The first two days of the Paul Lawrie Matchplay have seen 75% of the field come and go and now the tournament really hots up.
16 men remain in the hunt for the title and a decent first prize and from here on in the man who lifts the trophy on Sunday afternoon will have to play 36 holes per day so not only is this a survival of the best golf but it will become a test of stamina too.
We had to wait until the second round before we got a major shock but it came on Friday when the number one seed James Morrison was well beaten by Johan Carlsson. Apart from that though the majority of matches on Friday went as expected so we have a really strong last 16 draw.
A sign of how strong the field remains comes in the outright market when although there are only 16 players left and we know the scheduled draw for the rest of the tournament the favourite to win is still 8/1. In fact there are three on that price – Chris Wood, Richie Ramsay and David Howell. Two more men – Marc Warren and Tyrell Hatton are a point bigger at 9/1.
Unfortunately I lost two of my outrights on Friday when Matthew Fitzpatrick lost on the 19th hole and Alejandro Canizares ran into a train in the form of Robert Karlsson but I’ve still got Chris Wood and Gregory Havret fighting my corner over the weekend which will do me.
Looking ahead to Saturday and there are two sessions of play. The last 16 matches will be played in the morning with the quarter finals played in the afternoon and by the end of the day there will be just four men left standing.
I’ve got a couple of outrights still going, one from each side of the draw, which I’m happy with but there is one match bet I like on Saturday morning and it comes in the last match out on the course.
One of the hottest players in the field this week has been Tyrell Hatton. He was way too good for Darren Fichardt in the first round and played some stunning golf in seeing off Mikael Lundberg on Friday. Hatton was four under for the 16 holes he played against the Swede and when he is going well he is a birdie machine so this format could be right up his street.
Hatton takes on Peter Uihlein on Saturday morning and I think the American is a good opponent for him. Uihlein missed two absolute tiddlers on the greens on Friday and he’s going to have to putt better in this match to have any chance in it. I get the feeling that although Uihlein can play links golf he doesn’t like to play traditional links shots and if the wind is up that could also go against him so I like Hatton to take care of him here.
Back T.Hatton to beat P.UIhlein for a 4/10 stake at 1.80 with Paddy Power
Blog golf YTD: -9.79pts
