The Punter / Steven Rawlings / 21 February 2009 /

A promising position has turned sour for Steve, with Mickelson melting away and Anthony Kim blowing up in spectacular fashion.

Having just been away for a few days, staying in a cottage advertised as having free Wi-Fi Broadband, I've come to the conclusion that I need to consider harassing Gordon Brown. Yes I know he has one or two other things on his plate right now, but he did say he wanted us all to have access to free broadband, and the sooner the better as far as I'm concerned.

Such a revolution would result in me not having to narrow our holiday options to those places that claim to be Wi-Fi enabled, only to find that in order to get a decent reception you need to stand on a particular chair in one room or in the bath in another!

It mattered not in the end, when I did manage to get logged on I was able to view very pleasant looking leaderboards and by the time we got home yesterday morning, battles were being won on two continents. Indeed things were fine right up until about nine o'clock last night. Since then it's been verging on disastrous.

At the Northern Trust Open in California my main pick, Phil Mickelson, had streaked ahead of the field on day one with an impressive eight under par 63 and when he opened up his second round with an eagle on his first hole it didn't look like it'd be too long before I'd be able to trade some of my bet back at less than [2.0]. Indeed he traded as low as [2.26], at around 8.45pm after that eagle, but then in true Mickelson style his next drive was woefully wayward and that led to the first of four bogeys en route to a disappointing 72, which sees him now trail new leader Scott McCarron by three.

I'm going to stick with him for now and hope he can get back on track tonight but I'm not exactly hopeful.

On the other side of the world, in Perth, my main pick, Anthony Kim, had started steadily enough at the Johnnie Walker Classic with two opening rounds of 68 and with no bogeys. He looked to be in a commanding position on a weak looking leaderboard and I was confident he'd go very close over the weekend.

I managed to stay awake until about one this morning, at which point he'd parred the first two holes. One player I'd looked closely at before the off, Francesco Molinari, had started very well, birdying four of his first five holes and I added him to the portfolio at an average of [34.0].

Fitful sleep was interrupted and I switched on the laptop at around four o'clock to be greeted by a bitterly disappointing sight. Kim had somehow managed to make a nine on the third hole and was effectively done for, Molinari had capitulated once my wager had been struck and was also a lost cause and my only ray of hope was Gareth Maybin, who had bobbed along, shooting a steady 68, but he was three off the lead.

As if that wasn't bad enough, on completion of round three, Ross McGowan and John Bickerton led the field on 14 under. I can't say I considered my old mate Bickerton for too long, but I did briefly. After all, I threw a tenner or so at him most weeks last year when he went off as high as he did this week, at around [300.0], so it was a bitter pill to swallow.

On top of that, one of last week's big outside selections, Sang-Moon Bae, who missed the cut in Malaysia when burdened with my cash, is also in the mix, three off the lead.

With no live TV coverage and given the event runs throughout the night and that the leaderboard is an extremely cloudy and condensed looking one; I'm going to let this one go now. You never know, Maybin, now four back, could still do it but again but hopes aren't high.

It looks like between nine last night and four this morning my week's gone from very promising to very disappointing but that wouldn't be the first time that's happened, particularly when Mickelson's been involved.

It's a glass half empty morning for sure but all's not lost, I just need an hour or two in a dark room to ponder whether Kim really is the new messiah and whether Mickelson can ever be trusted again.

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