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It was supposed to be so easy…..well it was looking that way after day 1 when Aiken and Byrd sat on top of the pile, looking down on the rest. However it wasn’t to be as the two tournament favourites battled back to win clearly in the end.

Moving on to this week and we stay in the same part of the world with both tours as we take in the Joburg and the Sony Open in Hawaii.

Starting with the Joburg Open and the main player here is Masters Winner Charl Schwartzel. The 4/1 on him has long gone (although Bwin and Sporting bet haven’t priced up the market yet) and he is widely available at 7/2.

Now 7/2 might be skinnier than an anorexic model but given the fact he’s won this in the past two years and came fourth in 09 makes him the stand out pick.

E/W value can be found in the guise of Jean-Baptiste Gonnet, or John the Baptist to his mates. His three rounds here read 5/MC/T12. Currently a whopping 119/1 on the exchanges (66/1) with the bookies, he’s a viable bet to lay option should he make a fast start as he did last year by shooting an opening day round of 67.

Finally we have a small e/w chance with Sportinglife’s choice of Neil Schietekat. Talking to the Sunshine Tour's official website he said: "I played this course every Tuesday and Thursday morning when I was an amateur and I have just got to know it really well so I look forward to playing it in competition every year”. At 300/1 in places, he’s worth a small poke.


The Sony Open in Hawaii is played at Waialae Country Club and is a Par 70 Course.

As its a par 70, par 5’s are at a premium, so you’d need some one with has good performances on the Par 3’s and 4’s as well as a good putting average to take advantage of any birdie opportunities that come that their way, oh and a decent driving accuracy % wouldn’t go a miss either.

Zach Johnson, pipped by Tiger in his last event, is a previous winner here. He was 8th in driving accuracy last year, was T27 on par 4 performances and was in the top 30 for putts per round. With all that in mind I’ll have him the main bet this week.

To go with Zach Johnson step forward Steve Marino.

Not a name that many will know but with 3 top 10 finishes in his last 3 tournaments here, he is a solid e/w bet.

Chad Campbell makes up this weeks trio. Not the greatest of players but he does seem to have an affinity to this place with recent form figures of T13 / T8 / T10. Again, an e/w bet.

Bonus Fortuna