OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP GOLF ....

FINAL DAY MATCH UPS AND OUTRIGHT

JIM FURYK- RETIEF GOOSEN

ROSS FISHER - LEE WESTWOOD

Furyk and Goosen will both be eyeing up a big run at the Claret Jug, sitting as they do, three and two strokes respectively off the pace. I have recently pinpointed Furyk as a winner about to happen and it could be today, in a tournament where he has several big finishes and has performed incredibly solidly on the final day, with eight consecutives Sunday rounds at par or better. With conditions set to be tough, the wind is already blowing and rain forecast later in the day , that toughness and mental fortitude will serve him well today. Retief is a player I admire and he looked at ease in the wind yesterday, but I cannot get last week's final round collapse out of my mind and he has had a couple of final day howlers in the event to his name and it is quite some time since he scored well on a Open final day. Slim Jim for me, he has a low ball strike and is a proven winner in the wind.

5.6 points Furyk -112 to beat Goosen Pinnacle Sports.

The two great British hopes meet in my other match and I will side with the younger Fisher, who is very unlucky not to be coming here as US Open champion. He was the best player that week, but could not buy a putt, eventually coming up frustratingly short. However, that gave him an enormous amout of confidence and he looks and feels that he is now ready to win on the world stage. Fisher is the real deal and could win today. Westwood has played as well as anyone this week, but the odd wayward shot is costing him dear, which has been the sory for him in recent years. Lee has never been a links player and only has one high Open finish to his name in an illustrious career. Now people are saying that he is "due" an Open which seems very odd to me and I certainly do not think that he has as strong a game for Turnberry as Fisher, who was oozing confidence in his post match interview and is seemingly untroubled by prevailing conditions. To succeed at golf , which is lalyed 90% between the ears, you need to be mentally tough and Fisher seems very strong in this aspect and I expect him to handle the conditions better than most today.

5.5 points Fisher to beat Westwood 2.08 Pinnacle Sports.

Tom Watson leads the way on four under par and despite my bets, I would love to see him win, but I do not expect him at 59 years of age to perform for a fourth straight day in such tough conditions. It would be a tough ask for Goggin one stroke off the pace to win at this stage of his career and so we are left with Fisher, Westwood, Goosen, Cink and Furyk the only other players under par. I think the winner is likely to come from these, we could see a low score posted from one of the others and conditions deteriorate, but this is a classy group and one is bound to shoot low today.

I feel that Furyk will handle the wind as well as anyone and although he has a little ground to make up on the rest at -1, that makes the price and I simply do not see him outside the top 4, a spot he has filled on three previous occasions, alongside a 5th place finish last year. He has made the fewest errors of anyone this week, just five bogeys and that will be a key stat today, when keeping errors to a minimum will take you an awfully long way up the leaderboard.

3 points each way Jim Furyk 10.0 1/5 odds 1234 general quote.

A few words about Henrik Stenson for subscribers, he played really well yesterday and looked set to start today in the top ten, before dropping two strokes at the 18th. He is in a tie for 14th spot with about a million other golfers, but looks good for a top 20 finish to land our original bet and a steady start today to shake off the disappointment of the final hole yesterday, is likely to see him force his way into the top ten, which would land our "pressing" bet and be the icing on the cake.

Good Luck.