The Punter / Steven Rawlings / 31 August 2008 /

The Punter updates us on his weekly golf selections that include an in-running punt on Johnnie Walker leader Gregory Havret to hang on at Gleneagles as the likes of Lee Westwood loiter with intent...

With just one round to play at Gleneagles the leaderboard has a very open look to it. Ross Fisher doesn't figure on it though, so much for all that confidence! After a solid enough start on Thursday and a decent first nine on Friday morning, which saw him get to within a few shots of the lead and trade at a low of [12.5], he fell apart at the seems. I've just about got all the egg off now.

Best of my original picks is Francesco Molinari, who looks to have too much to do now, four off the lead. It looked so much more promising yesterday until he bogeyed the last two holes.

I've had just the one in running bet, taking [8.0] on current leader Gregory Havret before yesterday's third round. I backed him given the good record of 2nd round leaders in the event, four winners in the nine events so far staged. It's an even better stat for third round leaders, five have won and the worst performance of any third round leader is third. Gleneagles doesn't appear to be the sort of place where you can come from a long way back and I'm quite happy to be on the Frenchman who has led from the start.

Of the challengers, Lee Westwood is second favourite and trailing by two but as I've said numerous times, I don't like him in contention as he simply doesn't convert enough chances to warrant being so consistently low in the betting.

The same can be said of Soren Hansen, also two back. One off the lead is Anthony Wall, yet another player I couldn't trust in the mix.

I would probably advocate the chances of David Howell over the rest, though in all honesty I don't think Havret did a whole lot wrong yesterday and I'm quite happy to be with him. He hit a few loose ones but every time he did he bounced back well enough.

In the states there was a chance on day one that Mike Weir may shoot the magic number of 59 but he fell short of the illusive number by two. Then yesterday it looked an even likelier possibility that Tim Clark would do it but he finished with two bogeys for a disappointing 62, if there can be such a thing.

As tomorrow is Labor Day in the States the event doesn't finish until Monday and with two rounds to go the event is set up tantalisingly, with five major winners and Sergio Garcia all in the top eight and just for good measure, massive prospect Anthony Kim is in a tie for 9th.

Given the propensity the course has for low scores and the strength of the leaderboard, predictions at this point are very hard to make. I do think the leaders, 59 nearly men Clark and Weir, will tread water tonight though.

Original pick, Vijay Singh, backed at [17.0] is just two off the lead at this stage, so for now it's just a case of being happy with what I've got and seeing what materialises. Win, lose or draw it looks to have all the ingredients for an absolute classic, and hot on the heels of last week's event the architects of the FedExCup Playoff series must be on good terms with themselves.

I'll review both events on Tuesday.

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