Steven Rawlings / 13 June 2009 Free Bet

With no event in Europe this week, all my attention has been on Memphis, Tennessee and the St Jude Classic. Of my three selections, the two outsiders have been very poor and both will comfortably miss the cut but my main pick, Brian Gay, has been well and truly dialled in.

An opening round 64 saw my man right back to form and atop of the leaderboard - a great start. With an early tee-time yesterday it would have been easy to get greedy and hope for, or even expect, another low round but I told myself I'd be happy with a follow up of two under and delighted with three under. I ended up being disappointed with four under!

He set out his stall early yesterday, birdying the 1st hole and cracking on from there and by the time he teed it up on the 9th he was five under for the day, pushing clear and absolutely flying. Lovely, I could do with a nice stress-free weekend I thought, but it's never that easy. A visit to the water led to a bogey at the 9th and for the first time, question marks were appearing.

Mercifully he steadied the ship, playing the next six holes in two under, and when he stood over a birdie putt on the 16th of just seven feet he was matched at a low of [2.22]. I hadn't yet hit the pink button, was looking at a substantial win, and hadn't a care in the world, but he missed that and then bogeyed the last two holes!

I'd liked the look of Woody Austin before kick off and was more than happy to take an average of [23.0] as he closed out his second round. Playing alongside Gay, he hit his approach shot to nine feet on the 18th and knowing Gay was in a spot of bother, I thought the price was more than fair. He made birdie to Gay's bogey and is now just three back.

Of the afternoon starters, the big closer was Robert Allenby and he's now within two of Gay and he still hasn't finished his second round. Poor weather led to a suspension of play and some players have as much as half of their second rounds to play. David Toms has just four to play and will come back to a two foot birdie putt to also close to within two.

With two days to go I'm in a strong position but I was very disappointed with Gay's finish yesterday and I have my doubts as to whether he can hold on. If he'd made the seven foot birdie putt on the 16th and pared the last two it wouldn't have mattered what I thought - he'd have gone odds on and I'd have layed back plenty for a decent win.

On the plus side, the main dangers look to be Toms and Allenby and it's a very long time since either of them managed to hold their nerve when in contention.

It's going to be a nervy night; firstly I'll be hoping that the likes of Camilo Villegas and Phil Mickelson don't get any closer as they finish their second rounds and that Toms and Allenby start to stutter. I'll then be hoping that Gay can put yesterday's ugly finish behind him and get back on the birdie bus. The last time he led at halfway he went on to win by 10 at Hilton Head, and at one point yesterday it looked like he may even repeat the feat but not now.

Whether Gay wins or not I'll post a review on Monday.