Golf´s unofficial “fifth Major” gets underway this week as the world´s finest tee it up in the Players´ Championship in Florida.

With Tiger Woods still recovering from the battle of wounded knee totesport list Phil Mickelson and Adam Scott at the top of the betting.

Both have great course form with Mickelson having won this event last year and Scott claiming the spoils in 2004.

Sawgrass is a course that places huge demands on all aspects of the players´ games. Unsurprisingly, the majority of past winners have all been Major champions.

If you´re thinking of placing a few bets this week that´s something to keep at the forefront of your mind.

Former US Open champion Jim Furyk gets our first selection. The local resident finished third here two years ago, fourth in 2003 and clearly knows his way round the tricky Pete Dye designed layout.

He showed some solid form at the recent Wachovia Championship in finishing seventh and has the mental toughness to cope with the serious examinations this course sets on almost every hole.

There is no more famous hole in golf than the notorious 17th. With an island green this par 3 has seen many a promising round finish in a watery grave.

The huge crowds that gather around the hole add to the tension and if the wind blows expect to see plenty of double bogeys and worse.

In short this isn´t a tournament for the faint-hearted. So our final tip is another player who wants for nothing when it comes to guts and determination.

2007 Open champion Padraig Harrington clearly has the game to handle Sawgrass.

The Dubliner has finished runner-up in 2003 and 2004 and already has three top 10s to his name Stateside this term - most notably coming home fifth at Augusta.

Irish golf is on the crest of a wave at the moment with recent wins for Darren Clarke and Peter Lawrie. Have a few shillings on Padraig to keep Irish eyes smiling.

totesport Breeders’ Cup bonanza

The eyes of the racing world will be focused on Monmouth Park, New Jersey on Friday and Saturday, when the ‘creme de la creme’ of international thoroughbred horseracing gather for the 24th Breeders’ Cup Championship - and punters can take advantage of totesport’s unique betting products on each and every race.

The climax is on Saturday when totesport offer ante-post odds on all eight star-studded contests and there will be plenty of interest late into the evening in the UK as some of our leading performers bid for glory and attempt to maintain the good record of British and European challengers in the US in recent years.

Many will be hoping to see Brian Meehan’s Red Rocks repeat his tremendous success in last year’s Breeders’ Cup Turf, one of two memorable wins on the card for jockey Frankie Dettori that night. Red Rocks doesn’t come into the race this time around in quite such good form, but there’s no doubt that the pace of the American races and the tight track will play to his strengths, and he is anything but a forlorn hope to repeat the dose. totesport’s offer of 5/1 might look very generous by 10pm on Saturday night!

Red Rocks will have to turn the form around with Aidan O’ Brien’s Dylan Thomas (Evens favourite), already successful in three Group 1 events this term, including, of course, the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe at Longchamp earlier in the month. It remains to be seen how much that incredible performance took out of the horse.

The enigmatic George Washington (also trained by O’Brien) will try his luck in the final event of the night, the $5 million Breeders’ Cup Classic. Although he looks to have his work cut out against a strong home challenge, this talented horse could turn it on when it matters and totesport’s offer of 9/1 will attract many punters.

With O’Brien’s St James’s Palace Stakes winner Excellent Art (7/2f) and Sir Michael Stoute’s four time winner Jeremy (8/1) in the ‘Mile’, there are no end of reasons for wanting to have a bet with totesport in one of the great occasions of the sporting calendar.

Races commence at 1730 (UK) on Saturday, with the ‘Juvenile Fillies’, and conclude at 2230 with the ‘Classic’.