Appleby is a match for Stricker

In the mass of betting opportunities on the Masters this week, one to take the eye is Paddy Power’s offer of evens about Stuart Appleby beating Steve Stricker in a tournament match bet.

Appleby comes here in good form, having made five top-ten finishes in the eight tournaments he has played this year. He has missed the cut just once and boasts a scoring average of 69.8.

More than that, though, he has proved he has the game to cope with the demands of Augusta. He took a one-stroke lead into the final round a year ago - only to get off to a dreadful start to the final 18 with a double-bogey at the first.

He faded into a tie for seventh, but that was a sound performance after a tied-nineteenth the previous year.

Stricker starts favourite at 4-5 against Appleby for the purposes of the bet, and though he too has enjoyed a solid start to the term — four top-tens in nine outings — he has not found Augusta a particularly happy place.

Indeed, Stricker admitted this week that he had never putted that well at Augusta, and it is also worth noting that this year Stricker’s overall putting average is slightly worse than Appleby’s - 28.9 putts per round to Appleby’s 28.3.

The key to the bet, though, is Stricker’s sketchy efforts on the Augusta greens - last year he missed the cut by four shots with a putting  average of 30.5.

  Expect Appleby to benefit unless there is a big improvement from Stricker.