Nick Watney has reached the final day three shots ahead of his nearest pursuers Rory McIlroy and Dustin Johnson – with the duo close in the betting ahead of Martin Kymer.

Jamie takes a look at a bundle of 4th round 2 balls, and even throws you a cheeky yankee to indulge in.

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Tour professional Jamie Spence provides us with a betting update ahead of Friday’s play and analyses some of the feature three balls on the podcast.

Enjoy.

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• Condition causes joint pain, swelling and stiffness
• World No2 is ‘much, much better’ following treatment

Phil Mickelson has revealed that he is being treated for psoriatic arthritis, a condition that causes the immune system to attack the body’s joints and tendons and which left him in so much pain he couldn’t walk. Weekly shots of a drug to lower his immune system have brought the disease under control, however.

“I’m surprised at how quickly it’s gone away, and how quickly it’s been able to be managed and controlled,” he said of the problem that surfaced just before the US Open. “I feel 100%. But when I’m laying there on the couch and I can’t move, you know, I had some concerns. But I feel a lot better now.”

He has also has become a vegetarian to try and reduce the effects of the disease. “As long as I believe that there’s a possibility that it will help me overall, yeah, I’ll continue to do that,” he said. “If it will somehow keep this in remission or stop it from coming back, yeah, I’ll be able to do it.”

The arthritis is the latest health scare for Mickelson’s family. His wife, Amy, and mother are both battling breast cancer; the long-term prognosis for both is good.

Mickelson, who turned 40 in June, said he woke up five days before the US Open with “intense pain” in his tendons and joints that left him unable to move and his joints feeling sprained. Stretching, walking and anti-inflammatories alleviated the pain, and he went ahead and played at Pebble Beach, where he finished tied for fourth.

The condition got progressively worse and after the Open at St Andrews, Mickelson made a trip to the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, where doctors confirmed the diagnosis of psoriatic arthritis.

According to the Mayo Clinic website, the condition causes joint pain, stiffness and swelling. While it can be linked to psoriasis, the arthritis can appear without the presence of skin lesions. There is no cure for the condition but it is treatable.

“I feel great now and things have been much, much better,” Mickelson said. “I’ll probably take this drug for about a year, and feel 100%. I’ll stop it and see if it goes into remission and it may never come back. It may be gone forever.”

“It’s not that it’s cured, but it may never come back. Or if it does come back, I’ll start the treatment again and should be able to live a normal life without having any adverse effects. So I’m not very concerned about it.”

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Our expert casts his eye across the outright field to come up with some value.

There’s a whole host of betting opportunities available and Jamie looks various markets on offer.

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View more: Golf : Sports : BettingNews @ BoyleSports

View more: Golf : Sports : BettingNews @ BoyleSports

• Tiger Woods shoots four-over 74 in error-strewn opening round
• Bubba Watson leads as Phil Mickelson eyes world No1 slot

Reports of Tiger Woods’s demise may have been exaggerated but not by much, at least not on the evidence of an opening round at the Bridgestone Invitational yesterday in which he shot a four-over par 74. It was, by two shots, the world No1′s worst effort on a golf course he loves, at a tournament he has dominated for a decade, winning seven times in 10 appearances.

Even more depressingly from Woods’s perspective is it could have been worse. A handful of fortunate bounces and some escape artistry of the Houdini variety turned the mortifying into the merely embarrassing. No wonder Woods abandoned the habit of a professional lifetime and declined to step in front of the television cameras to discuss his day at the office.

Few could blame him for that, although he did speak to reporters later. “I didn’t play well. The only thing I did good was that I kept my patience and I grinded all day and that was the best I could have done,” he said. “Just because I like the golf course doesn’t mean I’m going to play well on it. You know, unfortunately that’s not the case. You still have to execute, and I didn’t do that today. I did not execute the shots that I wanted to execute today.”

So much for the renewed hope with which he approached the latest instalment in the search to win his first tournament since his turbulent personal scandal. So much too for his determination to play himself onto Corey Pavin’s US Ryder Cup team.

