The Open

Paddy Power offering 7 places e/w again on this one. Rose came up trumps for me eventually at the last Major, but there have been 17 different winners in the last 18 majors so I'm not backing him this time. Mickelson is in top links form winning the Scottish Open last week but isn't great value at 16/1. I'll still back him though along with McDowell who's bizarrely won 3 and missed 5 cuts in his last 8 tourny's. He's 25/1 and I also fancy Snedeker who's great value at 45/1.

As far as outsiders go, Branden Grace lost in a play-off to Mickelson last week so is well worth a couple quid e/w at 60/1. Also Oosthuizen has the game to win the Open again, and Manassero are both at 70/1 so are both worth a quid or so.

I love the Majors... 

I've done £20 eachway on tiger woods @ 9-1, seven places with William Hills, that's a steal if you ask me. Make a profit if he finishes in the top seven with guaranteed benign conditions. He can leave his driver in his locker.

Also done Harrington @70-1 and Laird @80-1 small stakes.

The Ashes and the Open for the next 4 days!

I love the first day best of all, will probably tune in around 9 and hang in most of the day.

Jim Furyk would be me fancy if I could be arsed to put a bet on.

Ps. Open, Lords Test and a double to the top of the Alpe d'Huez, two lappies and the TV should cover it.

Ok, so which of you lumped on Shiv Kapur?

No Brits in with a sniff at the mo.

Not me. I'd never even heard of him until now. 6 birdies in the first 7 holes while everyone else is struggling this afternoon.

Though Mickleson was a bit childish saying the pin positions were unfair when he went out in the benign morning conditions and is 2 under par! Poulter showed himself up as well by saying the 18th had a windmill and a clown face like a crazy golf course, prick.

Woods has got himself 1 under with some great golf over the last few holes. He's putting well so I'm hoping he'll go on a birdie blitz in the morning. Martin Laird is also 1 under so I'm not doing too badly. Haven't heard anything of Harrington yet so I reckon he's struggling.

Oli Fisher and Laird the only Brits under par, Westwood covered the pin placement, "all on the green".

El Tigre finished on -2 and he should improve having been out of the game for a bit, the Shiv had fallen away a yad but looks to have some game.

Funny round from Tiger. He was out of sorts to begin with and then started to put brilliantly but a couple of times he had long birdie putts which ran by so far he they went off the green!

The ground is so parched already though it is going to be nigh on impossible to stop balls near the hole come Sunday. The wind direction is set to change tomorrow which will make it a totally new course for the last three rounds, and Saturday and Sunday it is going to be a much stronger wind for the leaders so a really tough tournament, as it should be.

Really hard course now and the wind is set to be slightly stronger again today so I doubt whether anyone will finish below par.

Tiger's still right there in the thick of it but Westwood went toe to toe with him yesterday and came out with a two shot lead.

I've been critical of Westwood in the past because I've thought that he hasn't quite got the steel required to win a major. In others he's tended to play safely and hasn't got the killer instinct of Woods or Mickelson, as well as having a poor short game, but yesterday he looked totally comfortable leading and playing the extremely difficult conditions.

His short game was better than Woods and he seemed to know exactly when to play aggressively and when to settle for the middle of the green.

Of course anything can happen today, and it will probably swing from one way to another the entire round, unless of course Westwood comes out and makes early birdies. If he does that then it will rule out most of the chasing pack from early on.

It's a pretty good line up still in contention though with Westwood, Woods, Mahan, Scott, Mickelson, Cabrera, Zach Johnson and Henrick Stenson all well in contention.

I'm still rooting for Tiger as I've bet on him but I wouldn't say I'm as confident of him winning as I was yesterday because Westwood looked to have his measure.

I don't have any wedge on Westwood but as a patriotic Englishman, I'd love him to win it.

My bets are looking a little ropey too. Could do with Phil winning or at least top 7, then if Snedeker can sneak top 7 that'd return a nice profit. Out all day so will watch it tonight with a few beers - just need to avoid finding out the result!

 

Wish I'd had more than a fiver e/w on him now, but £100 back is still decent.  

Deserved win for Mickelson,anyone who shoots 66 on that course on the last day is a worthy winner and it was a Nicklaus type charge over the last few holes.I thought Scott was going to do it at one stage but he fell away,as did people like Westwood,Woods,Mahan etc.Good tournament IMHO,nice to see a different type of golf from that played on the USPGA circuit.

Great tournament and although I can't stand Mickelson I've got to say he played amazingly and deserved to win. Tiger never got going and Westwood was as poor today as he was brilliant yesterday. I don't think he'll ever win a major.

Poulter on a charge was fantastic and I thought he might get in at level par and in with a great chance but the wind definitely eased over the last few holes when he needed others to drop shots.

Bit of a gripe about the BBC though, you hardly saw Mickelson at all until the last six or seven holes while Westwood and Woods were shown constantly. Still far better than Sky.

Hey jock...

I was saw the score and saw Mickleson had won. I know nothing really about golf and don't really know much about Mickleson, but from what I have seen of Mickleson, he comes across as a nice (good?) guy.

So why can't you stand him?

I thought Westwood talked a good story before the last round but when it came to it, he looked increasingly like a rabbit caught in the headlights and froze.
The pressure of a first major seems just too much for some. Mind you, it took Mickelson a long time and lots of near misses before he broke his duck. The way he attacked and seemed to relish the challenge was in stark contrast to Lee's gradual capitulation.

Rickler wrote:

Hey jock...

I was saw the score and saw Mickleson had won.  I know nothing really about golf and don't really know much about Mickleson, but from what I have seen of Mickleson, he comes across as a nice (good?) guy.

So why can't you stand him?

Hi Rickler,

It's just a thing I have about him, he lollops around like a farmer doffing his cap and smiling profusely when things are going well and everyone seems to love him but it's a different matter when he's having a bad day at the office. Not that it's wrong to be a bit grumpy when things go wrong, it's just the way he's portrayed by the media as always affable when it's not true.

I also hate the way the American crowds are blatantly pro-Mickelson when it comes to him and Tiger Woods in a battle and I think it's a race thing.

For me Woods is or was a much better player and yet never had the same adulation as Mickelson even though he was winning more.

Some of it stems back to a few years ago when he lost me a lot of money by just pissing about for the last few holes of a tournament he knew he couldn't win but he could still have finished in the top 5. He started experimenting with shots and dropped shots all over the place.

In a nutshell it's basically groundless