Durant - headline pick.

By Dave Tindall

Sky Bet's Odds Compare All Prices

BETTING BOX
FIXED ODDS
	1pt e.w. Joe Durant at 40/1 (General 1/4 1,2,3,4,5).	Excellent record in this event and Florida in general. Ticks current form box too.
	1pt e.w. Chad Campbell at 40/1 (General 1/4 1,2,3,4,5).	Former runner-up here and course really suits his game. In solid form.
	1pt e.w. Matt Jones at 80/1 (General 1/4 1,2,3,4,5).	Aussies play well in Florida and Jones has hit the ground running in first season on Tour.
	1pt e.w. Rod Pampling at 80/1 (General 1/4 1,2,3,4,5).	Two top six finishes here and has shot 65 three times. Putter hotted up at Match Play.
	1pt e.w. Ryuji Imada at 75/1 (bet365 1/4 1,2,3,4,5).	Looks a winner waiting to happen after a second and a fifth this year.

After ending his win drought, Ernie Els is a general 8/1 to score a quick follow-up in this week's PODS Championship at the Copperhead course in Tampa Bay.

The South African opened the 2003 US Tour season with back-to-back wins in the Mercedes Championship and Sony Open so there is a precedent.

And on a course which undulates and where wind is a strong factor - conditions which suit Els - he will have his backers.

Els was sixth the last time he teed it up here in 2006 but even with his obvious credentials he's not for me at 8/1.

There is plenty of quality in this field and I expect a week of consolidation from the Big Easy rather than another big title challenge.

Justin Rose finished well last week and is second favourite at 20/1 but he's still yet to win on the US Tour - something worth remembering when he's priced up around this mark.

Instead I will turn to a course specialist for my opening pick.

Joe Durant is always someone to bear in mind in his home state of Florida and he's got a particularly good record here with top fives in 2006, 2004 and 2000.

Second in ball-striking in 2008 - a key asset around this course on past results - Durant comes into the event this year in extremely solid form.

He's posted top 20s in four of his last five starts and has only finished outside the top 40 in one of his last 10 US Tour events.

Durant won in Florida as recently as October 2006 and the 40/1 seems very fair.

His long game will create plenty of birdie chances and if he takes his share he should make a strong push for the title.

Chad Campbell always relishes a course where his ball-striking can come to the fore and bermuda greens are good for him too.

He gets those conditions at Copperhead and it's no surprise to see that he's thrived here several times before.

Campbell was fourth here in 2003, runner-up in 2005 and also made the top 20 the following year.

Since returning to the winners' circle in the Viking Classic in September, he's held his form very well and banked his fifth top 20 in eight starts last week.

He's fifth on the All-Around ranking this season and crucially his putting stats are strong too.

Campbell finished 162nd in Putting Average in 2007 and 143rd in 2006 but this year he's 24th.

Add that to his strong tee to green game which serves him so well at this course and he looks to have excellent credentials. Take the 40/1.

The mix of bermuda greens and wind are familiar to the Tour's Aussie contingent and four of their number made the top seven at last week's Honda Classic.

Of that quartet, the one I'm going to follow is Matt Jones.

Jones was a four-time runner-up on the Nationwide Tour last season - a record - and has made an excellent start to his rookie campaign on the full Tour with just one finish outside of the top 29 in six starts.

He stepped it up with a fourth place in the Honda last week and is clearly brimming with confidence.

This is Jones' fourth year in America and he says he now feels extremely comfortable.

Plenty of his rivals this week were foes from the Nationwide Tour so with a lack of superstars in the field he should be very much in his comfort zone.

Analyst Johnny Miller doesn't hand out praise without good cause and was extremely taken by Jones' swing so follow the in-form Aussie at 80s.

A second Aussie, Rod Pampling, also makes it into the staking plan at the same price.

Pampling plays this course very well and in four visits he's managed a fourth and a sixth.

A closer look at his round scores shows that he's shot 65 on three separate occasions and that's some going on a tricky course which doesn't yield low scores easily.

Pampling is a winner in Florida having won at Bay Hill two seasons ago and the only concern we have is a lack of real current form.

He's missed his last two strokeplay cuts but in the World Match Play he made it to the last 16 and played some decent stuff.

Explaining the current state of his game, Pampling revealed: "I've been playing really solid golf for over a year now and no results; the putter has been really bad.

"But we hit a lot of great putts this week. So forwards now."

If Pampling has sorted out his problems on the greens then he's well equipped - 12th in Driving Accuracy and 8th in Total Driving - to play well here again. Snap up the 80s.

Finally, I like the look of Florida-based Japanese Ryuji Imada.

Now this is a player who takes his birdie chances (fourth in Birdie Average, third in Birdie or Better Conversion %) and a hot putter has twice put him in the frame in 2008.

He finished runner-up to Tiger Woods in the Buick Invitational back in January and last time out was tied fifth in the Northern Trust Open at Riviera.

Imada plays better on tougher courses and only two players have finished double digits under par in the last three years at this venue.

Two years ago Imada shot a combined five-under-par over the final three rounds to finish tied 13th. These days he looks like a winner waiting to happen so if his excellent short game flourishes again this could be his time.

Get stuck into bet365's tasty 75/1.