The Punter / Steven Rawlings / 13 July 2009 /

It's been a long and exhausting weekend for The Punter, but was it another profitable one.

The big mover at the Scottish Open on Saturday was one of my original picks, Gonzalo Fernandez-Castano, backed at a whopping [180.0]. His third round 64 saw him leading the field by one with a round to go and I layed some off at [3.3]. Tied for second were Retief Goosen and one of my in-running picks, Martin Kaymer, who I'd backed at an average of just over [13.0] on Friday.

In Illinois, after a lost day on Friday, thanks to torrential rain, they played the second round on Saturday and all four of my initial picks made the cut but none of them threatened the lead.

Before play started yesterday I topped up on Kaymer at [4.2] and was soon regretting it as he three-putted the second. I wasn't too worried though as he'd started slowly on Saturday before shooting 66.

Poor ole Gonzo was again struggling with the putter and for a brief while it looked like Goosen was going to be the man to beat but yet again he wobbled in contention. In fact he did more than wobble, he fell over! It was an awful effort and he had a stretch of five holes, midway through his round, where the best score he could muster on any of the five was a bogey. Going forward Goosen has to be taken on whenever he gets in the mix.

So with Gonzo and the Goose struggling, the way was left clear for last week's winner to come through and win again. I made numerous lays, after eight, nine and 14 holes - all at odds-on. I also backed Lee Westwood and Soren Kjeldsen, both at around [8.0] and even had a saver on the fast finishing Raphael Jacquelin at [60.0], so I'd diluted my winnings somewhat but it meant a stress-free finish and a guaranteed profit. But the truth is, I needed have bothered, the improving German was even more impressive than last week and was a comfortable two shot winner over Gonzo and Jacquelin.

While all that was going on the third round of the John Deere Classic was underway and my main pick Zach Johnson had his putting boots on. It was a confusing and drawn-out affair with no re-draw after the third round and the players had no more than about 30 minutes in-between rounds.

My man Zach led at one point and traded at as low as [4.0] but he always looked like he'd finish at least one shot shy and I managed to get my stake on him back, and a bit more besides, by trading him back and fore.

I also had a couple of in-running plays. Firstly backing Charlie Hoffman at [70.0] and I topped up on one of my original picks, Brandt Snedeker, a couple of times at [22.0] and [30.0], but both decided to play a fair bit worse than they had been doing, once I'd placed my wagers.

Then as the finishing line drew nearer and with it developing into what looked a two man race between Steve Stricker and Tim Petrovic I made a modest play on the latter. Playing in the same group, with five holes left to play, Stricker led the event on 19 under, by one from Petrovic, with a further shot back to Johnson, who was already in the house and I felt the that the [4.4] on offer about Petrovic was just a shade big, but it proved to be a poor play. He missed a couple of birdie putts and looked very nervy and when he dunked his approach shot tiredly in the water on the last, the path was left clear for Stricker to stroll to a comfortable three shot win.

Although it had been a very profitable week it could have been an absolute cracker and I felt a bit flat last night. Both Snedeker and Zach finished tied for second and second to Stricker, a player I always want to be against, but it was hard to find fault with him this time.

It had been a very long day and afterwards Johnson said that he'd ate a lot and drank a lot and survived. Funnily enough that had been my tactics too! But then they're often my tactics if I'm honest...

It's the big one next week, the Open Championship and I'll post a preview on Wednesday. I'll also have a few articles in the next few days looking at some of the Specials markets.

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