I know what I said about walking away from golf betting but will always keep an eye out and if something presents itself then I will act accordingly, I just didn’t think it would happen so soon! I was chatting last week to someone about bio-rhythms and how I am a great believer in them though they can be neither proven nor disproven (very Hercule Poirot). I am not talking about golfers who perform year in year out at the same course/event but those who perform well in multiple events at the same time of year and Troy Merritt last week was a perfect example. It got my little grey cells working and combined with the fact that people of the same nationality often inspire each other (again – cannot be proven) after three Australians won last week I looked for one and tried to find other factors to support a theory about bio-rhythms and inspiration.
As many of you know I have always liked following the Champions Tour and particularly debutants and there is one who plays this week in the US Senior Open who turned 50 last week and had to come through a sectional qualifier. Australian Mark Hensby is possibly unknown to some but in his prime 15 years ago he was a damn good player before injury took over. His one PGA tour win – well it came in the John Deere Classic in this week back in 2004. The other big win in his career came the following year again in July on the European Tour in the Scandinavian Masters. He also won three times on the Korn Ferry Tour and guess what – two of those wins came in July. The last time he did anything of note was when taking 6th place in the Barbasol on the PGA Tour in 2015 – despite not really playing at all at the time – again it was July.
We have to remember this is a Major but thankfully Mickelson and Stricker are not playing but Hensby actually had a pretty good record in Majors back in the day. He only played in nine but was 3rd in a US Open at Pinehurst and 5th in the US Masters.
There is no course form to go on but they did play the US Senior Open here at Omaha in 2013 with Kenny Perry winning by five strokes – it maybe a minor point but Perry also won at Deere Run just as Hensby has done.
Make of it what you will – it’s all anecdotal and pure theory but how do you price it up? He has been playing all year mixing the odd PGA Tour start with the Korn Ferry Tour – missing the cut more often than not but he is fit and healthy. I really have no idea what price he should be – maybe anything from 40/1 to 150/1 – everyone is guessing, myself included, but I bet the bookmakers have not priced in the factors I have stated above. I have backed him at 125/1 and 150/1 each way, possibly anything in three figures is worth a crack.