The Punter / Steven Rawlings / 05 September 2010 / Leave a Comment

Our man's hoping for yet more success for Monty's men.....

With a round to go at the Omega European Masters, I'm in a very strong position with pre-event pick Miguel Angel Jimenez leading by three shots, despite incurring a one stroke penalty for absent-mindedly picking up his ball yesterday.

"I just wasn't thinking, I accidentally picked my ball up on the 10th because I was near a sprinkler head," the Spaniard told reporters. "I said to myself 'what are you doing, you have to check if you can get relief first? I put it back in its correct place. So I gave myself a bogey on the 10th, a one-shot penalty"

I've already layed back enough, at an average of [1.72], to cover the week's stakes but I really hope he can convert. He's been coming here for 22 years in a row without winning, despite some really good performances.

In addition to Jimenez, I've also got Edoardo Molinari onside now, having backed him on Friday morning at [4.1] as he took the lead early in round two. Crans-sur-Sierre strongly favours front-runners and that looked a very fair price at the time and although he didn't have the strongest finish to the round, he was still matched at a low [2.34] when he looked to have taken command. But that was before Jimenez went bonkers in the afternoon!

The 46-year-old shot a remarkable 61, the lowest of his career , and it now looks highly likely that Colin Montgomerie is going to see one of his Ryder Cup team members win for the fourth week in a row after Martin Kaymer at the PGA Championship, Peter Hanson at the Czech Open and Edoardo last week in Scotland. And if either Jimenez or Molinari do convert they'll be winning their third event of the year too - some feat.

It's not a two-man race by any means though. First round leader Matteo Manassero and England's Steve Webster both trail the leader by four and can't be discounted.

Over in the States, I had a very disappointing day yesterday with a couple of picks losing the good early positions that sound first round performance's had given them. Both Ryan Palmer and Paul Casey shot over par and on a course where you get overtaken very swiftly if you don't go low.

The best of my initial selections at halfway is now Stephen Ames but he's fully five shots behind joint-leaders Brandt Snedeker and Jason Day. All isn't lost though, that's the same deficit last year's winner, Steve Striker, overcame at this stage, but he should have been in a much stronger position - he's been matched at as low as [24.0] when he was six under par for his second round but he finished the day really poorly - dropping three shots in his last five holes.

The favourite now is last week's winner Matt Kuchar, handily placed, just a shot off the lead and given that until last year the furthest anyone had come from behind at halfway to win was two shots he's probably a fair price. In fact, the first three winners of this event all held at least a share of the lead but the event is only seven- year- old so we probably can't read too much into the stats; I haven't - instead, I've added a couple of players four shots back.

Michael Sim is in great form and looked a fair price at [85.0] to get his first PGA win but my main halfway fancy is Phil Mickelson.

After a slow start on Thursday, not quite carrying on from last week's horror show but hardly shining, he found a bit of form yesterday and looks a fair price to repeat his 2007 success. I've added him at [15.5].

Finally, watch out for Tiger Woods. I think he's got too much on his plate, seven shots off the lead, but he looks to be going in the right direction. He had an awful start to the event, bogeying four of his first six holes, but he's made no mistakes since and he's played the next 30 holes in nine under. Could he be back?

As they don't finish until tomorrow night in Boston, I'll be back on Tuesday with my De-brief.

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