The Punter / Steven Rawlings / 18 April 2009 /

Despite raging at Sky programmers, The Punter gets off to a good start in the East before amateur putting puts paid to his chances of collecting. Meanwhile, a big-up to the snapper who risked the wrath of Europe's Ryder Cup captain to get the above photograph...

Day one in China could hardly have started better for me.

Knowing that Sky would persist with their ridiculous habit of showing 'live' coverage when the tournaments are in the East, I didn't look at a leaderboard and I didn't get up too early. Over the first two days, for the first two hours, they show the recorded morning's play, which usually annoys me. But after watching for 10 minutes on Thursday I was delighted to see two of my selections, Thongchai Jaidee and Markus Brier tied for the lead on six under par with just a few holes to play. What a start!

It didn't last though. Scoreboard corrections are commonplace on the European Tour and one of Jaidee's birdies was taken away. He also four putted the last to make double bogey, having bogeyed another one coming in and he actually ended the day on just two under.

Jaidee had been matched at as low as [5.0] on day one but neither I, nor the poor backer who took such a short price will be collecting, he's putted as poorly as I've ever seen a pro putt, missing umpteen three and four footers.

Fortunately though, with a weak looking leaderboard, I jumped in with both feet after day one, backing Chapchai Nirat and Gonzalo Fernandez-Castano, at [14.5] and [16.5] respectfully. Nirat looks like he may have been a stray bullet but Gonzo has done well today and will be in the final group tomorrow with Richard Finch, who leads by one.

I will be tearing my hair out if Finch wins. I backed him in this event at the halfway stage last year and his collapse was spectacular. He's one of only a very few players that I can't abide from a punting perspective. He swings from brilliant to awful and when I've backed him in the past he's always been the latter.

Moan of the week has to be about Colin Montgomerie, who yet again was at his whinging worst on day two, towards the end of his round.

I'm not condoning the fans who take in cameras, and other players have also had problems with it this week, but it's the way he deals with it that I find aggravating.

He was clearly not happy but it was only once he'd made a poor putt on the seventh, his 16th hole of the day, that he decided to have someone who had had the audacity to photograph him evicted. Had he made the putt he wouldn't have had him slung out.

He then drove straight into the water on the eighth and bossed the Sky cameramen about, telling him to get out of the way and to stop recording.

As Ryder Cup Captain he should be an ambassador for the sport, especially in an emerging market like China, but instead he stomps about with disdain, scowling at the crowd, making everyone around him feel ill-at-ease, including his playing partners, and having people evicted because he misses a putt! Poor show Monty...again.

Anyway, rant over.

In the States, it's been a poor start with none of my picks threatening the lead. It's an odd looking leaderboard with Brian Gay leading on -9, from a couple of major winners that are perhaps past their best, in the shape of Todd Hamilton and Lee Janzen. I'm not a fan of Gay but the entire chasing pack is made up of players I wouldn't be in a rush to back either so I was very tempted to leave it for now and see how things develop but after much deliberation I've had a small wager on Davis Love at [11.5]. He's also a major winner on the wrong side of the hill but he's also won here five times and at just four shots off the lead, looks the value, albeit only just.

I'll review both events on Monday morning, when hopefully I'll still have some hair!

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