Nationwide

Dayton Open

The first time that plays have been offered for the Buy.com Tour and thanks to Camelot Sportsbook for the opportunity! This is the 3rd staging of the Dayton Open and it is not one in which the defending champion will be playing. Both Ian Leggatt and the player he defeated in the playoff, Chris Smith, graduated to the PGA Tour and are playing in the Buick Classic instead.

The six-year old course is unusual in that it is the only public course on the Buy.com Tour and it opens and closes with par-fives. As the course compatibility stats show, length is a big advantage on this course. Also beneficial is a fade as the dogleg fairways were designed to play from left to right. The Bentgrass greens are large and as descried by golfcourse.com, they are the outstanding features of this course.

72-hole plays:

Matt Peterson to beat Brenden Pappas -120 @ Camelot
Both have had a couple of top-3 finishes this season, but Pappas' season has rather slumped since he finished 3rd behind his brother in the Virginia Beach Open. He has missed three cuts in the four events since then, with just a 25th place in the Canadian PGA Championship of note. In that time, Peterson has finished 2nd in the Steamtown Classic and was 31st last year. Having also played this course in each of the last two years, which Pappas has not, he gets the nod in this matchup

Jeff Gove to beat Stan Utley -110 @ Camelot
Similar contrast in terms of form with this matchup. Utley finished 5th at the Charity Pro-Am at The Cliffs and was 22nd last week at the Greater Cleveland Open, but he has missed the cut in 14 of his last 19 events. Gove for his part has finished 5th and 13th in his last three events, all this month, and comes into the event with much higher expectations of playing at the weekend

Adding:

Emlyn Aubrey to beat Bob Lohr -120 @ Camelot [3 units]
Basically a very strong play against Lohr who has missed 17 cuts in 19 events on the Buy.com Tour in the past twelve months. Aubrey has not had a great season since losing playing rights on the PGA Tour, but has a much better record of making the weekend and much better stats than Lohr

Update:

Two of three plays are decided at the cut, but it is not good news. Peterson did beat Pappas by seven shots, but the biggest play of the week was the closes and it ended in a one-shot defeat for Aubrey. He managed to convert a five-shot overnight lead to a two-shot deficit when they came back this morning to complete the first round. Thereafter Lohr shot his lowest round for three years and sealed the victory with a birdie at the last. Great match, just wrong result! In the remaining play, Gove trails Utley by three shots.

Final update: 2-1-0 and -1.60 units for the week

Gove defeated Utley by three shots in the final matchup. A loss on the week, but as that was the result of a one-shot defeat on one important play, not too discouraging a week. Should makes amends in Knoxville next week