Valero Texas Open Round One: Justin's back a'knockin, but will the door ever open?

Oh my goodness there’s Justin Rose trying to kick the door down again! Amazing - it’s not raining in Texas yet there he is bold as brass at the top. In fact hardly a whisper of wind interrupted Rose’s majestic early morning procession to 64 Thursday.

I suppose one of these days dear Justin is going to end our (and his) years of frustration and win one of these things, and no one will celebrate louder than me when he does. But until then I am going to lay him when he hits the front, especially if it’s in round one.

He does seem to like this course - he posted four sub-70 rounds on his last visit two years ago - but he has the more difficult afternoon session to come today with its potentially tricky winds and that’s too good an opportunity to miss.

Alex Cejka has already faced those winds. He is very much in the qualification battle zone, currently 10 places and about $60,000 short of the magic line. And his stats are good without translating into anything tangible. But the market is clearly unimpressed - at 14 he’s almost twice the price of his co-leader.

He’s even a point or two more expensive than Shigeki Maruyama, two strokes back. I’ve tipped the Japanese before recently on the back of a lift in form, only to be disappointed, but his game is clearly coming together again, especially with his putter.

But I’m looking at that busy leaderboard and thinking the winner could be lurking as low as one under or more. And since one of that number, Bart Bryant, has the easier morning round Friday, I think I’ll lock in a profit on him now he’s out at more than 30.