The Punter's In-Play Blog: Are we all set for a Tiger & Rory showdown at the Players Championship?

Tiger Woods at Sawgrass yesterday. Will he kick on today?

Steve looks back on day one of The Players Championship, where both Rory McIlroy and Tiger Woods have shrugged off some poor Sawgrass form and started well...

11.20 - May 10, 2013
Possibly inspired by the unheralded Derek Ernst's win last week, Roberto Castro, ranked 267 in the world, tied the course record at Sawgrss yesterday with a sensational nine under-par 63, opening up a very early three stroke lead, over Zach Johnson and Rory McIlroy.

It's probably safe to assume that Castro won't be on the premises all week long but hopefully he'll start to get some recognition now. He tweeted this before last month's RBC Heritage at Hilton Head.

Off to a strong start this week. "Can I get a yardage book please?" "Ya, sure. Who are you caddying for?" #playBetter

The front three all played in the slightly less tricky morning conditions (averaged 0.74 strokes easier) but it wasn't long before the afternoon guys got into gear too and one man in particular, Tiger Woods, looked most impressive, as he constructed an excellent opening 67 - breaking 70 in round one for the first time at Sawgrass.

As detailed in the preview, Woods' Sawgrass record is far from spectacular but he was on-song yesterday and it's no surprise to see him a firm 4.216/5 favourite this morning, although I'm far more tempted by Rory at 7.06/1.

The Irishman's stats were superb last week but given he'd missed three cuts and never broken par at Sawgrass previously, it didn't make sense to risk him before the off and the world's top two, as strange as it sounds, have come into the event and gotten themselves in to contention, somewhat under the radar.

If you discount Castro, it's an extremely congested leaderboard, oozing with class. Major winners, Zach Johnson and Webb Simpson and top-drawer players, Steve Stricker and Hunter Mahan, also hold an early position in the top-nine on the leaderboard and in the large group lurking on -4, are former winners, Sergio Garcia and Henrik Stenson, so it's far too soon to start billing this The Tiger & Rory Show.

Johnson's been a pick in this a few times for me over the years and had he been trading at the 110.0109/1 he went off at yesterday, earlier in the week, he'd have been included in my preview as a pre-event pick. I like him now at the prices and I also backed Webb last night at 27.026/1.

Simpson claimed after the round that he loves Pete Dye courses and that he grew up on one - Wilmington. He came very close to winning at another Pete Dye course - Hilton Head, just two starts ago, when he lost a playoff to Graeme McDowell and he looks a fair price to me this morning still.

If Woods shoots out of the boxes and goes clear today then so be it but I'm not going to back him. I can't get his low success-rate at the track (only one win in 15 outings) out of my mind and I'm going to swerve him.

The plan today is to track it closely and look to add Rory at the right time (if at all). If Woods stutters in the morning, then the 7.06/1 he trades at currently looks huge but he could find himself a long way back by the time he tees off and with the wind forecast to blow slightly harder then, it makes sense to hang fire now but he has a good record from this position...

He's opened up with a 66 or better nine times on the PGA tour so far and he's won four times. And the last twice he's played a Pete Dye design (Kiawah Island -PGA Championship and Crooked Stick - Deutsche Bank Championship) he's won. Maybe we shouldn't be at all surprised by yesterday's round after all.

Pre-Event Picks
Luke Donald @ 24.023/1
Phil Mickelson @ 30.029/1
Ben Crane @ 140.0139/1
First round Leader Bet (paced after the preview)
Ben Crane @ 110.0109/1 (LOST)

In-Play Bets
Zach Johnson @ 26.025/1
Webb Simpson @ 27.026/1

I'll be in the morning with a look at the state of play at halfway.

*You can follow me on Twitter @SteveThePunter