Update: 5-0 and +5.05 units for the day   9-7-2 and +1.05 units for the week

Wow! What a comeback! And the one by Furyk wasn't too bad either! LOL! Absolute disaster on the 72-hole matchup front losing all five of them But a storming week on the 18-hole front capped off by a very satisfying Sunday. They weren't even close either Price, Singh and Verplank won by four, Duval and Furyk won by five.

Next week it's the Honda Classic. Back on Wednesday with some better tournament picks.

No headway with the 3rd round picks. Faldo and Allenby won; van de Velde and Brooks lost; Mickelson and Norman pushed. On the 72-hole matchup front every single one is losing or has lost

The first is Nick Price to beat Robert Damron and so avenge our defeat as his hands yesterday. Damron had a storming 65 yesterday to pull him up to 6th place. He has been as high as this after three rounds just six times in the last three years and while he has never collapsed to a place out of the top-20 nor won from this position, his lack of experience is the complete opposite to that of Major winner Nick Price. Not as much of a winner as a couple of seasons ago, when as with all these forty-somethings when they're in the hunt they have at least one extra gear reserved for Sundays. Expected worse odds.

The next is another I expected to be a worse price: Vijay Singh to beat Brad Faxon. Singh was identified as a likely winner of this event earlier in the week; that now seems unlikely but now that the course is beginning to restore some of its pride as what little wind there is rises, this is turning less into the putting contest which favours Faxon so much. Unless the early reports are of very low scores and no wind - nothing to suggest that so far - then Faxon should continue his slide out of the tournament leaving it up to Vijay how much effort he wants to put into today's round.

A third is again another reasonably-priced favorite, Duval to beat Tway. After Friday's sparkling 64, it must have been disappointing for Duval to not have made further progress in round three. Apparently his game is almost at the level it was twelve months ago and there are few better ball-strikers in the game. May not have quite the psychological effect as Tiger, but in 11th place there will be a lot of leaderboard watching for the final groups as they know how devastating his game can be and that is likely to have an effect on Tway who will be playing in the pairing ahead of Duval. Any charge on his part and the disruption will be most heavily felt by that group. Don't expect Duval to give up, it's rare for him to speak publicly about how good he's playing so to save face he'll need at least a top-5 finish.

The next is the time-honored tradition of opposing the 3rd round leader. Again thought the odds would be shorter, but I suppose Langham is up against Furyk who is hardly a prolific winner of tournaments! But the important factor of experience is just not there with Langham. He has never led a tournament after three rounds not has he played in the final group on a Sunday. He has only ever been in the top-10 after the penultimate round four times in his career! Furyk may just be too much of a name to unsettle Langham even if his game does not, and with Duval, Singh and Price all within charging distance it could be a nervous afternoon for Langham. Furyk by default only!

Finally, Scott Verplank is expected to beat Ted Tryba. Verplank has masses of experience playing in the final groups on Sundays and very rarely fails to deliver a solid round. He lies 6th today, on the two occasions he was 6th or 7th going into Sunday's round last year he shot 67. Contrast that to Tryba who, apart from when starting Sunday in the top-3, has no broken 70 in the final round of a tournament since the start of last year when in the top-25 after round three. As a nice underdog, this looks a very nice offering.

Staking plan:

Nick Price to beat Robert Damron @ -130 with GoTo or Moneyplays

Vijay Singh to beat Brad Faxon @ -130 with the Starnet books

David Duval to beat Bob Tway @ -130 with the Starnet books

Jim Furyk to beat Franklin Langham -115 with GoTo or Moneyplays

Scott Verplank to beat Ted Tryba @ +105 with Bowmans or Carib

Quite a number of 3rd round matchups on offer, of which I like quite a few. The first Robert Allenby to beat his playing partner J.L. Lewis. Ladbrokes and Sportingbet make Allenby a clear favorite; Stan James make them equal. I think they have it wrong. Allenby has an almost perfect game for this course: good ball management and experienced on Bermuda greens. It is no surprise that he is back in the top-20 this week. For J.L. Lewis, with only one top-20 finish this year, it is more ominous, particularly as we normally oppose players the day after they shoot an exceptionally low round. He currently lies 13th; other than 3rd at the Bob Hope, his best 2nd round placing this year was 14th at the Buick Invitational; he finished the tournament in 38th place.

The next is Mark Brooks to beat Robert Damron. Both are some way out of the lead in 38th place, but a lot of distance can be made up on "moving day". Brooks was in the 30s after the 2nd round four times last year, three times he shot a sub-70 round. With Damron having missed the cut in his last four tournaments, he has achieved his goal for this week after yesterday's 67. Don't expect a similar charge today.

