The Punter / Steven Rawlings / 02 March 2009 / Leave a Comment

It's been an interesting week for our golf punter who backed a winner, a loser and procrastinated far too long over another...

My interest in the WGC Accenture Match Play ended on Saturday night when eventual winner Geoff Ogilvy easily disposed of Stewart Cink in the semi-final. Cink had been a last ditch effort - it felt like I'd had a bad night in the casino and tossed my last chip on any number on the way out. I'd expected little and got nothing.

Ogilvy deserves plenty of credit for his win; his record in this event is not far short of remarkable with two wins and a second-place from just four starts. To compliment his US Open win in '06, he now has three World Golf Championship titles and only Tiger has more, but he's a player I find very hard to read and I'll probably continue to get him wrong. Obviously, I considered him before the event but was put off by his efforts at last week's Northern Trust Open, where he had a woeful weekend after getting into contention.

On reflection, this event was far from the lottery I'd made it out to be with two match play specialists, in Ogilvy and Casey, playing out the final.

My main focus for the weekend though was my pre-event pick at the Indonesia Open, Thongchai Jaidee, who started the last round leading Alexander Noren by one shot.
I was up even earlier yesterday than I'd been on Saturday and when I switched the pc on Jaidee was two clear through five holes and I made my first lay at [2.20].

Another birdie followed minutes later and by the time the TV coverage started at five o'clock he was trading a lot shorter and I wished Id stay in bed another hour.

Lacking confidence in his ability to close the event out, I was very cautious, making further lays after eight holes at [1.6] and after 11 at [1.18].

After being four under par for his round through eight holes the birdies dried up and bogeys on the 9th and 14th saw him come back to the field and it would only have needed one of his pursuers to go on a little run to put some real pressure on, but fortunately nobody did.

Alexander Noren was again woeful in the mix, Simon Dyson made a move, then shanked his second on the 14th and made a double bogey and Steve Webster's late charge fizzled out with pars at the last two holes.

With his chance seemingly gone, Noren eagled the 16th and birdied the 17th and as they teed off on the par five last Jaidee held a two shot lead over the Swede.

Memories of the 2006 Volvo Masters of Asia were stored for an occasion like this. That day he held a three shot lead with a hole to play and made a right Horlicks of the last, just hanging on with a double bogey. I was more than happy to lay plenty at [1.02] and rather bizarrely Noren was now the better result. The commentators praised Jaidee's calm demeanour as he whistled his way up the final fairway but I felt he was whistling to hide his nerves and there was very nearly a late twist. His third shot to the green was adrenalin fuelled and ended up long and his fourth shot back was also too strong, leaving him eight feet or more for par. Noren had a real chance, being about 12 feet away for birdie but he couldn't convert and all the pressure was lifted from Thongchai and he stroked in the par putt to win by two.

After the week's profits were assured, I looked long and hard at the Mayakoba Classic leaderboard and was sorely tempted by the [4.5] about leader Mark Wilson but couldn't quite commit. It was a very weak looking leaderboard and although not the most dynamic player or trustworthy closer he looked a fair price but I decided to leave it as I still had Heath Slocum, four off the lead, and Scott Piercy five back. I felt they weren't without a chance.

Slocum stated quickly and was three under par through five holes and traded as low as [7.2] and for a while I thought I was going to get a dream result having backed Slocum from the start at [130.0]. But he got stuck after that, making no further progress and when he bogeyed the 8th it looked like the dream was over.

I wasted a few pounds on Harrison Fraser at over [100.0] after he eagled the 13th and looked like he may post a score but he then fell apart, dropping five shots in the last five holes.

Wilson played superb, he made a few miraculous par saves having taken penalty drops on the 8th and 13th and stoically held on for a two shot win.

He said afterwards that he'd watched the video of his only win, the 2007 Honda Classic, on Wednesday and had concluded that he was 'so far off winning an event'.

That's golf for you, I was hoping it would have been Slocum to come in from the wilderness this week but it wasn't to be, he eventually finished third. Close but no cigar.

It's been another great week but I can't help thinking it could have been better, if I'd ploughed on with the Match Play properly rather than having a half-hearted punt on Cink I may have come out of the event better. And Wilson had looked the logical pick at the Mayakoba Classic all weekend but I couldn't quite trust him and of course I now feel I gave too much back on Jaidee. But as the saying goes, hindsight is indeed a marvellous thing.

There's just the one event next week, the Honda Classic, which I'll preview on Wednesday.

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