AT&T Pebble Beach Invitational Preview

The fact that this week's AT&T Pebble Beach Invitational is to be contested over three different courses, two of them the shortest on the US PGA Tour, makes picking a winner a little tricky.

And yes, this despite the fact that our experts at Golf Weather.com tell us we can expect the full four rounds to be played in fine, 4-star weather with no rain, no more than gentle sea breezes and moderate temperatures not expected to exceed 20 degrees centigrade

The shortest courses? Well, believe it or not, the iconic par-72 Pebble Beach Golf Links, regarded by many as the premier public championship course in all of the Americas and host of five US Opens, is the Tour's shortest at just 6 816 yards with the Monterey Peninsula Country Club's Shore Course, the second of the three in use this week, a close second at 6,867 yards.

Spyglass Hill, which is also owned by the Pebble Beach resort empire, is the third venue and is a 6 953-yard par 72 course, which is also reckoned to be the hardest of this week's trio, although the Pebble Beach Links has never been a pushover either. No course that has staged as many US Opens as this one could possibly be a pushover - unless, of course, it is played from the forward tees.

In spite of these facts, it is not really ironical that both the bookies and the pundits have singled out Jimmy Walker, one of the game's longest hitters off the tees, as one of their top favourites for the Pebble Beach battle. I don't think they had any other option.

Most bookmakers on Tuesday had him as their joint favourite at 7/1 with Jason Day, who bounced back from injury last Sunday to win the Farmers Insurance Open at Torrey Pines South in a swashbuckling fashion that suggested he might go further in the majors this year than the second place he has too often been consigned to in the past.

Expecting a back-to-back victory this week might seem to be asking too much of the 28-year-old Australian, yet the bookies and respected pundits like Rob Bolton of pgatour.com have, nevertheless, ranked Day as their second favourite behind Walker.

Walker, this week's defending champion, already a runner-up and a winner this season, the current FedEx Cup leader and significantly a 7th-place finisher on Sunday, has given his backers every good reason to be the overall favourite, but both he and Day will have to be on top of their games to hold off talented and ambitious US young guns of the calibre of Patrick Reed and 21-year Jordan Spieth.

Dustin Johnson, returning from what might be termed a somewhat mysterious sabbatical, will surely be watched very carefully by his rivals for here is another big hitter with a strong affinity for Pebble Beach and its surrounds, the tall 30-year-old from South Carolina having already won the Pebble Beach Invitational twice and finished second to Graeme McDowell in the 2009 US Open on the same course.

The Bookies clearly like him as a possible winner. Along with Reed they've made him their joint-fourth favourite at 16-1.

England's Ian Poulter, a 50/1 shot along with Irishman Shane Lowry, might be Europe's best hope of breaking the American domination of the PGA Tour this year.

He had to settle for 19th place at Torrey Pines last week after closing with 74, but he comes to the US fresh from a solo second in the Turkish Airways Open and a joint 6th place in China and might just be the man to upset the Americans.

Mind you with a host of talented young hopefuls continuously finding their way onto the US PGA Tour and golfing icons like Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson out of the picture right now and new World No 1 Rory McIlroy, still to play in the US this season,  you can never be quite sure of anything anymore. 

Top 15 Pebble Beach Odds

These were Bet365's leading Pebble Beach odds on Tuesday afternoon.

Jason Day 7/1
Jimmy Walker 15/2
Jordan Spieth 14/1
Dustin Johnson 16/1
Patrick Reed 16/1
Brandt Snedeker 25/1
Ryan Palmer 25/1
Hunter Mahan 25/1
Chris Kirk 33/1
Nick Watney 33/1
Graham DeLaet 33/1
Jim Furyk 35/1
J B Holmes 40/1
Kevin Na 45/1
Billy Horschel 50/1

NOTE: For all the bookies odds, you should go to oddschecker.com and click on golf.

For any feedback or ideas you are welcome to email: neville@golfweather.com.