The PGA Tour makes its final California stop of the early season starting Thursday at historic Riviera Country Club outside of Los Angeles for the Northern Trust Open – Place your PGA golf bets at WagerWeb.com.

Riviera has played host to three major championships and a U.S. Senior Open and being in the shadows of Hollywood gained fame as the club of choice for movie stars. Scenes from several movies were shot there.

Tiger Woods is not playing this week, but 26 of the Top-50 ranked players in the world are assembled as Aaron Baddeley is defending his title. Also in the field is last week’s Pebble Beach winner Phil Mickelson, along with world No. 1 Luke Donald, who will be making his American debut as he tries to again win both the PGA and European Tour money titles. Also in the field are big names like Sergio Garcia, Ernie Els, Adam Scott, Dustin Johnson, Rickie Fowler, Matt Kuchar, Brandt Snedeker, Geoff Ogilvy and Bubba Watson. Oh, and Kyle Stanley is also playing – he leads the PGA Tour money list and early FedEx Cup standings.

Lefty is the +700 WagerWeb.com favorite to win this week off his incredibly impressive performance in the final round to win at Pebble Beach. Phil was bogey-free on Sunday to become the ninth member of the PGA Tour 40-win club. Mickelson is the all-time money leader at Riviera and a two-time winner (2008, 2009). Also second here in 2007.

Donald, the WagerWeb.com second favorite at +1400, missed two cuts last year in his breakthrough season, and one was in his season opener at Riviera. In all, however, he’s perfect for this track, where length is not the central tool. In five of his last seven starts here, has been T13 or better.

Dustin Johnson (+2000 at WagerWeb.com) held the 18-hole lead a week ago and finally appears healthy. Johnson missed the cut here last year but shared third in 2010 and 10th in 2009. Baddeley is +2500 to repeat. And he played well last week at Pebble with a fourth-place finish.

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With many of the top Europeans headed for the United States and next week’s big WGC-Match Play event (or playing this week at the Northern Trust Open), it’s a big of a watered-down field for this week’s European Tour event, the Avantha Masters in New Delhi, India.
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Defending tournament champion SSP Chowrasia, the only Indian to have won two European Tour titles in the last four years, is ready to add to that total and join Jeev Milkha Singh and Arjun Atwal as the only Indians to have won three titles on European Tour, when the Avantha Masters tees up on Thursday.

The field also includes former major champions Todd Hamilton and John Daly, as well as former world No. 1 amateur Peter Uihlein.

Chowrasia, 33,  triumphed by one shot over England’s Robert Coles last year to claim his second European Tour title following his victory in the Indian Masters in 2008, when he became the first player to win on his debut appearance as an affiliate member.

Both victories came in the Indian capital New Delhi, the first at Delhi Golf Club and last season at DLF Golf and Country Club, and he returns to the latter to defend his title in a confident mood.

“I’ve been practicing hard and I’m feeling really good,” said Chowrasia. “I’ve done a bit of work on my swing over the off-season and it’s paying off. I’m feeling very confident about my game.”

Thailand’s Thongchai Jaidee (+2600 to win on WagerWeb.com) is targeting a return to his best form at the Avantha Masters after recovering from injury. The 42 year old’s last victory came on the Asian Tour in 2010, but in 2011 he was plagued by back problems and the closest he came to victory was at the Indonesian Masters, where he was second behind Lee Westwood. He is now nearing full fitness, however.

“I had a back injury after the Avantha Masters last year and that didn’t help my season,” he said. “But I’m confident this year will be a better year compared to 2011. My fitness level is about 85 to 90% now as I’ve been putting in more hours in the gym and that has helped.”

The most recent European Tour winner in the field is Dutchman Joost Luiten, who having knocked on the door a few times towards the end of 2011, eventually picked up his first title at the Iskandar Johor Open. Luiten is the +1400 favorite this week at WagerWeb.com.

Also in the field is 2010 winner Andrew Dodt, who made the Avantha Masters his maiden title when he birdied two of the last three holes in the final round to edge out Englishman Richard Finch by a single stroke.

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It’s Super Bowl weekend so that means the PGA Tour makes its annual stop in Scottsdale for the Waste Management Phoenix Open, the biggest “party” on the circuit every year. In fact, if you can only go see one tournament in person each year that isn’t a major, go sit at the 16th hole at this event. It’s quite rowdy!

