Finished better than his Q3 in 4/9 races. Kubica has started ahead of Massa 4 times, and beaten him in three of those occasions. Kubica was one place behind Massa in China, Canada and Valencia, but beat him all three times. I think Massa is wrongly favourited by Sportingbet here – Kubica should win this imo.

Now, on to the races they’ve actually finished. Kobayashi has done well when finishing, 10th from position 12 in Spain, 10th from position 10 in Turkey, and recently a had a great race in Valencia, finishing 7th from position 18.

De la Rossa hasn’t been as impressive. 12th from position 14 in Australia doesn’t sound too bad, but it isn’t as impressive considering only 14 drivers finished. In Turkey he started 11th and ended 13th, and in Valencia he started 16th and ended 12th.

There have been two races they’ve both finished, Turkey and Valencia. Kobayashi started one place ahead of de la Rossa in Turkey, and held his spot while his Italian teammate fell down a couple of places. In Valencia, Kobayashi started two places behind, but still went on to beat him in 7th place, Rossa in 12th.

All in all I rate Kobayashi as a better driver, and when you add to the mix the high chance of technical failures in the Saubers, this one is pretty close to 50/50 imo.

Since its rebuilding in 2000, Silverstone has had first-round crashes in three races – ’08, ’06 and ’01. ’08 was a wet race, so that’s 2/9 races. Worth noting is that we now have more cars on the circuit, but my above stat proved that that doesn’t have to mean all too much – they survived in Monacco, right?

The first corner comes quickly at Silverstone, thus giving us lower speeds coming in and thus less chance of a crash. Furthermore, I doubt the drivers will be too keen on attacking the first corner as they know it won’t be a huge opportunity to pass.

As for the weather – expecting some sprinkles early in the morning (talking max. 0.4mm from 6AM – noon), but this should dry up quickly on the hot track, with the slight wind and the air temperature.

Last season Jenson Button arrived at the Northamptonshire track with a 26-point lead over his Brawn GP team-mate Rubens Barrichello – a yawning chasm under the old 10-points-for-a-win system.

But this time around 29 points is enough to cover the first five drivers in the championship, with 2008 Silverstone winner Lewis Hamilton currently setting the pace at the top of the table.

Hamilton’s McLaren team, who were scrapping at the back in last year’s race, are due to introduce a significant upgrade package for the rear of their car for this race, with suggestions abound that it could be worth up to half a second per lap.

A leap of that margin will certainly be sufficient to leapfrog the Red Bull as the fastest car in the field but their managing director Jonathan Neale has been keen to keep his expectations in check ahead of its introduction.

“I’m confident that we’ve got a reasonable performance step,” he said.

“Do I think we’ve got everything that we expected? Hard to tell at this stage, I’ll wait to see what the race drivers think. So Friday will be a testing day for us.”

With Red Bull improving at every race it’s far from certain that McLaren’s version of the RB6′s “blown diffuser” concept will be enough for the team to set the pace at a track where the Milton Keynes squad dominated last year.

Sebastian Vettel won that race comfortably from his team-mate Mark Webber and is a deserved favourite to repeat that success this time round given the speed Red Bull have shown to date.

Admittedly last month’s European Grand Prix could have turned out differently if Hamilton had not been handed a drive-through penalty for overtaking the safety car but Vettel would still have probably had enough margin to hold off the Englishman regardless.

And at a track which could have been designed specifically to show off the strengths of the Adrian Newey-designed Red Bull, we can expect to see Vettel or Webber at the front of the grid for the ninth time in 10 races.

The odds of 4/6 on a Red Bull taking another pole position look perfectly fair but dutching Vettel and Webber at industry-best prices gives us odds of a shade under 4/5.

The track has produced seven different winners in the last seven years but Vettel has a great chance of making himself odds-on to break that sequence by heading the grid at 7/4, while Webber has already taken four poles this season and simply looks too long at 4/1 to make it five.

Ferrari will also be in contention but the team were disappointed with their own blown diffuser package in Valencia – the modifications worked but McLaren and Red Bull also made crucial improvements and Fernando Alonso was left a frustrated eighth at the flag after losing out with the introduction of the safety car.

The F10 may be well-suited to the sweeping turns of Silverstone but the evidence points to it being a couple of tenths off the pace of the front two.

One team which may be able to compete with the Scuderia for the ‘best of the rest’ tag is the improving Williams squad.

Both their drivers qualified in the top nine in Valencia and Rubens Barrichello went on to finish a terrific fourth.

The car has come on leaps and bounds after a trying start to the season and the veteran Brazilian is just the man to drag the best from the FW32.

Barrichello always goes well at Silverstone – he’s finished on the podium in each of the last two years – so he looks overpriced at Blue Square’s 6/1 to take another top six finish.

Of the rest, perhaps Sebastian Buemi may also be worth keeping an eye on in the improving Toro Rosso.

We were keen on the Swiss driver earlier on in the season but had little luck when siding with him in the first few races.

But since then he has notched seven points in his last four outings and looked much more at ease with his machinery.

The neat STR5 still has plenty of Red Bull DNA in its chassis and so should go well round Silverstone.

He looks a little underrated to continue in his recent vein of form so we’ll risk jinxing him again and suggest a small bet on a points finish at Ladbrokes’ 10/3.

Winner of this group will be in top 6 in Argentina and my advice here is to place a bet on host.
In Italy 3 weeks ago it was draw. Both selections won one game 3-2!

Even Serbia didn’t manage to win France in Belgrade there were over 5 thousands supporters who like volleyball and make “7th man of the team”!
This game is most important of the season and it is expected over 5,000 people helping Serbia to make a victory.

With victory over France Serbia would be one step closer to the Final 6, but there is still 2nd chance against Italy.
Serbia will need to make victory with 3-0 (if possible) and then there would be space for some calculations in tomorrow rematch, also in Belgrade for winning 1st place in the group.
At the moment, Both selections are tied with score 8-2, but Italy lost 2 sets less.

In this match my prediction is Italy will not win over 1 set!

8/10 on Serbia -1.5 at 2.44 with Planet Pinnacle (Asian Handicap)