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That age old phrase among golfers "driving´s for show, putting´s for dough" springs to mind as a cracking field that includes Sergio Garcia and Padraig Harrington gathers in Kent this week.

A Bodog insider played the Ash course just two weeks ago and declared it a very easy test for professional golfers from tee-to-green. Which means we can expect to see an absolute birdie barrage from Europe´s elite, or in other words a "putting contest".

Titled the European Open, the event sees the current Players´s Champion Garcia and reigning Open Champion Harrington lock horns for the first time on British soil since their nerve-jangling Carnoustie duel. But we don´t fancy either of them to win this.

Instead have a squint at a couple …

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Not only is Tiger Woods the greatest player the game has ever seen, he´s also a pretty fine actor. Injured knee? Pull the other one mate. All those winces and feigning agony whenever he played a shot at Torrey Pines were pure illusion.

And oh how everyone seems to have bought it. But not us at Bodog Beat.

Had there been the slightest chance Woods´s "injury" would have lowered his chances of winning the US Open there is absolutely no way he would have teed off. Tiger is a perfectionist you see.

Next time Woods plays a shot out of a bunker, make a note of the song and dance he makes about sand going in his eyes, as if blinded by tear …

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With dense six inch long rough framing the fairways and the fastest greens the players face all year it´s never a surprise to see level par win the season´s second Major – the US Open. Angel Cabrera´s 5 over was enough to see the Argentinian win at Oakmont in 2007.

Torrey Pines, outside San Diego, hosts this year´s renewal and there is no reason to believe that the scoring will be much lower. The venue, which plays host to early spring´s Buick Invitational, has been extended to a mammoth 7,643 yards - the longest in US Open history - which should help us narrow down our punting portfolio.

Purists will argue that straight hitters, who keep things nice and tidy like …

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It is called the US Open, but is it really? Open, we mean? Given Tiger Woods’ steely grip on golf in general and the Majors in particular, the PGA might be best advised to think about renaming this tournament. But this year, all those Tiger hunters have reason for renewed confidence; Woods is struggling.

The great one has clearly not been at his best this season – no other player in the world would consider finishing joint second in the US Masters a disaster, other than Woods, who did – and it’s mainly because of a knee problem. Tiger’s left knee is not in great shape and he’s barely played a full round since an operation. That was only a …

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Two weeks ago I paid a painter 220 quid in advance to paint the front of my house. He started it and then naffed off leaving the job half done. I´m not sure what´s worse. Being stuck with a half painted house or the feeling that he has played me for a fool. I paid this bloke in good faith and he let me down.

There is a parallel to be drawn between my experience with the painter and having what I would term a bad bet. I backed a golfer to win his three-ball a couple of weeks ago. Monitoring his progress on the internet I noted that he started his round by bogeying the opening par 5 that …

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Golf punters are on red alert with the latest news that Tiger Woods is struggling to make next week´s US Open. It seems Woods could be losing the battle of wounded knee and never shy to profit from the great man´s misfortune there is a handful of players primed to take advantage.

First up is Phil Mickelson who Bodog quote at 8/1 to win the season´s second Major. San Diego resident Mickelson lives just down the road from the Torrey Pines course and knows it like the back of his hand. The man they refer to as Lefty has won the Buick Invitational - sponsor of the Torrey Pines event - three times.

With course toughness expected to reach an all-time high …

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When Tiger Woods talks about rehab he doesn’t mean in the Amy Winehouse sense of the word. He means getting his knackered left knee back into shape in time for next month’s US Open. Woods has been out of action since his second place finish in the Masters in April. He had surgery on the troublesome knee for the third time and said:

"Rehab is working. It’s been boring, but the leg is starting to gain some strength. I’m not a patient kind of guy when it comes to that."

We know, as the world number one said he would wipe the floor with the opposition for the rest of 2008, OK so he held three titles at the same time …

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We love John Daly. Besides being the most talented golfer in the world (if he practised as much as Tiger Woods he´d be too good for anyone), he´s also a blinding songwriter too.

One of his best songs is called "All My Exes Wear Rolexes" on account of previous wives who have taken him to the cleaners. Most men would be battled scarred for life but Long John soldiers on.

He´s hit the headlines this week for a public spat with nauseating American golf coach-cum-pundit Butch Harmon.

Harmon, who along with the rest of the sycophants on the Sky Sports golf team consistently subject viewers to a painful periods of old boy network back slapping, recently sacked Daly over suspicions of heavy …

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Golf´s "fifth Major" gets underway this week as the world´s best duke it out for Players Championship at Sawgrass.

Tiger Woods misses the event as he recuperates from knee ligament surgery but the great man hasn´t experienced a great strike rate on the tricky Pete Dye designed layout with only one win here in 2001.

This is very much a course for thinkers. And with that in mind the Beat golf team has been pouring through the form book in the hope of landing this year´s winner. Neat and tidy 2006 Players Champion Stephen Ames is available at tasty odds and is well worth investment. Ames usually saves his best performances for courses with Bermuda grass greens and his record in Florida (where most …

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