The Punter / Steven Rawlings / 04 October 2009 /

With no result either side of the Atlantic yet, Steve takes a look at today's final round in Scotland...

At the Alfred Dunhill Championship, having shaped my book around the poor weather forecast, backing players that were due to play St Andrews on Saturday, it was extremely disappointing to see the winds so severe that the whole day was called off.

As I'd expected, in almost benign conditions the place to be yesterday was Kingsbarns, and by the close of play seven of the top ten had played there yesterday.

Luke Donald fared best, his eight under par 64 has seen him climb to the top of the leaderboard. Now on 15 under par, he leads Rory McIlroy and Simon Dyson by one shot.

The best of my picks is Michael Hoey, who's two shots behind Donald, while Kenneth Ferrie, backed at the start at [480.00], is three behind.

I spent yesterday waiting patiently for an opportunity and it came fairly late on in the day. Rafael Cabrera-Bello did me a big favour when he won two weeks ago in Austria, thanks to a remarkable final round 60, so when I saw him scything his way through the field yesterday I was quick to back him again, taking [70.0] after he'd played 11 holes. Fortunately for me he kept on progressing, picking up another three birdies. He's not without a chance today, just two off the lead and trading at under [20.0].

It's a massive day for young Rory today as he attempts to win his second event. His partner in the Pro-Am is his Dad, Gerry, who today celebrates his 50th birthday. What a day, and what an achievement it would be if he were to seal the deal. But what pressure...

Currently second favourite, Luke Donald is the world number 28 and a great links player but he really does struggle to win and I wouldn't be interested in backing him at the price.

If I had to back one of the first three in the betting it would be Dyson, who has at least won an event this year and he's having a sublime run of form at present, but I'm going to stick as I am for now. I have three of the top 10 covered and I think it's still very open. With such a congested leaderboard and with calm conditions forecast, whoever wins will have to go low.

As for the Turning Stone Resort Championship, well that's not finished yet either! But it's fair to say I haven't, at any time, gotten any sort of handle on the event whatsoever. We're down to just two players now and I'm still in the dark! My original selections have been woeful at best and my in-running picks no better.

Going into the final round I was still at a loss as to who may win and the only bet I had was a small play on Mathias Gronberg at [80.0], who started the day four back. He ended the day nine back!

Having gone through the field time and time again, I just couldn't see a likely candidate but I did have an inkling that the round three leaders could struggle, so I had a couple of extremely optimistic in-running punts early on, again to no avail.

The most noteworthy of which was Jeev Milkha Singh, who I latched on to at a very juicy [350.00] and who did get matched at as low as [25.0], but when he could only par the last four holes I knew it wasn't going to be enough.

For a while it looked as though anyone of a dozen or so could win but then one of the overnight leaders, Matt Kuchar, calmed himself down and started reeling off birdies at will. He looked as though he'd taken control and was matched at a low of [1.23] but he stuttered late on, allowing Vaughn Taylor to challenge.

In the end Kuchar needed to birdie the 16th to get back level and after two play-off holes last night darkness finally halted proceedings. They'll both be back today to finish off (1.30pm I think!) and I really couldn't care less who wins it. If forced to make a choice, I'd just about pick Kuchar, but I won't be backing him.

Back to Scotland, and fingers crossed for a bit more Spanish magic. I have to think Cabrera-Bello's my best chance of success now but whoever wins it's bound to be entertaining and it'll make a nice change to watch some live golf on a Monday.

I'll let you know how the final round pans out for me on Wednesday when I preview next week's events, the Madrid Open and the Presidents Cup.

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