The Punter / Steven Rawlings / 25 April 2009 /

Strong winds in Korea have threatened to blow the whole tournament out of the water making punting even riskier than it usually is, Steve Rawlings has just about hung in there though...

To say I was frustrated on Thursday morning would be a considerable understatement. In addition to seeing Thongchai Jaidee and Gonzalo Fernandez-Castano, both players I nearly backed, start the tournament in great style - shooting six and seven under respectfully, I had to endure my main pick, Prayad Marksaeng, make an eight, from position-A on the fairway at his last hole, ending the day on level par - seven shots off the lead.

Day two was no better, with both my picks tamely missing the cut, and with a horrendous weather forecast and third round tee-times brought forward, I withdrew from the fray to await developments.

The final three-ball of Robert-Jan Derksen, Jaidee and Wook-Soon Kang, were due to start their third round at one o'clock this morning but when I got up at around six thirty they'd only played five holes, having been delayed by fog.

Jaidee had caught Derksen by the time they reached the seventh hole and the pair were level on nine under par. The conditions were deplorable, the wind was gusting, balls were moving on the green and the players repeatedly complained to referees and the Tournament Director but all their protestations were waved away and on they went.

It was largely a farce, with a lot of luck involved. Cruelly for Jaidee, he was penalised a shot when his ball moved as he addressed it for bogey on the seventh and I snaffled up all the [4.2] available on Derksen, knowing he was to lead by two.

Derksen scrambled impeccably well and despite not hitting a single fairway on the front nine he managed to reach the turn just one over par for the day.

He finally hit a fairway on the downwind par five, tenth and made eagle, but so did Jaidee!

As you could possibly expect from someone from the Land of Windmills, Dutchman Derksen coped admirably in the conditions and at one point his lead stretched to six but it all got a bit ragged as he approached the clubhouse and I layed some back at [1.75]. I'd also backed Fernandez-Castano at [17.0] during the third round but he finished poorly.

As I write, Derksen still hasn't finished what is turning into one of the longest rounds I've ever seen and he's drifted to over [2.0]. I'm not going to do anymore with the event until tomorrow when hopefully he'll start with a still substantial lead. Or better still be declared the 54 hole winner!

In Louisiana, after the first round of the Zurich Classic the best of my selections was Y E Yang, who was three off the lead, held by fellow Korean, Charlie Wi.

I'd had a good look at the recent history of the event and was surprised to see that a good start here isn't necessarily a good thing. Last year's winner Romero shot 73 and was in 73rd place after round one. Nick Watney was 15th after a 69 in 2007 and Tim Petrovic was 62nd after day one when he won here in 2005. And even on the old course, there were plenty of other similar examples.

With that in mind I backed some of the players I'd looked at before the event at some decent odds, taking [110.0] about both Petrovic and Woody Austin, who were five and four back respectfully. I also topped up on Ben Crane at [230.0] and KJ Choi at [170.0], who both shot level par and were six back. And I couldn't resist taking an interest in Parker McLachlin, who was just one off the lead and trading at [70.0].

Round two was fairly kind to me and I now have plenty of players on the fringe of contention. Of most interest is Choi on six under, four of the lead - so for now I'll wait and see how tonight develops.

It's all a bit up in the air at both events at the moment but I'll review it all on Monday.

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