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Craig Dutton picks over the nuts and bolts of the Nedbank Challenge...

The Nedbank Golf Challenge seems to be an easier medium of trading with its constricted size. It's different, and is a type of tournament I'd like to see more of. There is undoubtedly a sense of déjà vu watching regular European or PGA Tour golf as the season trudges on with many fields featuring the same group of players you couldn't pick a winner from seven days ago.

But while it was good, I perhaps wouldn't go as far as the Gary Player country club website which reported: "In what may end up being billed as golf's answer to the Rugby World Cup Final. And while the Nedbank Challenge may be a limited-field event the pressures ... are not dissimilar to a major "

Hyperbole aside, the Nedbank was a good tournament, and featured yet another example of Immelman's consistent, high-quality game. He is a most consistent player, and one who will always give you a run for your money. It's incredible how nerves can affect almost every player on the tour - Immelman no different. I always wrongly pigeon-hole certain players as bottlers, but it's becoming apparent that only the favoured few can evade the onset of nerves. Rose will be kicking himself though - he's had a tremendous year that would have been capped off beautifully, and in essence he lost the tournament himself. Both players felt the heat, and Immelman managed to scramble to the finish line first. It wasn't pretty, but effective.

But what did the Nedbank golf challenge teach us? Well, nothing is for sure. Rose has been steaming in recent times, and comparing both players, it would have been Rose who secured the safe money. But Rose had traded odds-on before, and will again. He is another player, of which there is a long list, who would win considerably more tournaments if only they could keep their cool in check. Far be it from me, a man who can barely play crazy golf, to give advice to a hugely successful professional golfer but from the outside you would think a sports psychologist would be of huge assistance to so many of the players on tour.

It's been a topsy-turvy year. Personally, I've found it a great struggle to get on a run of any kind. The formbook has seemed more useless to me in 2007 - maybe I'm just taking more notice. It has been Tiger Woods' year, which will come as no surprise. Superlatives become redundant after so many years but suffice to say Woods is still the best golfer playing today. I don't think he's getting any better and I think the pack is closing. Nonetheless, he's still the bar others should aspire to reach.

I think Els is perhaps on the decline. It's only an opinion, and I've no facts to base it on. I just don't see the same mastermind of a golfer I saw a few years ago. Without some major wins, he is definite danger of slipping back into the pack and that would be an immense shame. I always associate changes of caddy or clubs with the "bad workmen always blames his tools" adage. I know it's been successful (as Montgomerie showed this year) and it may spark a revival. But just now, I think Els is in a rut. That is, a comparative rut - compared to 90% of professionals, he's still top dog. Watch out for Boo Weekley next year. He will be winning on tour. I hope.

Who do you see emerging in 2008 to take a few tournaments? Who's on the decline? Who thinks they have absolutely any chance of making profitable trades for the next 12 months?!