Tour Outsider: Buick Open

The US PGA Tour goes to the great summer state of Michigan for the Buick Open.

Let's look at the Golf CLi and see who the top 15 players are for the tournament ranked by the CLi figure.

Rank Player CLi 1 Jim Furyk 2.90 2 Kenny Perry 5.80 3 Scott Verplank 7.40 4 Sean O'Hair 9.10 5 Woody Austin 11.85 6 Richard S Johnson 12.00 7 Fred Funk 13.15 8 Brian Gay 16.30 9 Charles Warren 25.10 10 Heath Slocum 25.15 11 J.J. Henry 25.25 12 Stephen Leaney 29.90 13 Bob Tway 30.10 14 Billy Andrade 30.45 15 Rod Pampling 31.85

I am going to stick with the top 5 of the CLi.

The big question I had last week about Perry continuing his solid play was put to dirt when he finished in the top 15 at the Travelers Championship. So I am not going to pass on him this week as he is continuing to improve his game this year and he has played well in the Buick Open in the past. He won the tournament in 2001 and has placed no lower than 29th the past 6 times he has played in the tournament (he skipped the tournament in 2005).

I was also tempted to pick Funk over Austin. However, I think Austin has a slight edge over Funk in this tournament with his confidence and current energy level...but it will be close between these two veterans. Funk really wants to make the President's Cup this year, being 50 years old and all.

So the Tour Outsider picks for the Buick Open are:

Rank Player CLi 1 Jim Furyk 2.90 2 Kenny Perry 5.80 3 Scott Verplank 7.40 4 Sean O'Hair 9.10 5 Woody Austin 11.85

The Tour Insider's (Dave Shedloski) picks are:

• 1 Jim Furyk
• 2 Sean O'Hair
• 3 Scott Verplank
• 4 Jason Gore
• 5 John Daly

This week we have 3 players in common: Furyk, O'Hair, and Verplank. Those 3 players are the top 3 of the CLi as well.