This will be the 74th edition of the Phoenix Open, which started in 1932 at the TPC of Scottsdale, the site of the tournament since 1987. The first two years the tournament was played as the Arizona Open, then took its present name in 1935. The only older tournaments on the PGA Tour are the British Open (1860), U.S. Open (1895), Western Open (1899), Canadian Open (1904), PGA Championship (1916), Texas Open (1922) and the Nissan Open (1926), After seven years of having FBR as its sponsor, money problems prevented the company to continue its sponsorship and in 2009 Waste Management signed a six year sponsorship deal, thus allowing FBR to end its commitment a year early.

Tiger Woods isn’t in the field this week and most of the top Europeans are still overseas, but it’s a strong field. This week 15 of the Top-50 of the world rankings will play. Eight of them are from the Top-25: #6 Webb Simpson, #9 Dustin Johnson, #12 Matt Kuchar, #15 Brandt Snedeker, #16 Phil Mickelson, #21 Ian Poulter, #22 Bill Haas and #24 Bubba Watson. Next are the seven players between 26 and 50 in the rankings. Keegan Bradley, Bo Van Pelt, Martin Laird, Rickie Fowler, Jason Dufner, Mark Wilson and Aaron Baddeley.

Wilson, who already has won in 2012, is the defending champion, having beaten Jason Dufner in a Monday playoff last year. He is +2600 on WagerWeb.com PGA golf bets to repeat. After winning the Humana Challenge, there’s no reason to think he can’t contend in another shootout here.

The favorite is Simpson at +900. First start since a T38 at the Sony Open. Started the year with a T3 at Kapalua. Hasn’t gone consecutive starts without a top 10 since June. Had only one two-event stretch without a top 20 in all of 2011. Shared eighth place here last year.

The second-favorite is Scotland’s Martin Laird at +950. He opened 2012 with a solo second at Kapalua, then tied for 14th at the Humana where he hit 14 greens in regulation in every round. Shared third place at last year’s WMPO, playing his final 30 holes in bogey-free 12-under.

Brandt Snedeker, who won last week, and Matt Kuchar are next at +1100 on WagerWeb.com. And then there’s Phil Mickelson at +1500. He hasn’t played very well the past two weeks, missing the cut at Torrey Pines a week ago. But he has played this tournament, which is basically held in his backyard, a whopping 22 times and has won it twice.

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World No. 2 Lee Westwood heads a stellar field as the European Tour stays in the Middle East this week for the Commercialbank Qatar Masters. Westwood is the +400 PGA golf bets favorite to win on WagerWeb.com.

The 38-year-old Westwood will be making his seventh consecutive appearance in his bid to win the title for the first time and improve on his previous best finishes of fifth in 2008 and third in 2010. Westwood was 17th last week in Abu Dhabi.

Young Spaniard Alvaro Quiros is one to watch at +1200 PGA golf bets on WagerWeb.com this week. After wrapping up 2011 in stunning style at the Dubai World Championship last month, the “Desert King” returns to the scene of his 2009 Commercialbank Qatar Masters victory confident of taking that form into the new campaign.

The Middle East has become a happy hunting ground for the 28 year-old with three of his six European Tour titles having been won in the Gulf, including that triumph at Doha Golf Club three years ago. And having finished runner-up on each of his last two visits to the $2.5 million tournament, Quiros might be a smart bet.

“I think the golf courses in Qatar and the UAE suit my style of play,” said Quiros, one of the biggest hitters in the world game.  “Obviously it’s sunny and I like to play in the heat. Also most of the time in the Middle East – especially Qatar – we play the greens firm and quick, so it’s a bigger advantage if you are hitting short clubs, as I normally do if I’m able to hit the driver well from the tee.”

Defending champion Thomas Bjorn is back this year and is +1000 to repeat. The Great Dane stormed to a four shot victory over Quiros last year in what was the 14th edition of the event. The triumph in Qatar proved a catalyst for Björn’s most lucrative season since the year 2000, going on to secure back-to-back titles in late summer at the Johnnie Walker Championship and Omega European Masters, en route to a ninth place finish in the 2011 Race to Dubai.

After struggling somewhat in the latter stages of last season, Björn marked a welcome return to form in Abu Dhabi last week, shooting rounds of 7 under par and 4 under par over the weekend to finish in a tie for third place with Tiger Woods and Graeme McDowell, and the 13-time European Tour winner will be looking to go two better this week in Doha and retain his 2011 crown.

There are only a handful of Americans playing this week. Hunter Mahan (+1400) will be making his first appearance at the Qatar Masters. Mahan, the winner of two PGA Tour events, is one of a contingent of six Americans in the field in Qatar, including major champions Todd Hamilton, Ben Curtis, Shaun Micheel and John Daly.

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