2013 Deutsche Bank Championship: Round 2

2016 Deutsche Bank Championship

Bank on Spieth in Boston

The 99 golfers set to tee off in the Deutsche Bank Championship will face a very different challenge to the one which saw Patrick Reed end a drought of almost two years with victory at The Barclays on Sunday.

Where Bethpage provided a US Open-style test, TPC Boston requires low numbers with winning scores ranging from 15- to 22-under over the last decade and no fewer than three champions reaching the latter total.

Henrik Stenson is the most recent to have done so and should perhaps have won this title for a second time last year, when an untimely water ball on the 16th hole of the final round opened the door for Rickie Fowler.

The Swede is given full respect in this market at 16/1 despite having withdrawn from The Barclays with a recurrence of the knee injury which required surgery last year, but clearly comes with huge risks attached at the end of what's been a demanding, continent-hopping summer.

Jason Day is surely fresh enough having decided not to go to Rio for the Olympics and deserves his position at the head of the betting after yet another top-five finish last week, despite missing both left and right with the driver.

Jordan Spieth at the 2013 Deutsche Bank Championship - Final Round
Jordan finished T4 at the 2013 Deutsche Bank Championship
Andy Lyons/Getty Images

Day's record here is sufficiently strong to merit a second glance but he required an unbelievable putting display to keep in touch with the leaders in New York and will surely need to sharpen up from the tee if he's to add to his haul. At no point last week did he look like stamping his authority on the tournament and that's because to do so requires the control which was lacking.

Rory McIlroy has the opposite problem and looks a little lost on the greens, so while the fact that he won this in 2012 after a similar display a week earlier is encouraging he can't be relied on to make the short putts required to maintain momentum and remains one to watch for the time being.

With Dustin Johnson having done little to impress here since Gil Hanse's latest redesign and somewhat lacklustre for the most part last week, Jordan Spieth is the one remaining option from the front of the market and it so happens that I'm really sweet on his chances.

Someone better able than me could write a very good essay on the way Spieth is viewed, particularly by fans and some elements of the media, in relation to his performances.

Twenty-three years old and a two-time major champion, his game is still considered by many to be somehow unimpressive, owing to the fact he doesn't hit it as far as his chief rivals and is mistaken for being devastatingly wayward. Someone told me on Sunday that his 2015 season was a fluke, for example, while others say he's a poor ball-striker. The first is subjective; the latter is simply false.