The Punter / Steven Rawlings / 20 February 2010 / Leave a Comment

It was a black Friday in Arizona for Steve yesterday, as only one of his picks makes it through to the last eight.

Over the years I've struggled at this week's main event, the WGC Match Play. I've tried all sorts of tactics but to no avail. My most recent tactic has been to back a bunch of players at decent odds from the start, with the hope of tidying up my book at a later stage. It's never really worked but at least it hasn't cost a fortune. I did get Stewart Cink to the final two years ago at [80.0], but unfortunately Tiger Woods was waiting for him and that was the end of that! This year I went to war with the same battle plan and I started off with a dozen outsiders.

On day one, half of my twelve fell by the wayside, but that was just about what I'd expected. Of the top seeds only Steve Stricker lost and I added to my picks by backing Zach Johnson at [80.0], as he fought back to win his first round match against Francesco Molinari. He was due to meet Brian Gay in round two, so by backing Zach, I had guaranteed at least one player in round three.

On day two I backed Ross McGowan at [100.0] as he battled hard against Ryo Ishikawa before finally losing out and the Zach Johnson wager also proved fruitless, as he lost to Brian Gay. So I'd gone against the plan and backed two in-running wagers early on and neither had been worth bothering with, but that was Thursday's only bad news.

Top seeds Geoff Ogilvy, Martin Kaymer, and Lee Westwood all lost, while incredibly, all of my six remaining original picks won, so going into Friday's third round I had six of the remaining 16 competitors, and all of a sudden I was warming to the event...

Fast forward 24 hours and I'm back to loathing it. As fantastic as Thursday had been, yesterday was just plain miserable. Jeev Milkha Singh, Ben Crane and Brian Gay were all soundly beaten, but my two strongest fancies remaining, Luke Donald and Nick Watney, were defeated in particularly frustrating fashion.

After losing the first hole to Oliver Wilson, Luke Donald never managed to get in front and he needed a birdie on 17 to draw level for the third time. It all looked in vain as Wilson hit a sublime approach to within two feet on the last. Donald had found the front of the green but was over fifty feet away and he understandably drifted to [300.0] in the outright market, before remarkably draining the monster putt to take the match to extra holes. But again, it was all in vain. My man missed a chance to win on the first extra hole, from around ten feet, before Wilson gained his revenge by draining his own monster putt on the second extra hole to win.

Even more frustrating was Nick Watney's performance against a distinctly patchy Retief Goosen. My man wasn't at the races early on and was three down after three holes but he kept battling back, before handing the match to the South African on the last, with yet another dreadful putt, missing for par from about four feet.

The only one of my six to survive yesterday's massacre was Thongchai Jaidee, but in truth, he'd only had to turn up. His opponent, Japan's Ryo Ishikawa, had a dreadful day and I fear the worse for later, when he faces an in-form Ian Poulter in his quarter-final.

I had examined my lot before yesterday and I could have levelled off for a modest profit, and it goes without saying that I wish I had done but it's no use crying over spilt milk.

I've had one further bet, backing Stewart Cink at [8.6]. His quarter-final opponent Paul Casey has sauntered though the first three rounds but hasn't come up against any resistance at all yet. Cink's a quality matchplay exponent and as the last American standing, he should put up a fight. I fancy the winner of this match will progress to the final so feel the [8.6] on Cink is worth taking.

With no live coverage at the other tournament, the Mayakoba Classic, I've not been able to get any sort of feel for the event. History shows that you need to be right up with the pace so although both of my original picks, KJ Choi and Heath Slocum are in a tie for 17th place, they look to have too much to do from seven shots back.

The veteran, Joe Durant, has wondered out of the wilderness to lead by a couple from JP Hayes but I couldn't fancy any of the leaders, so for now I'm going to sit this one out and hope for something special from one or both of my men later today.

I don't hold out much hope for the weekend but you never know, but whatever happens I'll post my weekly de-brief on Monday.

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