The Punter / Steven Rawlings / 28 June 2008 / Leave a Comment

The punter has been having a rough time at the Open de France. Get the latest on his tale of twists and turns right here.

The last two days have been a disheartening mixture of disappointment and frustration.
At the Open de France most of my original picks have been poor and the only one left with any sort of chance is long shot Paul Broadhurst who's three off the lead.

To make matters worse I've added to my first inept pokes with some pretty poor in running bets. The first and worst was Richard Sterne, already backed @ [90.0]. I topped up on him @ [28.0] after he'd got to -3 through only five holes on Thursday morning. He's probably already home in South Africa now after missing the cut by a very wide margin.

Woeful mess up number two was a wager on Jeev Milkha Singh before he teed off yesterday @ [20.0]. After his lacklustre second round of 74 he's now readily available at odds of over [100.0].
So what now? I haven't a clue is the truthful answer. It's a very tricky leaderboard, with twenty players within five shots; two leaders that I'm confident will be swallowed up by the pack and some big names that I don't trust much lurking.

Westwood and Monty have looked magnificent from tee to green and are playing the best golf but neither man can buy a putt. Cabrera just looks too loose off the tee to keep his challenge going and the others in the mix don't win often enough for me.

If I was forced to make a play now it would be Soren Hansen but he's one of those that just doesn't convert his chances as often as he should. He will certainly be suited to sitting just off the pace as he is now though.

Having made such a hash of things so far the only sensible course of action is to do nothing but that's a far too defeatist attitude! I'll be watching closely later to see if an opportunity arises and if not, I'll be examining the top of the leaderboard this evening; past results show that the leaders going out on a Sunday have a decent record here. Hopefully it won't look half as baffling as it does this morning!

In the US my picks have done much better but have been very frustrating. Woody Austin, backed @ [65.0] started yesterday at -6 and not too far off the lead. He came out of the traps like a scolded cat, after two pars he birdied the next four holes before make eagle at the next. At that point, within two shots of leader Bo Van Pelt and with still 11 holes to play he touched a low of [3.85]. A very disappointing run of ten pars was followed by a final hole bogey to leave him going into the weekend trailing Van Pelt by three. Frustrating and disappointing.

As for John Rollins, now he really is an enigma. He got of to a flyer on Thursday, birdying the first three holes before losing the plot and ending the day level. Yesterday he was one over through six holes and clearly struggling but nine birdies in his last 12 holes have put him on the fringe of contention.

Two bets in running. The first was Ben Crane who I backed when he was two under after six holes @ [34.0]. It seemed a more than fair price given he'd gone off at [38.0] and both Furyk and Leonard (ahead of him in the market) had started slowly. Anyway, it wasn't a great move; he's a mile back on -3 and effectively out of it.

The second was Kenny Perry @ [24.0], after he'd played 11 holes of his second round. He improved further after I'd backed him but put a damper on things when he also bogeyed his last hole!

Leader, Bo Van Pelt appears to be in quite a commanding position but he's still in search of his first win and I can envisage him disappointing his supporters again. I've still got three players with a realistic chance so I'm not going to do anything else at present.

It's fair to say I'm going into the weekend without a great deal of confidence but you never know Broady and Woody could make it a week to remember. I'm not holding my breath though.

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