Again a matchup off the leaderboard: Faldo and Maginnes. Here I thing Faldo will play particularly well today. Faldo can be disappointed to be as low as 56th as he has apparently been striking the ball really well. It is also a confidence-booster to come back to a course in which you have won [1995]. But it must be remembered he has been paired with John Daly for the first two days. Not an ideal playing companion for someone so focused! Daly duly finished his tournament in last place and it will be a great weight off Faldo's shoulders to play 'uninhibited' today. Like Damron, Maginnes' goal this week was to make the cut - he has missed five of six this year and he did so only by one shot this week after a 68 yesterday. Won't be able to keep up with a refreshed Faldo.

Two more. Jean van de Velde is the next. He is forecast to beat Len Mattiace who has yet to finish higher than 40th all year. Definitely out of sorts with his game and his current 47th place is one on which he looks unlikely to improve on substantially. For the Frenchman there were signs last week that he was finding his feet on the PGA Tour; he was 2nd. A good ball-striker [forgetting the you-know-what hole!] and excellent on tough courses [yes, this course is tough], he definitely looks like the most likely to improve on his position and post a respectable finish.

Next up is Phil Mickelson to beat Greg Norman. Lefty had his bad round of the week yesterday and it leaves him seven shots behind 2nd place, which is not an impossible ask. In decent form despite Augusta being to the front of his mind, if he gets off to a decent start a re-focused Mickelson could very easily post another 66 and get himself right back into this tournament. Whether Norman could is more debatable. He has not looked impressive at all since coming over to the States and though he has made the cut this week, there is little to suggest that he could make a similar sort of charge. All-time record money winner at this event, which like Faldo has helped his game, but like Mickelson he will definitely have Augusta foremost in his mind.

Staking plan:

Robert Allenby to beat J.L. Lewis @ +100 [-103 after 3% 'service charge'] with Stan James

Mark Brooks to beat Robert Damron @ -130 with GoTo Casino

Nick Faldo to beat John Maginnes @ -110 with Sportingbet

Jean van de Velde to beat Len Mattiace @ -120 with Sportingbet

Phil Mickelson to beat Greg Norman @ -115 with GoTo Casino 

Won both the 2nd round plays. Vijay won by two shots and Huston by three

However it wasn't so plain sailing on the 72-hole matchup front. Furyk remains tied with Singh and Maruyama shot 65 to pull three shots clear of Huston. Things didn't get any better on the other three matchups. Funk made the cut by one, but Carter also shot 65 to move five shots clear. But at least these matchups are still alive. Mayfair missed the cut by one. Of his opponents, Sluman was an easy victor and DiMarco shot 69 to make the cut by one and so beat Mayfair

Not a great week and really needing the 18-hole plays to salvage some pride. Bask with 3rd round plays in the morning.

Adding two plays for the 2nd round. Not very long odds, so may be best to wait and see if Moneyplays come up with better odds than GoTo. But the basic plan remains the same as yesterday: Florida-based, good-ball strikers with decent form will pull through. So no surprise that I'm sticking with Vijay Singh and John Huston especially when they are paired with no-one more than Harrison Frazar and Ted Tryba

Frazar has never won a PGA tournament nor has been in the lead only once before [Memorial, 1998]. That time his rounds worsened every day, but he still hung on to 4th place. The same can be noted of his previous two visits to the Doral Resort: each time he has opened with a sub-par round, each time he has followed with not a sub-par round. Finally, this season's four outings have all ended on Fridays bar one, a 61st position at the AT&T, so there is certainly a lot of justification for short price!

The same can be said for Ted Tryba. He currently lies in 20th position at 4-under-par with John Huston so he looks like he should improve on his current rate of missing the cut four times in the last six events. Although Florida-based like Huston, he has not been especially successful in this event either. Although he had some promising, though faltering badly, performances in 1997 and 1998, he has missed the cut in every other year since 1995. In short, despite an excellent season last year, there is nothing to suggest that Tryba will still be within sight of Huston by the end of the tournament.

Staking plan, pending Moneyplays lines:

Vijay Singh to beat Harrison Frazar @ -145 with GoTo

John Huston to beat Ted Tryba @ -120 with GoTo

Update:

The course may have been tamed by some spectacular scoring, but there was very little movement in the matchups today. Typical of the day was the solitary 1st round pick. Singh went out this morning and shot 65 to tie for the lead. Furyk went out this afternoon and finally caught Singh and the leaders with a birdie on his final hole. A push then.

