The Punter / Steven Rawlings / 22 August 2009 / Leave a Comment

Steve hopes he's caught a Ferrie to success in Holland, while in the States Brandt Snedeker lets a good start slip...

This week's Race to Dubai event, the KLM Open, looked very open before play started on Thursday and it looks much the same after two rounds, with a total of 17 players within two shots of the lead - held jointly by defending champ Darren Clarke and Sweden's Peter Hedblom on 8 under par.

A few of my picks have fared ok with the best of them being Kenneth Ferrie, backed at [120.0], who, despite bogeying three of his first four holes on Thursday morning, is just a shot out of the lead.

Ignacio Garrido looks just a shot too far back on five under par, thanks to bogeys at his last two holes yesterday, and Christian Cevaer is a further shot back on four under. Although they're only three and four shots respectfully off the leaders, they have an awful lot of players to pass and could well have too much to do.

I'd very nearly taken the plunge on Darren Clarke yesterday, as he constructed a very neat and tidy 2nd round, but for some reason I couldn't commit. And if I had to make a pick now, then it would be Clarke, who trading at around [7.6] looks a fair enough price.

Oskar Henningsson could be a big danger, he fared best of those with the unfavourable late-early draw, but he did say when interviewed that he had some big putts to thank for his score and it could be asking a lot for him to win his second event so soon after his first, having been successful in the Czech Republic just three weeks ago.

After that it's a rag-tag bunch with nobody catching my eye at this stage. So given it's so congested and there are so many ifs and buts I'm going to continue to keep the powder dry for now and see how today develops.

Across the pond, the Wyndham Championship was severely delayed on Thursday when storms drifted into North Carolina. When play was suspended, one of my picks, Brandt Snedeker, backed at [48.0], was right up there and I was fairly hopeful that he could get himself into a great position by halfway.

As the tournament was so far behind I was irresponsible enough to go out last night and just let things develop. And while out enjoying a few pints (it was the dog's birthday last month) everything developed well enough. It was only when I got home, as the witching hour approached, that things start to go wrong.

Snedeker was three under par for round two, through ten holes, and trading at around [6.0] when I logged on, but in no time at all he was sliding down the leaderboard, bogeying the 13th and 14th holes and I was starting to wish I hadn't looked! In the end he needed to make a 19 foot birdie putt on the last to finish up on seven under par, four shots off the lead and he now trades at around [30.0].

There was some good news though, Jeev Milkha Singh, backed at [110.0], who had started awfully on Thursday, bogeying his first two holes before the weather delay, had dragged himself up to seven under par also, but in truth both picks look to have plenty to do.

Again, in common with the Dutch event, I haven't had any further bets. I quite like the look of Boo Weekley at around [20.0] and I've backed Marc Leishman a few times lately and he could be a fair price at around the [40.0] mark, but, as it is in Holland, it's still very open and I'm happy to let things develop a little more before getting further involved.

It's been a strange update this week, given I haven't had any further bets since the start, but sometimes the best thing to do is to do nothing and looking at both leaderboards I think I may have done right so far.

I'll review both events on Monday though, when hopefully I can recount a couple of masterly in-running trades that have scooped me a fortune either side of the Atlantic. There again...

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