British Open / Steven Rawlings / 20 July 2009 / Leave a comment

It would have been the most historic British Open win of all time and Steve still feels a bit disappointed by the final outcome, but was it a losing week?

The Golfing Gods were just teasing us after all. The dream finally ended on the 72nd hole, with a weak par putt that never threatened the hole.

From that moment on, the third Major of 2009 was going the way of Stuart Cink, a pre-event [320.0] chance, and following on from Angel Cabrera at the Masters and Lucas Glover at the US Open, it's certainly another tough result for punters in this year's Majors.

Trading wise, I hadn't thought I'd get too involved yesterday, but I soon did. Although I couldn't really see anyone coming from too far back, I hadn't trusted any of the leaders either, so I couldn't resist the big prices on some of the early starters as they made their charges.

I finished up backing Chris Wood at [50.0], after he'd played nine holes, Justin Leonard at [120.0] after he'd played 15 holes (he then double-bogeyed the 16th), I also topped up on Ernie Els at [95.0] and even backed Luke Donald at [260.0], after he'd finished on level par.

Best of those was Chris Wood, who was matched at just [5.9]. He played superbly and didn't buckle under pressure, he had a real chance to win and will feel pretty disappointed that he bogeyed the last, but nowhere near as much as poor ole Lee Westwood. He's now had a chance to win in each of the last three weeks and I fear three-putting the 72nd hole yesterday will live with Lee for a very long time.

I had layed Westwood at [1.94] after just seven holes, it was just too short with so long to go, but it hadn't been a good event and I didn't want to be greedy and then suffer a massive hit, had he gone on to win, so I layed the bet back later on at [3.8] to reduce my losses.

By the time Stuart Cink completed his late charge and birdied the 18th to gazump Chris Wood and take a share of the lead I was still looking at losing, though not massively, and I took a chance on Cink at [5.7]. I was pretty confident that two under was at least good enough for a play-off. Then when Westwood found the green, quite brilliantly from a fairway bunker, but was still a country mile from the hole, Cink drifted and I topped up at [7.8] and all of a sudden it was Cink or bust. That price looked very wrong and so it proved. Westwood was almost half the price, and still had to get down in two, a feat he couldn't quite achieve.

So when Tom Watson came to the last I had mixed feelings, my gut instinct had been to back Cink and yet my heart and soul were still with ole Tom. I'd gone from cheering Watson on to wanting him to fail, all be it temporarily! And when his approach, in very similar style to Chris Wood's earlier in the day, ran over the back and he failed to get up and down, I'd got want I wanted.

I didn't stare into the gift horse's mouth for long and soon layed Cink back at [1.72]. I'd just about levelled everything off and was left with a very modest loss. I clearly jumped the gun a bit with my lay and should have held on a bit longer, but that's easy to say now.

The rest, as they say, is history. Stuart Cink, who incidentally Padraig Harrington had tipped before the leaders went out, is a worthy champion, but he's also guilty of destroying the sporting story of the year, maybe the decade, or even the millennium! Ok, so maybe that's a bit OTT and there's no truth in the rumour that Cink's Mum and Dad were cheering on Tom, but it certainly would have been the most historic British Open win of all time and I still feel a bit disappointed. But in no time that will pass and all I'll remember is a very special tournament, and I'm sorry Stuart, but Turnberry 2009 will always be remembered as Tom's Open.

The disappointment didn't end there for me. Although I hadn't covered the US Bank Championship this week I did have a few bets there. One of which was a modest interest in Frank Lickliter at [400.0] before the off and he led with a round to go! I did lay some back at [3.3] to ensure a winning week, but a very poor, three over par round yesterday saw him slump back to a tie for 18th, so close but no cigar.

The two events this week are the SAS Masters and the Canadian Open and I'll preview both on Wednesday.