Brooks Koepka the top tip at WGC-Cadillac Championship
Thursday 5 March 2015 14:19, UK
Ben Coley believes Brooks Koepka can upstage the likes of Rory McIlroy at the first WGC event of the season in Miami.
Rory McIlroy is Sky Bet’s Price Boost ahead of the WGC-Cadillac Championship at Trump National Doral.
Formerly known simply as ‘Doral’, this course underwent a multi-million pound revamp prior to last year’s renewal and it’s therefore significant that it was won by Patrick Reed, a player with no prior experience of the old layout.
With Justin Rose telling reporters that it was essentially a new golf course, the old formbook goes out the window and is replaced with last year’s leaderboard which saw Jamie Donaldson and Bubba Watson chase home the winner.
Watson is dangerous once more having won the last WGC in China and played well pretty much every week since. His big-hitting game is suited to a course which used to be nicknamed The Blue Monster and Bubba doubtless rates the strongest alternative to McIlroy.
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Rory could well bounce back from a rare missed cut last weekend, but his performance in the Honda Classic once again confirmed that he’s more vulnerable when the wind blows. It’s not expected to do so as strongly as last year, but this is Florida and the world number one will likely have to win a battle with the elements at some stage if he is to land a second WGC title.
All things considered, he’s worth taking on and I’ll do so with Brooks Koepka.
Born and raised in Florida, Koepka knows all about playing in the wind and while he finished down the field at PGA National, he did at least make the cut while firing a superb second-round 64 to demonstrate that his game remains in good shape.
Over the course of the last year he’s gone from wilting under pressure in Dubai to finishing fourth in the US Open, winning in Turkey and then securing a first PGA Tour title in Phoenix a month ago, a rate of progression which promises to continue throughout 2015.
Koepka hasn’t played in the event before but with the revamp in mind that’s not the negative it might have been while the importance of scoring on the par-fives is another factor in favour of this monstrously long 24-year-old, who has the confidence to take on anyone and come out on top.
Keegan Bradley is another big-hitter who thrives in tough conditions and he could show last year’s share of 50th here to be a one-off.
The former US PGA champion had previously gone well at Doral so while it’s possible that the changes to the course simply don’t suit, he has to be worth another chance on the strength of his excellent record when faced with a genuinely difficult test.
Bradley was fourth just two weeks ago at Riviera and only missed the cut last week because of a series of missed putts late on in round two, so his recent form is pretty solid and we know from what he’s achieved already that he will relish the challenge.
A WGC winner to go with that major title, these are the events to support Keegan in and at around the 50/1 mark he’s good value.
Of the European raiders, there’s no reason to think that Donaldson can’t go well again after he figured in the Honda while Paul Casey’s form is as good as anyone’s at the moment.
However, those looking for a speculative top-10 bet could do worse than consider Joost Luiten.
The Dutchman has had less golf than most so far this season so should be fresh and his 13th place in this event last year was a fine effort on debut, particularly following an opening 76.
Last week he closed out nicely to finish 11th and another step forward could well see him shake-up the better-fancied players as he continues to improve.
