The Punter's In-Play Blog: Lawrie leads the way

Paul Lawrie at the Nedbank Challenge

Steve grumbles his way through the week's first update, as last week's wager shows the way in South Africa at the Nedbank Challenge, where our man is not exactly enamoured by the coverage! 

16:40 - November 30, 2012

I really don't like to moan (that's a lie, I love it) but the coverage of the Nedbank Challenge really is something else. It is absolutely unwatchable. 

Despite the fact that there are only 12 competitors, the odds on the audience getting to see more than two consecutive shots by the same player are astronomical. The coverage jumps around from one group to another with seemingly neither rhyme nor reason, and the shots that are shown are all random. Occasionally the cameraman manages to follow the flight of the ball but half the time you just have to guess where it's landed!

To make matters worse, I fancy the assorted commentators, who by and large are appalling (you know they're bad when you're relieved to hear Sam Torrance and Ewan Murray back at the mike!), have no idea what's going on either, as they never fill you in on what's happened, you just have to wait for an infrequent scoreboard update! I stuck it out live for about an hour yesterday but that was all I could muster and I watched the remainder on Sky Plus as fast as I could.  

Leaving the dire coverage aside, I can't say the halfway leaderboard provides me with much cheer either, with last week's pick, Paul Lawrie, leading the way on -4, one clear of Martin Kaymer, three ahead of Bill Haas, Francesco Molinari, Louis Oosthuizen and Charl Schwartzel and four shots ahead of this week's pre-event selection, Lee Westwood - who, on the evidence of what little I've seen so far, is struggling with every aspect of his game. 

Martin Kaymer now heads what is a very tight market at 4.216/5, with Lawrie just a fraction bigger. Oosthuizen is trading as third best but caution is advised there as the South African was unwell today with a stomach bug. He may well feel better tomorrow but he didn't look great at all and, if you pardon the pun, it may have taken a lot out of him. 

I'm going to leave the event alone for now and see what tomorrow brings. I'll be hoping Westwood can repeat last year's third round, when he shot 62 to pull clear, but I'm not confident.

Over at the World Challenge, I'm happy enough with the start of my only selection, Tiger Woods, who sits three shots off the early pace, set by Nick Watney. Tiger looked a bit rusty with his irons at times but what was really encouraging was the lengthy par saves he made. When Tiger was at his peak you could almost give him a ten-footer for par and he made at least three from around that distance yesterday. 

Hopefully he'll have knocked the rust off now and I can hope for a bit better this evening because if Watney picks up from where he left off (birdied four of the last six holes) he'll need to get his skates on.

I haven't done anything here in-running as yet either but I guess when you start the week by backing the two favourites, that's understandable. 

Nedbank Challenge Selection:
Lee Westwood @ 5.04/1

World Challenge Selection:
Tiger Woods @ 4.03/1

* You can follow me on Twitter @SteveThePunter