Very much the same with the other matchups: Huston trails Maruyama by one, Mayfair leads DiMarco by one, which is the same score by which Fred Funk leads Jim Carter. The only matchup with some daylight in it is an unwanted one: Mayfair trails Sluman by four shots, though there shouldn't be any danger of this matchup being decided at the cut.

The Doral-Ryder Open

Unlike last year, a sizeable proportion of the PGA Tour's elite have stayed on after the World Matchplay to play in the Doral-Ryder Open, even Duval cancelled a snowboarding holiday to file a last-minute entry into this event. Many players had stayed away since Ray Floyd's re-designing of the course in 1996, but armed with briefcases of pictures and drawings about the latest re-design, the organizers have cornered the stay-aways and succeeded in securing some their services this week. A tough course and a better quality field is necessary to stop the interest from waning a week after the Matchplay.

The course is the "Blue Monster" and as may be supposed from its title, there's plenty of water about. But this course is not just about target golf, the successful golfer here will be able to work the ball. As many holes require fades as draws and of course, there's the water which comes into play of nine of the holes. None of which is made any easier by the usually strong winds here in March. The greens are Tifdwarf Bermudagrass and it is no accident that on top of previous winners being solid shot-makers, they have been resident in Florida or Australia where these type of greens predominate.

Florida-based, good course form and decent ball-strikers seem to be the order of the day. Vijay Singh seems to fit that bill perfectly. Ignoring last year's missed cut [he won the Honda Classic the week after], he has finished 4th, 13th, 2nd and 12th in his other starts at Doral. Based in Florida and among the best ball-strikers on the Tour, he really should be posting another top-10 finish this week. When he pitted against fellow-Florida resident Jim Furyk, this should be fairly clear cut. Furyk did post the course record 62 in 1998, but apart from that one round, he has only posted eight other sub-par rounds [from 19] and apart from the 9th place finish in 1998, he had never broken into the top-30 in this event.

The second 72-hole pick is another who would fit the bill of the desired type of golfer - John Huston. He has had rather a volatile history in this event - he has played here every year since 1989, but he has missed the cut five times, won it once, been second once and had one other top-10 finish. But of his five PGA Tour wins, four has been on Bermuda greens. He will also be benefiting, unlike last year when he missed the cut, from an extended rest over the weekend after his early exit from the Matchplay. Maruyama, his selected opponent, also had an extended rest last week, but this is his first trip to this event. Has a game that should cope with the course on paper, but the course is too daunting for a novice, maybe next year.

Also looking for Billy Mayfair to have a good week, and in fact we're doubling up with him as well. He is picked against Chris DiMarco and Jeff Sluman. Although Mayfair was born on the West Coast and still resides there, he has excellent form in this part of the country and in the Doral in particular. He has played in this event every year since 1989 and has missed only one cut since 1992, finishing in the top-20 in each of the last three years and scoring just two rounds out of his last twenty over par. He seems to be on friendly terms with the Blue Monster! The same is not true for Chris DiMarco whose best finish in this event is 43rd [1995] and to a lesser extent, Jeff Sluman, who despite playing in this event consecutively from 1985 to 1998 was a notable absentee last year after some public grumblings about the re-designed course - he could only manage 71st and 36th in 1997 and 1998 respectively; he had previously only had one top-10 finish despite all those attempts! On current form, neither look like attaining that goal this week either. Sluman has looked good, but disappointed, while DiMarco's 2nd place finish last week was in an incomparable field to that of this week.

Finally, another Florida resident is tipped to provide us with a winner: Fred Funk should beat last week's Tucson Open winner, Jim Carter. Funk has played here seven times and made the cut seven times. Admittedly he's never finished higher than 23rd, but if the first goal of picking matchup winners is to pick someone who will make the cut, then Funk is the man! It should be a good criteria against someone who has been playing on the Tour for over a decade and has never been 2nd before, let alone win an event. Rather like Darren Clarke, the need to come down to earth by Thursday is not going to be a major priority. In fact, this should hold even more so for Carter than Clarke because of the financial security that this win means for him: $540,000 and just as important, Tour exemptions. Confidence may be high, but many first-time rookie winners tend to be able to continue their celebrations the following weekend as well!

Staking plan:

Vijay Singh to beat Jim Furyk @ -110 available generally

John Huston to beat Shigeki Maruyama @ -111 with Sportingbet

Billy Mayfair to beat Chris DiMarco @ -111 with Sportingbet

Billy Mayfair to beat Jeff Sluman @ +100 with SOS and Olympic

Fred Funk to beat Jim Carter @ -111 [118 after 3% 'service charge'] with Stan James

Vijay Singh to beat Jim Furyk [1st round] @ -120 with Moneyplays