The Punter 
/ Steven Rawlings / 10 February 2011 / Leave a Comment 
Early leader Rory McIlroy playing the 12th hole this morning
"Minutes later the cameras showed Quiros on the 10th green. Was he putting for eagle or birdie? Neither. To my astonishment and bitter disappointment it was for a double-bogey seven, which he then missed. What a start to the week."
It's a dreadful start in Dubai for Steve, as both Alvaro Quiros and Miguel-Angel Jimenez mess up good starts...
I wasn't the least bit surprised by what I found with my first peek at the leaderboard at around 6.30 this morning - Rory McIlroy was five under par through ten holes. The Irishman loves this track and this is where he won his first title. A little further down, on three under par, was my morning starter, Miguel-Angel Jimenez, and I was perfectly happy. Unfortunately, my happiness didn't last long....
Playing the tougher front nine second, Jimenez made no further progress and a complete pig's ear of the 6th. A birdie at the 7th lifted my spirits but then his approach shot on the 9th whacked into the hospitality suite and ricocheted into the water. He finished with another double-bogey and an overall score of level par, which left him seven shots off Rory, who really played well and could have finished further clear.
I was a bit peeved to see Sky take an hour and half's break, just as the three-ball containing the world's top three of Lee Westwood, Martin Kaymer and Tiger Woods start off and felt given the unique circumstances a change to their scheduling wouldn't have gone amiss.
The coverage re-started just in time to see Martin Kaymer do exactly what Jimenez had done on the 9th and make double-bogey via the hospitality suite. Something that wasn't entirely unexpected - he played the hole in five over par last year!
My main pick Alvaro Quiros, playing in the group behind had ticked along very nicely and on two under par, all I wanted him to do was get through the tricky 9th. Surely then, playing the easier nine, with its three par 5's, he could kick on and make some ground up on young Rors.
Oops. Guess what, he too found water via the hospitality boxes too! He did manage to get up-and-down for bogey but this was starting to become a real issue. I didn't think the boxes looked any nearer to the green than they'd been in previous years but the run of watery ricochets suggested otherwise.
As the power group played the 10th I couldn't help but notice that Kaymer was trading at half Westwood's price, despite the fact he trailed the Worksop Wonder by one! Who is the real number one I wonder...
Minutes later the cameras showed Quiros on the 10th green. Was he putting for eagle or birdie? Neither. To my astonishment and bitter disappointment it was for a double-bogey seven, which he then missed. What a start to the week - it appeared I was out of the game with all my pre-event picks and I hadn't even had my lunch!
With Rory making such a good start, and with Westwood chugging along well, Kaymer's price was holding up quite well and I decided, as I'm not big on either Rory or Westy, I'd try and get him onside. I waited while he played the tough 14th and 15th, and again delayed as he pared the 15th, then struck, taking [5.5], as he drove the par 4 16th green.
Westwood's bogey at the last helps Kaymer's cause but guess who made eagle to make a poor day so much better. It was typical Tiger - tenacious to the end.
I made two further in-running plays, taking [80.0] about Richard Sterne and [200.0] about Pablo Martin - who's fared considerably better than when he was a pre-event pick last week. As I write, he's five under with a hole to play.
I'm still waiting to see if I get a small bet matched on Phil Mickelson at [10.5] in the States. I must be getting close to the front of the queue now.
It's a dreadful start in Dubai for Steve, as both Alvaro Quiros and Miguel-Angel Jimenez mess up good starts......
Steve snubs "too short" Kaymer in favour of three amigos, as the race for the world number one slot grabs all the attention in Dubai.......
It's a frustrating week for the Punter, as a near miss in Qatar is followed by a winner in the States that's a year too late!...
No comments:
Post a Comment