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Buick Open @ Betfair

FINAL RESULT:

Loss = 10.6 pts

Bank is now £552.73 after 16 weeks (Down 22.36 pts overall).

Summary:
Almost got away with it but Daly's remarkable run just gave way too soon.
Think I'll jack in the laying as I don't seem to do too well at it!



Post 3rd round summary:
If you ever listen to me again you need shooting. Oppose two players and what do they do? 13 birdies and no bogeys between them, and from opposing them at a combined 11/8 they are now not far off a combined 1/3. And that looks a decent price with Vijay having converted all his last six third-round leads in the US.
Even for two of the world's best those two scores took some doing and consequently I hold out very little hope for tomorrow apart from possibly Furyk being due a birdie blitz after another bogey-free day but only two birdies made. Don't expect much from Daly tomorrow after his putting performance today (how can he follow that?) and it'll be amazing if Franco can rise to the occasion after the fortnight he's had. To put it bluntly I'm counting the losses already.

Page Update #3 (prior to 3rd round):
(Winner market)
Lay Vijay Singh 2.75 pts @ 4.4
Lay Tiger Woods 2.25 pts @ 4.8
Laying these two at a combined price of shorter than 11/8 as I feel there are doubts surrounding them at present, and there are 24 players within four shots of the lead. Singh predictably didn't sink many putts yesterday after his brilliant first round, and there is no guarantee he will revert back to a good putting round today; much more likely, in my opinion, that he'll be outperformed by others in that area. I'm not sure Woods will win as I still can't see he's back to his best, and I think he'd need to be with the current leaderboard. I can only find 5 wins of his where he was 8th or worse (currently tied 8th with 3 others) after two rounds and he has definitely been outpointed far more often when he is chasing the leaders.
Have to be massively hopeful of a Furyk victory; he hasn't missed a fairway yet and lies tied 2nd for greens hit also. What wrist problems? He loves this course and is putting very well too, if he's not right in the mix after tonight I'll be shocked to say the least. Click the image below to see the book. Funk was a non-runner.




Page Update #2:
(Winner market)
Back Brian Gay 0.5 pts @ 210
Back Steve Stricker 0.5 pts @ 230
Just fancy a couple of longshots to finalise the team this week, both at much longer prices than they've been on occasions in recent weeks.
Gay blows hot and cold but I think there are good reasons to hope for this being one of the better weeks. He bounced back from 3 missed cuts in May to play well in the Colonial, being joint leader after three rounds but badly collapsing on the final nine on Sunday, and then shrugging off that disappointment by making the top five the very next week. His form then regressed and four missed cuts preceeded last week's appearance, where he caught my eye being tied-7th after three rounds before suffering Sunday struggles again and ultimately settling in tied-27th. If he is about to hit form and contend again, just like the pattern of late May, this course is ideal judging on his tied-6th in 2001 and tied-2nd to Tiger (being tied-1st for number of putts) in 2002.
Stricker was well fancied last week but got off to a terrible start by bogeying the first two and falling to five over par on day one; his winning chance was all gone with the tournament barely started. In the circumstances he did really well to fight back, remembering this was his favourite tournament of the season in front of his home fans, and after starting round two 10 shots off the lead he shot 66-68-70 to finish 12 behind the winner. He was tied-6th here in 1998 and over 200/1 is big when thinking of his fightback last week combined with his previous finish of tied-4th a fortnight before, at the John Deere Classic.

Page Update #1:
(Winner market)
Back Jim Furyk 2.5 pts @ 25
Back Fred Funk 1.5 pts @ 55
Am rarely concerned with driving accuracy when picking selections but I've read plenty about the key to this course being keeping drives on fairways, enabling the player to be in the perfect position to attack the flags, on these large, undulating greens, with a short iron. Therefore, even without looking at course form these two would seem obvious candidates; Funk is almost always #1 on tour in straight driving and Furyk is almost always top ten in the category.
So when considering course form I end up not being able to resist them this week. Furyk is defending champion and just loves it here, with his previous four years finishes being a second place, two other top tens and a 16th. We all know that he is coming back from major wrist surgery but after making the cut at the US Open, his first event back, he was a fantastic 7th at the Western Open and that told me he was ready. A missed cut at Troon (by a single shot) doesn't worry me an ounce and I'm sure he sees this week as his first real chance to win since returning.
Funk has missed this event just twice since his first visit in 1989 and he has 12 top-25s from 14 completions, including a best of 2nd two years ago and 6 other finishes in the top dozen. His 2004 form hasn't been as consistent as usual, but 2nd place last week was his best finish all year and he ran all the way to the line when others were faltering. It sees him going into this event in better form than almost ever before and, with his 6th place at the US Open just over a month ago still fresh in the mind, another week in contention looks a real possibility.