The Punter 
/ Steven Rawlings / 15 May 2011 / Leave a Comment 
Gregory Bourdy - Could he be the one to benefit if Wood slips up?
"Yesterday’s 67 was a great bounce-back after Friday’s horrific 77 and I can see Bourdy shooting somewhere in the mid-60’s today. If Wood does fail to deliver, the Frenchman could just be the one to capitalise."
Rain stops play at the Players and Wood looks poised for success in Spain...
09.55 - May 15, 2011
Entering the final round with a four shot lead, Chris Wood looks on the verge of breaking his European Tour duck but you only have to look back to round two when Gregory Bourdy, Rhys Davies and Danny Willet all lost their way to realise that no lead here is big enough.
What a story a win for Jose Maria Olazabal would be (currently on -4 and five behind Wood) but for my money the value looks to be in first round leader Bourdy who sits on -3. Yesterday's 67 was a great bounce-back after Friday's horrific 77 and I can see him shooting somewhere in the mid-60's today. If Wood does fail to deliver, the Frenchman could just be the one to capitalise.
I've done nothing further at the Players where a weather delay has resulted in the leaders still having most of their third rounds to play.
11.40 - May 14, 2011
With Gregory Bourdy, and to a lesser extent, Rhys Davies and Danny Willet, all collapsing in a heap yesterday afternoon my Levet wager doesn't look too bad now. Chris Wood bucked the trend of poor afternoon play though, with a quite superb 65 and he now leads by three from Darren Clarke.
Can Wood emulate recent winners Thomas Aiken and Nicolas Colsaerts and secure his maiden win? He won't get too many better chances than this now and he'll surely draw inspiration from that pair but at just [2.60] he makes no appeal at all. Sooner or later he'll get it done but until then I can't get out of my mind how wobbly he's been when in the mix previously and I fancy he's a shade too short.
At the Players Championship, I experienced one of those delightful second rounds you get now and again whereby the picks that were so bad on day one that they were already out of it played well, whilst those that had played well on day one, played pants - rendering all your picks in no man's land.
In truth, only Ben Crane and in-running play Y E Yang were firmly in-contention after day one but their matching 76's have seen their chances gone. Crane just made the cut by a shot and Yang has a weekend off.
It's been a poor show to say the least and the best of my pre-event picks now is Bubba Watson, who shot a brilliant 66 - fully ten shots better than his day one effort!
I could have just called it a day, especially given I'm highly likely to be otherwise engaged tonight after the F.A Cup final, but I have had a number of further plays at big odds. As Paul Krishnamurty points out here, huge swings are possible at Sawgrass and I could see plenty of value last night and again this morning.
I topped up on Bubba at [1000.0] when he had three to play last night and that would have been massive had he made the two birdie putts on 16 and 18 from under ten feet.
I got Aaron Baddeley, currently on -7 and trailing halfway leader David Toms by three, onside last night at [30.0] and then this morning I've added K J Choi (-6) at [34.0], Rory Sabbatini (-6) at [48.0], Alvaro Quiros (-4) at [170.0], Brian Gay (-4) at [260.0], and Phil Mickelson (-2) at [120.0].
My tactics today are to enjoy the football, celebrate hard if City win or undertake a pretty determined sorrow drowning effort should Stoke prevail. Hopefully when I make it home the leaderboards will be favourable but if they're not, so be it, it's all about football today for yours truly.
13.00 - May 13, 2011
The big story of day one at the Players was the withdrawal, for the second year in-a-row, of Tiger Woods and it's the first time that I've actually stopped and thought that we could be witnessing the beginning of the end. It's not beyond the realms of possibility that the greatest exponent the game has ever seen has already worn himself out at the age of just 35. Let's hope not because a loss of form due to a disastrous personal life is one thing but being robbed of a fulfilling career because of injury is quite another.
Tiger aside the event's bubbling up nicely and the leaderboard already has a fascinating look about it. First round leader Nick Watney touched [50.0] before the off, a bigger price than he's been in ages but with a poor set of Sawgrass form figures and after a woeful missed cut last week it was understandable.
My lot were on the whole poor with only Ben Crane now trading at a shorter price than I took before the off. Crane tees off this evening and has four shots to make up on Watney.
