The Punter / Steven Rawlings / 27 September 2009 / Leave a Comment

Steve rejoices in seeing Lefty back in the winners circle, but he also has King Kenny to thank for a great weekend

I signed off my halfway update - "I can't see me doing too much more over the weekend and I envisage a quiet couple of days, trading wise." Well that certainly didn't happen. I've been trading furiously all weekend, especially yesterday.

I'll clear up the Vivendi Trophy first, where my only bets on the weekend were a lay back of GB & Ireland at [1.05], just to be on the safe side, and an ill-judged punt on Henrik Stenson to beat Rory McIlroy in the first of yesterday's singles matches.

I thought McIlroy hadn't looked at his absolute best and that [2.48] about Stenson was a fair price. After all he's number five in the world rankings and a former World Matchplay champion, but he was always on the back foot and just didn't play well enough - although he did manage to take the match all the way to the 18th green.

It was hardly the end of the world though and my modest play on GB & Ireland at [2.54] before the event meant a profit on the tournament.

At the Tour Championship things were much busier, mainly thanks to Kenny Perry, who I'd backed at the close of play on Friday at [80.0].

Unusually for me, I started Saturday by laying a couple of two-ball bets. From somewhere some lumpy bet requests appeared in several of the two-ball markets, and I decided to take a small risk in a couple of them.

I layed Retief Goosen against Luke Donald at [1.85] and Jim Furyk against my ole mate Phil Mickelson at [1.9]. Goosen was poor and shot two over par but Donald was far worse. Fortunately Lefty comfortably out scored Furyk though, so a small profit was secured, but the really good news was that I also backed Lefty in the outright market, after he'd played eight holes at a juicy [55.0].

By the close of play he was trading at around [19.0], so it had been a great punt, but not as good as the one on Perry on Friday. He ended round three with a two shot lead over Tiger Woods and a four shot lead over Sean O'Hair and Mickelson, after a terrific 64, and was trading as short as [3.40].

I layed some Perry back and backed Woods at [1.75], cancelling out the lay I'd taken on him at [1.31] on Friday, and making for a healthy looking book going into the final round.

Things happened very fast on Sunday, with Woods bogeying the 1st and Perry birdying the 2nd. All of sudden the veteran was five clear and trading much shorter. I hadn't wasted much time and I'd layed Perry at [2.16] as he played the 1st hole, and then again at [1.77] after he'd birdied the 2nd.

I was then in a very strong position and Mickelson was winning me a very tidy sum so I set about levelling things off by laying him too. Unfortunately, I was just a fraction to eager to do so. I layed him at [7.2] as he played the 4th hole, [5.7] as he played the 5th, then again at [2.9] after he'd played seven holes, and finally at [1.7] after nine holes.

As it transpired, Perry went from leaking oil to seizing the engine completely, Woods just never got going at all, and Lefty was simply superb. Regular readers will know I'm a bit of a Lefty lover so it was great to see him end the year on such a high, and quite incredible when you consider he was matched at as high as [350.0] on Thursday, after taking eight shots to play the 14th.

With hindsight I should have waited longer with Lefty, but you can't have it all and my prudence had meant it really didn't matter who won in the end - I was heading for a great result from as far out as halfway through Sunday. And besides, I'd layed Perry at just the right time so I shouldn't be so hard on myself.

As a footnote, Tiger's 2nd place was enough to see him win this year's FedEx Cup.

After a sticky three week losing run I'm very much back on track again after the last fortnight, so I'm eager to get studying today. I'll let you know what I come up with on Wednesday when I preview next week's events, the Alfred Dunhill Links and the Turning Stone Championships.

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