The Punter / Steven Rawlings / 20 October 2008 /

After the Punter's new best friend did the business for him in Europe, the greedy so and so hopped across the pond to find value at the Justin Timberlake Shriner's Hospitals for Children Open.

Yesterday was a long but enjoyable day.

On the European Tour the last few groups had to come back early yesterday morning to finish off their third rounds due to the threat of lightening late on Saturday. When they completed round three one of my picks Alvaro Quiros was leading by one shot from Ross Fisher and my only other pre-event pick Robert Karlsson.

Before the final round started, I looked long and hard at the [28.0] on offer about Gregory Bourdy who was three back of Quiros. When he started with four birdies in his first five holes I was kicking myself for not backing him but I needn't have worried, that was as good as it got and he gave three shots back over the rest of the round.
The likes of Steve Webster and Paul Lawrie also briefly threatened but the title was essentially fought out by my two picks and Ross Fisher.

When Quiros took a two shot lead after birdying the eighth hole I layed a bit back at [2.70] and when he also birdied the 10th I was starting to get excited but it's never that easy. From position A1 in the fairway and playing his approach shot with a sand iron he frustratingly missed the green and made bogey at the 11th. Fisher then birdied the next, they were level again and it was game on, with the Englishman trading at odds on.

But then young Ross went AWOL with three bogeys on the spin just as Robert Karlsson straightened himself up with a couple of birdies. The big Swede, with the added pressure of having the Order of Merit title within his grasp, had stalled earlier, bogeying both the eighth and ninth holes but his late rally was welcome insurance.

I layed a bit more on Quiros at [1.77] with just two holes to play and when Paul Lawrie birdied the last to close the gap to just one and Robert Karlsson dunked his second shot in the water I was pleased I had.

But I needn't have bothered; my new best mate tickled in a tricky birdie putt on the 17th and then just for good measure went and birdied the 18th to win by three for a most congenial outcome.

Any sensible person would have celebrated the win and had an early night but I'm a greedy so and so and I had to at least have a look at the US event.

With a round to go I still had a couple of players with an outside chance in Ryan Moore and Brad Adamonis, both three shots off leader Marc Turnesa.

The favourite was last week's winner Zach Johnson but he'd been in the driving seat and even traded at odds on Saturday night before stalling. He looked a bit short at less than [4.0], two shots off the lead.

It was a congested but weak looking leaderboard and being as I'd not gotten too involved and had won earlier I took a chance on leader Turnesa at [7.6]. At no bigger than [6.0] on the High Street and as short as [5.0] with a couple of firms the price was more than fair.

My best pre-event pick Ryan Moore started slowly until a late rally got him to within a few of the lead but when he got to the last he slid right down to a tie for 24th with a horrific quintuple nine!

To cut a long story short Marc Turnesa kept his cool and won the event by one with a cosy bogey on the last, making up for his near miss at the Viking Classic.

Turnesa was born to win on the PGA Tour. His great-uncle, Jim, won the 1952 PGA Championship, and his grandfather, Mike, was a six-time winner on the PGA Tour. Mike was one of seven brothers, six of whom played on the PGA Tour. One of those, Joe, was a 15-time PGA TOUR winner. The only brother who didn't turn professional was Willie, the 1938 and 1948 U.S. Amateur champion and 1947 British Amateur winner, so the pedigree was there!

I was very slightly agitated that I hadn't backed him from the start, he'd been on my considerably long short list but I'm certainly not going to start moaning, it's been another great week.

I'll preview next week's events, the Castello Masters in Europe and the Frys.com Open in the States on Wednesday.

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