The Punter / Steven Rawlings / 31 January 2009 / Leave a Comment

The sad site of Ernie struggling on the greens has put Steve Rawlings off backing the Big Easy for good.

I'm not feeling too clever today after a very heavy session in the 'Last Chance Saloon' with a couple of old pals, Ernie and Phil. I've had a decent run but boy was that an abrupt way to end it.

Watching poor Ernie miss the cut at his favourite course was painful enough, making him my sole selection, backing him for the win, top-five and top 10 just made it even worse.

His caddy, Ricky Roberts, halfway through round two, told Sky's Richard Boxall that Ernie was shooting 70 and playing 64 golf, and that summed it up well. Few players were driving better or hitting their irons better but his putting was atrocious, ugly and painful to watch.

I'm sorry big fella but that really is it for now, you can finish that bottle of red yourself, I'm off.

If Ernie was poor, what was Mickelson? At least the Big Easy put up some sort of effort for a round-and-a-half, Lefty double bogeyed the 1st and never really looked like doing anything other than miss the cut.

Two years ago Mickelson missed the cut here then scooted up the following week at the AT & T at a very tasty [16.0]. Then, last year, he missed the cut defending at the AT & T and won the Northern Trust Open at [11.0] the following week, showing that top-class players are more than capable of bouncing back. But these last two days from Mickelson have looked pretty shoddy to say the least, and I'm not sure I'll be going for the bounce back hat-trick at Torrey Pines next week.

So a disappointing start but it's no use crying over spilt milk, and having had only one further bet, taking the ridiculously generous [140.0] about Gregory Havret after round one, I set about getting back in the game this morning.

As the players finished off round two in Dubai, following a couple of fog delays on Thursday and Friday, I backed Gonzalo Fernandez-Castano at [46.0], Martin Kaymer at an average of [40.0] and my (current) hero Alvaro Quiros at [75.0].

I wasn't deliberately looking for big prices, I'm just not a fan of the likes of Stenson, Garcia, Rose and Karlsson at short prices and the young guns that were at the head of the leaderboard, Oosthuizen and McIlroy still have to prove themselves.

Watching round three turned into a bit of a task, I switched over to watch the first race at Doncaster, took a phone call and when I went back to the golf the coverage had stopped! I know I moan about the TV coverage but Sky are getting worse. We had recorded play until about 10.00am and then they fail to show the last and very crucial hour!

My mood wasn't helped by Kaymer's finish either. Having cruised into the picture he bogeyed the 12th and is now five behind the young prodigy McIlroy but there's still an awful long way to go.

McIlroy has to get off the mark soon, but wire-to-wire, with weather delays, in such a strong event? He'll deserve plenty of praise if he can do it but I won't be backing him at around [2.6].

In Arizona, my leftfield pick, Steve Flesch, was matched as low as [22.0] before a disappointing patch of play saw him drop four shots in three holes around the turn.
Stephen Ames, like Mickelson, missed the cut but my other pick, Zach Johnson, is still in there. He shot five under yesterday and sits four off the lead, held by Nick Watney and for now I'm quite happy just to see how he goes tonight before having any further interest.

I will review what's likely to be quite a bombsite on Monday, I'm not entirely confident of making a profit this week.

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