So much for all the hard work on the practice range he had professed to have put in during the two weeks since the Open Championship. He drove the ball badly and putted even worse. He hit some good approach shots, but only to extricate himself from the trouble he had found himself in after wayward tee shots.

The upshot of a tumultuous day was that Woods found himself 10 shots behind the tournament leader Bubba Watson, who shot a six-under-par 64, and in a tie for 70th place. More significantly perhaps, he ended the day eight shots behind the world No2 Phil Mickelson and facing an end to his 270-week reign as the world No1.

Mickelson started his day badly, bogeying two of his first five holes, but a chip-in at the par-five 16th – his sixth hole of the day – revived his spirits and his game. Rory McIlroy, the left-hander’s play partner for the day described the chip-in as the best shot he had seen all year. Mickelson was not quite as impressed.

“Well, it was a good one,” he said when asked how it ranked among many shots he has hit over the year. “There were some at Augusta that I kind of remember a little more fondly than Thursday here at Akron, but that was a good one.”

Great or merely good, it gave the left-hander all the encouragement he needed and a back nine of 30, five-under par, left him in a tie for second place alongside Kenny Perry. A victory on Sunday will see Mickelson assume the world No1 ranking.

Lee Westwood, currently ranked No3, also has the opportunity to supplant Woods with a victory although the chances of that seemed remote after a 71, one-over par. It was a lacklustre effort from the Englishman, notable mostly for some poor short-game play, but he has been around long enough to know the big cheque is never handed over until all 72 holes have been completed.

“I just had a bit of rust today,” he said, noting that he is still recovering from injury. “I haven’t been able to get much work down since the Open because of my leg and ankle. It wasn’t too much of surprise not to get it going round this golf course but in any case 71 is by no means out of it.”

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Qualification for the event has changed allowing for a large field but in the past it was a limited field only open to members of previous Ryder Cup and President’s Cup team members.

Tiger Woods in the outright jolly and he will be looking to put a poor 2010 behind him with a return to form this week.  He has won this event seven times and if his mind is right, at 9/2 he can once again catch the eye.

He will need to be on-form if he is going to keep his spot as the world number one, he has been most successful at this tournament and he has never finished worst than tied fourth, 9/2 could seem a massive price on Thursday night if he shows glimpses of his course form in the opening round.

His putting has been a major problem this season and not only is his spot as world number one under threat from Mickelson (12/1) and Westwood (12/1) but he is not guaranteed a place in the Ryder Cup team. He would definitely be embarrassed if the Captain Corey Pavin, chose him as his wild card pick.

Steve Stricker is priced at 28/1, he has to be of each-way interest because of his form at the Firestone Country Club. It is worth ignoring his standing at the Open Championship because links’ golf courses are not his forte and he has won recently at the John Deere Classic, where he shot a career-low sixty in the first round.

Harrington (16/1) could make amends for his failure to win the 3 Irish Open with a victory at Firestone this week. He carded a final round 64 to finish second at the 3 Irish Open and he tied for second at Firestone last year, so he has course form.

Lee Westwood (12/1) is often in contention in the big name championships, he was ninth last year and was runner-up two years ago and knows it could only be a short matter of time before he is world number one!

The course is 7400 yards, so it will appeal to the big-hitters and the likes of Quiros (70/1) and Dustin Johnson (50/1) will be licking their lips at the chance of dominating the fairways.  They will have an advantage and Quiros is in good form. He tied for eleventh at St.Andrews and he has the complete game!

He is an accurate player and has proved he can handle tight American fairways. Dustin Johnson is on-course for a Ryder Cup debut in October and has progressed well in the previous few years, if he can improve his consistency, he could be a real threat at Firestone.

Furyk (35/1) has earned six top-10s in his career at Firestone. He has won twice on tour this year and will be desperate to finally grab that win at Firestone. He has not been the most consistent of players this season and mixed wins with missed cuts but he definitely has the confidence and course knowledge to go all the way this week.

The list of previous champions is very impressive and although underdogs have won the event in the past, I think one of the marquee players should end up champion come Sunday night and with Lee Westwood on the brink of topping Tiger Woods as world number one, now rested and injury free, he should be mentally ready to become the champ.

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