The Punter's In-Play Blog: Favourites flop as the Finns fly

It's tight at the top at the Joburg Open as our man takes a look at the state of play at halfway in South Africa. Read his initial in-play thoughts for the week here...

We've reached the halfway stage of the Joburg Open and we're faced with an intriguing and puzzling picture to ponder. Here are the latest standings with Sportsbook prices to at 16:40.

Tapio Pulkkanen -14 9/2
Shubhankar Sharma -13 13/2
Erik Van Rooyen -12 11/2
Mikko Korhonen -12 6/1
JB Hansen -10 25/1
Daniel Brooks -10 25/1
Steven Brown -10 28/1
James Morrison -9 22/1
Adrien Saddier -9 33/1
Charlie Ford -9 60/1
-8 and 10/1 bar

It's a notable leaderboard for a number of reasons. Firstly, it contains no pre-tournament strong fancies. Louis Oosthuizen, who was a warm favourite on Monday, had to withdraw because of a freak injury to his fingers picked up via an airport trolley and last week's winner, Dylan Frittelli, who replaced him at the head of the market, finished poorly today to drop ten strokes off the lead. The South African was still very much in the hunt this morning and he was matched at just 10.00 at one point but tiredness may well have been a factor as he bogeyed three of his last five holes.

The defending champ, Darren Fichardt, hasn't made the cut and my other pick, Dean Burmester, despite the fact that he was the favourite to win after round one, has only just made it! After a six-under-par start on Thursday, around £10k was matched on Burmester at 7.20 and below before he started his second round today we three bogeys in his first five holes! He rallied on the back-nine to scrape in but just like Frittelli, he has too much to do now.

The only pre-event market leader in the reckoning is George Coetzee but he managed to hinder himself today too. Having got to within five of the lead with two holes to play, Coetzee made a complete mess of the par five 17th at the Bushwillow Course and he needed a monstrously long birdie putt at the 18th to get back to within six but he's still outside the top -ten listed above and so are many other South Africans...

Eight of the 11 Joburg Open winners to date (and seven of the last eight) have been South Africans so it's somewhat surprising to see just one, Erik Van Rooyen, in the top-ten at halfway. Van Rooyen may be the only South African in the top-ten but he's one of four that graduated to the European Tour courtesy of finishing inside the top-15 on the Challenge Tour money list last season. The other three are the leader, Finland's Tapio Pulkkanen, Englishman, Steve Brown, and Frenchman, Adrien Saddier.

It's a long time since I ran the rule over such a tricky looking leaderboard and if we're to follow the fine record of South Africans then Van Rooyen should perhaps be the play but I'm going to shout on the two Finns - Pulkkanen and Mikko Korhonen.

I backed the former, who finished the Challenge Tour season as the number one ranked player last season, early this morning in-running (when I also threw away a few pounds backing Frittelli!) and I followed in Joe Dyer and Paul Krishnamurty with Korhonen yesterday. He impressed me in-contention at the Portugal Masters last year and he's been a player I've been keeping an eye on ever since. He's definitely up to breaking his duck in a tournament like this and I was pleased to see Joe put him up in the each-way column and Paul in his Find Me a 100 Winner piece.

The QBE Shootout on the PGA Tour, which I've previewed here, has only just started and it's live on Sky 18:30.

Joburg Open Pre-Event Selections:
Dean Burmester @ 28.00
Darren Fichardt @ 28.00

Joburg Open In-Play Picks
Tapio Pulkkanen @ 14.00
Dylan Frittelli @ 16.00
Mikko Korhonen @ 26.00

QBE Shootout Pre-Event Selections:
Steve Stricker and Sean O'Hair @ 24.00