Darts and Long Term Golf...

Very little to go on today so I'll give you my tip for the day then look at a couple of long-term bets that have been brought to my attention.

7.45 Co Stompe to beat Brian Woods 10/11 (LOST 4-2 +14.03 - when he checked out with a 170 to go 2-2 I thought Co had finally found his aim, but he capitulated thereafter and heads home)
Stompe is a man I like and I expect the postman to deliver again. He had a 3-dart average of over 90 in the first round (not up to the best of the PDC, but good enough in BDO), and he could be worth an e/w bet to win the whole thing at 20/1 as he does score heavily and will get the full support of the Dutch travelling fans. Woods also averaged over 90 but had probably his best night ever with doubles - he could have thrown them left handed and they still would have gone in the way he was going on. So I expect Stompe to progress.


Ryder Cup
September sees the one golf competition everyone enjoys watching, and after winning the last 3, Europe are favourites again. But this is back on US soil, and with Faldo as captain I don't see this team having the same spirit as recent times. No doubt the US are better man for man, and on their home patch 5/4 seems too good to miss, and I'd expect them to be favourites come the off. I'll be there all week to give you as much info from the course as I can!

US Tour Money List w/o Woods
Tiger will sweep all before him again so the market to look at in the US is without him. Mickelson, Furyk and Singh are the obvious big names but with time catching up on the first two it is time to look beyond them for real value. Lefty played more tournaments (22) last season than the previous three, but made less cuts and had less top 10 and top 25 finishes. Vijay's cut making is consistently high - 25 from 27 in last two seasons, but his top 10s has fallen from 18 in 2004 to 7 last year, and top 25s from 24 to 16. Furyk has only missed 2 or 3 cuts in the last 3 seasons, but Top 10s has gone 10-13-8 and Top 25s 14-19-16. The man on the up is Steve Stricker. He had 9 Top 10 finishes from 23 starts last season, and 14 Top 25s, both up over 25% on the previous season, and he started this season well finishing second in a playoff at the weekend. He was 4th last season, just $65,000 behind Singh who was 3rd, and $500,000 ahead of Furyk who is 5/1. Stricker's price? 16/1. And with each way paying 1/4 odds for the first three, this has to be snapped up.

Thanks must go to Big Davie for alerting me to the latter's price!