The Punter / Steven Rawlings / 24 January 2009 / Leave a Comment

The Punter talks us through the good and the bad of his weekend golf selections.

On day one at the Qatar Masters all my players had an afternoon tee time and most of them struggled. Those that fared best were outsiders Nick Dougherty and Alvaro Quiros, who ended the day two and three shots off the lead respectfully. Also three back was Gonzalo Fernandez-Castano and I added him to the squad at [140.0].

On Friday things weren't looking great for any of mine until Quiros followed a bogey on the 15th with three birdies at the last three holes. The big mover of the day was last week's runner-up Louis Oosthuizen; he shot 65 and took a three shot lead into today's third round and was four clear of my man, Quiros.

Then this morning, sporting a most impressive sun hat, Quiros came out of the blocks at a rate of knots and when he birdied the 8th hole to go five under for the day and to take the lead, he was trading under [3.0]. I decided not to lay any back at that stage as he had two par fives to play on holes nine and ten, and being the longest hitter on tour I fancied a birdie or maybe even two.

He then hit his tee shot on the 10th a long way left of the fairway, where the ball lodged itself in a tree and in an heartbeat he was trading closer to [4.0] than [3.0]. He then had a ridiculous stroke of luck when for some reason the 25 foot tall tree his ball was stuck in was staked, meaning a free drop for the lucky Spaniard. He even had a very make-able putt for birdie on the hole but that didn't drop and he failed to birdie the 10th as well.

He hadn't lost any shots after the drive on the 9th but he seemed to lose all momentum and it took a long par saving putt on the 13th to get him back on track and the birdies started to flow again after that.

He finished the day with a disappointing three putt par after more good fortune when his second shot just cleared the hazard by only a few feet.

Louis Oosthuizen birdied the last and now trails my man by one, with Stenson and Lafeber two shots further back. Stenson has to be a big runner tomorrow and will be favoured by having a chasing role but I'd be surprised if one of the two leaders doesn't win.

I still haven't layed any back yet and at around [2.5] I'm not prepared to yet either. Louis Oosthuizen has been far from reliable in contention in the past and wouldn't be one I'd be looking to back in the mix but Id be very naive to assume that trend will go on forever. He's still young, he's certainly got the game and after last week's flying finish for second, he's in the form of his life.

But I do like Quiros, he was pretty solid when he won in Portugal just three months ago, so, after Zach Johnson last week, it's another shepherding job tomorrow with fingers and toes crossed.

Things aren't going anywhere near as well at the Bob Hope Classic. Justin Leonard started very slowly with a level par round at Silver Rock and that was just about him done for.

The scoring is ridiculously low - my other pick Ben Crane shot 63 on day one and found himself alongside five other players on that score with three players ahead of them!

One of the three ahead of Crane was Pat Perez, whose opening 61 was matched yesterday by both Charlie Wi and Steve Stricker but Perez still holds the lead, now two clear of Stricker on an incredible 25 under par. Unfortunately Crane didn't build on his first day's efforts and is now 12 shots behind and well and truly out of it.

I also backed Chad Campbell as he finished up on day one but he's gone west now too, so I haven't got anyone in with a chance of winning.

For now I'm keeping the powder dry though. With scoring this low anything can happen in the next two days and if the leaders lose any momentum they'll soon get gobbled up by the field. I may try and latch on to a mover or two tonight but I'm more likely to wait and get involved either before or during the final round.

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