In Mexico, he missed cut by two shots following up a poor first round of 75 with a 67. 46th in Bermuda followed having been inside the top 25 after three rounds there. He followed that with a 53rd placed finish in Spain shooting 69-70-69-69. Four starts ago he wasn't disgraced finishing 27th in the Dunhill Links finishing 4th in approach play. A seaside track suits Donald as we've seen with his excellent record at Harbour Town. Granted this is one that is highly unlikely to pay off but I feel if there's any life in the old dog yet it'll be on a shorter course where he can get hot with the putter.
I'm prepared to take a flyer on Luke Donald this week around the 300/1 mark.
The Sony Open win is another boost to his chances and this is one of the tastier prices I've seen in a while. He is a fast starter and it seems like you need it around here. Henley held the second-round lead here back in 2014 and in his last 11 Thursdays on the tour, he has managed three first-round leads with four other top 15 finishes. It's also worth noting in the past 5 years here we have had two wire-to-wire winners and the round one position of the other three were 3rd, 5th and 8th. He has twice finished inside the top 6 here in seven efforts and looks primed for a winning effort sooner rather than later. The flat stick often causes a problem but I'm hoping he found something last week ranking 12th in the field. There are not many players in the world hitting the ball better than Henley and last week saw his best week on the greens since his 3rd place finish at the Honda back in March this year. His around the green work has been solid also which is important around the Seaside track. Lately, his approach play has been on fire finishing 1-2-19 in that department in each of his last three starts. Henley is winless since 2017 remarkably despite producing some sparkling golf over large periods of time throughout the past four years or so. There is one standout selection for me this week and it's Russell Henley. A nod to performance at other coastal tracks is another angle to consider before placing our bets. Distance is never usually a huge asset to have here, instead keeping it in play with a sharp short game will be enough to keep tabs on the top. Not one particular aspect of the game stands out here at Sea Island but it usually takes a neat and tidy game to contend with the wind off the coast. Plenty are based here or have practised here at some point and there are usually a handful of those towards the top of the leaderboard come the final few days. The easier of the two (Plantation) is used for one round whilst the tricker Seaside track makes up the remaining three. Played over the two tracks as usual in Sea Island we have the Seaside and Plantation courses. The curtain comes down on the main 2021 schedule on the PGA Tour this weekend and the RSM Classic is a fine way to end the show.