We’re not sure if Brandt Snedeker has a mean streak, but we do know it wasn’t a bad time to have a rib injury. Moving house is a stressful time, but not so much when your spouse has to do all the heavy lifting while you sit on a couch following doctor’s orders not to lift a finger.

Having spent the last five weeks in Nashville watching his poor wife carry all the boxes, Snedeker, who hasn’t played since sustaining a rib muscle strain en route to his victory at the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am, makes his return in the Arnold Palmer Invitational on Thursday.

That victory meant he had finished in the top three in four of his five starts this season.

But even he admits he will struggle to match the stroke-play of Tiger Woods, who shot a victorious 19-under-par at Doral last weekend.

“I am not playing anywhere near as well as Tiger Woods is right now,” said Snedeker on Tuesday.

And it appears the layers are running scared of Eldrick as well, as Woods is available to back at 4.1, with the rest of the field, headed by Justin Rose, 19 points bigger or more.

Snedeker feels those odds are perfectly fair, given Woods’ impressive last outing. “He’s hitting it where he looks,” said Snedeker. “His iron play is sharp. You don’t shoot his number at Doral without being sharp. That was pretty unbelievable.”

Woods will seek to defend his title at the Bay Hill Club and Lodge and earn an eighth victory here on the final leg of the Florida swing. In fact, he’s won here seven times in 12 years, last year beating Graeme McDowell by five shots. If he wins on Sunday, Woods will knock Rory McIlroy off the No.1 spot. He had dropped as far as No.58, but started playing well again in 2012, reaching the No.2 sport with his run at the FedEx Cup Championship at the end of the season. McIlroy has held the top spot for 39 weeks, but Woods is closing in.

The field at Bay Hill has increased from 120 to 132 players. Included in this expanded field will be seven of the top 10 and 24 of the top 30 from the current FedExCup rankings, and nine of the top 15 in the world golf rankings.

This par 72, 7,419 yards course is one of the more difficult on the PGA Tour. Difficult for all but Woods, that it. It was one year ago this week that Woods won the Arnold Palmer Invitational for his first PGA victory in 30 months. And he’s coming here on the back of two wins in three stroke-play starts and it is already starting to look like one of those seasons where he reels of win after win. He’s playing ‘Tiger Golf’, his swagger is back – and he’s got a new girlfriend, top US skier Lindsey Vonn.

This week, Woods will look to close in on Sam Snead’s record 82 wins on Tour. No one would be surprised if win No. 77 came for Woods at Bay Hill. And Jack Nicklaus’s record is now firmly back in play for the 37-year-old, who has been stuck on 14 majors since he won the 2008 U.S. Open.

Past champions of this tournament who will tee it up this week aside from Woods (2000-03, 2008-09, 2012), include Mickelson (1997), Tim Herron (1999), Chad Campbell (2004), Rod Pampling (2006), Vijay Singh (2007), Ernie Els (2010) and Martin Laird (2011).

Mickelson certainly looks the pick of that pack. He has a win and a third-place finish in six total tournaments this season but the one-time winner hasn’t cracked the top 20 in any of his last five trips to Bay Hill. He is in good form, however, having a T3 two weeks ago at Doral. Lefty’s 20th ranking in Greens In Regulation (GIR) and 13th in adjusted scoring means he cannot be ruled out at odds of 24.0.

Don’t expect a first-time winner. While 2013 has been the year to break the duck, of the 33 first-timers who have played at Bay Hill in the past four years, only Bud Cauley can claim a top 10 finish.

The course’s length plays a major part but it is the undulating, fast Bermuda grass greens that find many inexperienced players out. Freshening winds are expected at the weekend and this could make it difficult to get close to the hole in regulation.

So who are men most likely to go hunting Tiger come Sunday? Here’s our top trio to follow:

garciaSergio Garcia @ 24.0
The Spaniard is playing some excellent golf in 2013 and his tie for seventh at Copperhead means that he has now recorded 13 straight top-25 finishes around the world. He recorded a top 15 finish at the Northern Trust Open and a top five at the Cadillac Championship. He also has the game for this course, finishing in the top 10 six times at Bay Hill. He’s been hitting fairways and greens with unnerving regularity (3rd and 6th respectively at Copperhead) and his putting game has held up well. Should he win, you won’t be able to say it hasn’t been coming.

Graeme McDowell @ 27.0
Second in this event last year (also runner-up in 2005) and tied third in his last start at the Cadillac Championship, golf’s newest restaurant owner will doubtless have his supporters. Look for the Northern Irishman to go well again this week.

Bubba Watson @ 34.0
America’s biggest hitter led the field in distance off the tee and ranked 5th in GIR when he finished fourth at Bay Hill last year. He went on to win the Masters shortly after, so the result here might offer a clue to Augusta next month. He seems to have overcome his early-season health issues and was swinging better at Doral.

Tournament Match Bets
Jim Furyk to beat Hunter Mahan
Furyk has played well in 2013 (coming off a T-7 in Tampa) and has three straight top 11s at Bay Hill. He is a grinder whose only problem seems to be closing out on the final day.

Justin Rose to beat Phil Mickelson
Lefty’s recent record here is off-putting. Rose has consecutive top eight finishes in his first two Florida events and looks an obvious bet to be the one to break a streak of 12 straight victories by American players on the PGA Tour.

Sergio Garcia to beat Brandt Snedeker
He could be fresh from that lay-off and he’s the one player who is actually looking forward to playing, But Bay Hill suits Garcia’s game better than Snedeker’s.


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