The Punter / Steven Rawlings / 06 June 2009 /

The Punter's portfolio isn't looking particularly good for either golf event so far this week. Here's what's happened so far...

I'm not in a particularly strong position in either event after two rounds - far from it.
At the Wales Open the best of my original picks is John Bickerton, but he's four shots off the lead. It's been a funny tournament, scoring seems sporadic and it's odd that nobody's bettered the seven under par that Ritchie Ramsey leads with.

One of my picks, Gregory Bourdy, was sauntering along quite beautifully on Thursday before he got to the par 4 15th hole, where he drove out of bounds twice and made nine! Which obviously dropped him out of the lead and plunged him back in the pack.

After a slow start, Dave Dixon managed to play his last ten holes in six under par on Thursday, inspiring me to throw a few bob on him at [450.0], but he missed the cut by a couple of shots!

Then yesterday, the Robert Rock, Jeev Milkha Singh, Nick Dougherty three-ball, after bobbing along very nicely, collectively lost the plot. Rock was five under par for his round and had taken the lead through 13 holes, Singh was following him through nicely, just a shot back and although not having a great day, Dougherty was hanging in there.

I'd been toying with backing Singh ever since he'd made a hole in one on Thursday but after last week's horrendous final round I was understandably cautious. I was just convincing myself that he's a solid enough closer and that last week was a one off when the commentator on Sky revealed that Rock was in big trouble on the 6th (their 14th hole of the day), so I jumped in and backed Singh, at an average of [8.4].

As Rock went on to make double bogey it should have been a good move but unfortunately Singh dropped a shot there too, and then drove six inches out of bounds at the next to make his own double bogey. The whole group was in freefall and between them they dropped nine shots in three holes!

By the close of play the price I'd taken on Singh didn't look awful; nobody has taken control of the event.

I'll be monitoring proceedings closely today, where play starts early with the threat of poor weather, hoping to catch an early mover to add to my weak portfolio. I can't believe there isn't a very low score out there and I can see someone making a charge from some way back.

In Ohio, Luke Donald got off to a flyer, shooting an eight under par 64, but the big story on day one of the Memorial was the return of the Tiger. His driving was immaculate and he was matched at as low as [2.1] as he crafted a three under par 69.

None of my three impressed on day one, or on day two for that matter. But neither did Tiger, who, surprisingly, shot two over par, putting poorly for a change. While first round leader Donald, had a shocker, shooting 76, and now trails by three.

I'm as hopelessly lost looking at this leaderboard now as I am with the one from Wales. Current leaders Jonathan Byrd and Jim Furyk, on seven under par, are players I wouldn't be rushing to back, nor are most of their closest pursuers and I'd set about backing a few players last night with various levels of success.

The [50.0] I took about Ryuji Imada, currently two off the lead, after he'd finished his morning round, looks pretty good now. As does the [90.0] I availed myself of about Dustin Johnson, but on the other hand, the [28.0] I took about Casey before he bogeyed the 13th, and then the 17th, looks pretty pants.

Both events look extremely open to me and although I've got live chances I'm not exactly brimming with confidence, nor do I think I've anywhere near finished trading on either event. There'll be plenty of twists and turns for sure, hopefully in my favour, but whatever happens I'll review both tournaments on Monday.

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