Poor play was the 'highlight' of day one at the World Match Play

Golf Events / Paul Krishnamurty / 11 October 2007 / Leave a Comment

Cabrera apart, few players covered themselves in glory at Wentworth on the first day, says pro-punter Paul Krishnamurty

The most notable aspect of the opening day's play at Wentworth was a series of surprisingly poor performances from world-class players. When Peter Alliss claimed in characteristically blunt fashion that "There's been a lot of rubbish played today", he could have been referring to any one of Montgomerie, Goosen, Rose, Harrington or Kelly, so bad was their play.

The Order of Merit race was thrown wide open after thumping defeats for the leading pair. Justin Rose barely holed a putt in a 5 and 4 defeat at the hands of American debutant Hunter Mahan while Padraig Harrington confirmed his dislike for Wentworth yet again as he was brushed aside 4 and 2 by the impressive Anders Hansen.

With those two seeded players out, everything points towards the two tournament specialists Ernie Els and Paul Casey meeting in the final. Neither was particularly impressive for their comfortable wins though and will probably need to improve a little to progress further.

Having built up what appeared to be an unassailable lead in his match against Kelly, defending champion Casey threatened to wreck his unbeaten record in this event with a series of disasters on the final nine. He had enough in hand to get past an unimpressive opponent 3 and 2, but admitted to being disappointed with his performance afterwards. Casey could have his work cut out tomorrow in his quarter-final match against the day's best performer, Angel Cabrera. The powerful Argentinian, who has many fond memories of the West Course, was -10 through 31 holes in a one-sided 6 and 5 victory over Goosen.

Tournament favourite Els never looked in danger for his 6 & 5 win against a badly out-of-sorts Montgomerie. Ernie didn't really do anything special today, but there was enough in the bag to confirm that he is very much the one to beat this week and tighten his odds into a prohibitive 3.3 to land his seventh Matchplay title. Nevertheless, a tough draw still awaits, with a tricky quarter-final against either Andres Romero or Niclas Fasth. Romero looked set to complete a fine comeback before proceedings were brought to a halt by deteriorating light. When they resume in the morning, Romero holds a two-shot lead on the 15th hole having earlier trailed by three and traded as high as 6.0.

Also yet to finish is the match between Henrik Stenson and Woody Austin, after the American pulled off the comeback of the day to tie the match with one hole to play. There must be some nervous odds-on backers awaiting the outcome, as Stenson traded as low as 1.02 when holding a five-shot lead this morning.

The best betting value may lie with the pair of Hansens though. Anders and Soren confirmed their recent good form to upset the odds in their respective matches today, and are now rewarded with very winnable quarter-finals. Anders plays the winner of the Stenson/Austin match, while Soren looks to have an even chance against Mahan. Both are still trading around the 13 mark, very fair value considering their draws and the fact that if either Els or Casey were to lose tomorrow then the tournament will be left wide-open.