I've added one more in Korean Y E Yang, who I've backed a few times just lately at skinny odds. He missed two cuts on the Race to Dubai, one in China and one in his homeland and I'd backed him from the off in both. I thought he was best left alone after those efforts but he looked back to his best for most of yesterday. I backed him in-running at an average of a shade under [100.0] so his bogey-par-bogey finish was particularly disappointing but he's still on the premises on -3.
I'm tempted by Martin Kaymer right now, trading at around [13.0] after a first round score of -5, but I'm going to let things roll for now and possibly get further involved this evening.
At the Iberdrola Open, Jaco Van Zyl did well enough for me in the tougher afternoon conditions yesterday - shooting -3. It was a wholly different story this morning though when he shot fully ten shots more and he now misses the cut! That was the only bad news though as I've had a couple of strokes of luck.
Sky's Tony Johnstone said this morning that he could see one of the older more experienced players taking this week's title and I couldn't agree more, and once more, the old head I've got onside has done me proud so far.
I built up a reasonable little bet on Thomas Levet at an average of [50.0] this morning and he looks well poised on -4, just three shots off the current lead. The wind didn't really get up that much yesterday afternoon but the scoring was still nearly a stroke better in the morning and I've played Levet on the hope that the leaders don't get away this afternoon.
My other stroke of luck was not backing Rhys Davies. I very nearly backed him at [10.0], seeing him as the big danger of the afternoon starters but I chose to leave him be and given he's bogeyed the 1st I may well have done the right thing. Heaven knows what Rhys has done since, the wretched European Tour websites leaderboard has stopped working yet again. Odd how it always seems to pack up when there's no TV coverage. Not that I'm of a suspicious nature...
12:55- May 12, 2011
As suspected, the cream is already rising to the top at the Iberdrola Open, with the well-touted 2007 winner Gregory Bourdy making the early running. His play was a little tardy at the end of the round but some great scrambling resulted in him setting a new course record with his seven under-par 63.
As a course winner in pretty decent form Bourdy was easy enough to fancy before the off but at around [16.0] he was also plenty short enough for my liking and given the way he finished today, it's pretty clear he isn't going to run away with it.
Playing in the same three-ball, Danny Willet took just one more stroke and sits in second with Darren Clarke and Rhys Davies hot on the leader's heels.
I've added to my already spent Markus Brier wager (the Austrian shot +1) by backing South African Jaco Van Zyl, who's only just teed off. I toyed with backing him before play started and now I've been reminded of how tricky and tight off the tee this venue is, I've taken the plunge. He recently lost in a play-off in Morocco and his accurate driving should be a great asset here - though bogeying the 1st isn't the greatest of starts!
They've only just started playing at the Players Championship where all bar rag Matteson of my picks have a morning tee-time.
Iberdrola Open
Pre event selection
Markus Brier @ an average of [140.0]
In-running picks
Jaco Van Zyl @ [80.0] - Prior to his tee-off on day one
Thomas Levet @ an average of [50.0] - During round two
Gregory Bourdy @ [30.0] - After round three
Players Championship
Pre-event selections
Ben Crane @ [40.0]
Bubba Watson @ [65.0]
Zach Johnson @ [85.0]
Pat Perez @ [190.0]
Stephen Ames @ [250.0]
Heath Slocum @ [360.0]
Troy Matteson @ [620.0]
In-running picks
Y E Yang @ [100.0] - During round one
Bubba Watson @ [1000.0] - During round two
Aaron Baddeley @ [30.0] - After round two
K J Choi @ [34.0] - After round two
Rory Sabbatini @ [48.0] - After round two
Phil Mickelson @ [120.0] - After round two
Alvaro Quiros @ [170.0] - After round two
Brian Gay @ [260.0] - After round two
Our man's struggled to find a fancy in Mallorca but there's plenty of picks at the Players where he's hoping it's going to be fourth time lucky for Ben.......
With a maiden winner in Spain and one of his least favourite players scooping the prize across the pond, it's been a poor week for Steve......
The world of golf is in mourning as Seve passes away but the show goes on in Spain and North Carolina, despite the sad news......
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