The Punter 
/ Steven Rawlings / 23 February 2012 / Leave a Comment 
Tiger Woods and Nick Watney - who will have the last laugh today?
“Jason Day wasn’t on the ropes, he was on the canvas and the count was fast approaching ten!”
Our man gets five out of eight through to day two, after Jason Day is matched at 999-1! But who does he fancy to make it through to day three?
11.20 - February 23, 2012
A pretty typical WGC Match Play day one really, all wrapped up in unfathomable TV coverage.
There were countless shots of play by one player only, with no reference to their opponents whatsoever. For example, in the Adam Scott - Robert Rock match we saw Scott tee off on the 15th, we saw him chip out of the desert, chip onto the green and even attempt his par putt but what Rock was up to remained a mystery. It made for frustrating viewing.
I know it must be really tough to keep tabs on 32 different ties but some of their match choices were very odd. Obviously, we saw much of the Tiger Woods - Gonzalo Fernandez-Castano match but for some bizarre reason we kept being shown coverage of the Freddy Jacobsen -Robert Karlsson tie, which was as good as all-over before they reached the turn anyway. My guess is that Sky was receiving the Swedish TV feed in error!
And I was on tenterhooks over the K.J Choi-Kyle Stanley match as it approached its conclusion but I didn't get to see the finish. The result just came up on screen. Mercifully, it went my way with Stanley winning 2 & 1, but why we didn't see any of the play on 17 instead of watching Karlsson go five up with six to play is anyone's guess?
Anyway, that's more than enough moaning about the TV coverage; I'm starting to irritate myself now!
It was, as it invariable is each year, a day which contained a few first round shocks, with Ernie Els' thrashing of Luke Donald (5 & 4) arguably the biggest. Ian Poulter crashing out to Sang-Moon Bae was certainly unexpected too but the day will be remembered more for the amount of turnarounds.
Jim Furyk let Dustin Johnson off the hook, messing up the last in regulation when one up, before making a right pig's ear of the 2nd in extra time after Dustin had driven into the desert! And Bill Haas lost his match against Ryo Ishikawa after being thee up with five to play but the biggest turnaround came in the Jason Day - Rafael Cabrera-Bello match...
I confess, having already seen Zach Johnson and Justin Rose get beat, and with Ben Crane about to join them I was a bit fed up to say the least at one stage last night. Kyle Stanley was on the ropes, having gone from two up to one down in his match and Jason Day wasn't on the ropes, he was on the canvas and the count was fast approaching ten! It looked highly likely that my two main fancies were going out and that of my eight picks I was going to be left with just three but then Stanley turned his match round and Cabrera-Bello choked big style.
Three down with three to play was a desperate situation for Day to be in and he was matched at the maximum of [1000.0], albeit only for a couple of quid. There was more available and I looked and looked at it without taking any but I'm not moaning. I am grateful though - Cabrera-Bello saw the winning line and dodged it, bogeying the last three to relinquish his lead and there was an air of inevitability about Day's birdie on the first extra hole to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat.
I've had two in-running plays so far and I'm waiting for a third to be matched. I've now got Nick Watney onside at [32.0]; as I fancy he could well get past Woods and Stanley's section has opened up nicely with Donald and Scott both going out so I've had a modest top-up on him. I'm also trying to back Y.E Yang. I'm partially matched at [65.0] and hopeful that I'll get the rest matched before kick-off.
Rory McIlroy [11.5], who himself very nearly mucked up his first round match against George Coetzee, now heads the market, narrowly over Lee Westwood at [12.5]. Martin Kaymer is [14.5] and so is Tiger Woods. After an unconvincing performance against Gonzo, Woods is merely a point shorter than he was before the off.
The two eye-catching ties of round two are Tiger Woods against Nick Watney and Kyle Stanley against Brad Snedeker. The Watney -Woods match up looks really tight but I quite fancy Watney to prevail, especially if Tiger performs as poorly as he did yesterday. The Stanley - Snedeker match is interesting as it's a chance for Stanley to avenge his playoff defeat to Snedeker at the recent Farmers Insurance Open. Fingers crossed.
Getting five of eight pre-event picks through to day two is more than acceptable, with the Day turnaround being the big obvious plus. I'll be hoping for a similar sort of day today and I'll back tomorrow with a look at where to go next.
WGC Match Play pre-event picks:
Jason Day @ [38.0]
Kyle Stanley @ [60.0]
Justin Rose @ [80.0]
Ben Crane @ [85.0]
Louis Oosthuizen @ [95.0]
Zach Johnson @ [120.0]
Francesco Molinari [130.0]
In-running plays:
Kyle Stanley @ [30.0]
Nick Watney @ [32.0]
Y.E Yang @ [65.0] (only partially matched as at 11.00am Thursday)
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