The Punter / Steven Rawlings / 01 December 2008 / Leave a comment

Losers everywhere for Steven Rawlings, as England, Allenby and Ames come up short.

As the Australian Masters wasn't live on TV anywhere and as I'd only a modest interest in the United States in the World Cup, I didn't bother to set any alarm clocks on Friday night but I did woke up at around 3.30am anyway. Curiosity got the better of me and I switched the PC on and went straight to the Australian Masters leaderboard.

Quite bizarrely, just as I did this, my pick, Robert Allenby, jumped several places up the board and was suddenly leading the event. It took me a few moments to figure out what had happened. He'd gone from -6 to -9 in one hole courtesy of an albatross on the par-five 7th and I went back to bed all smug an' snug.

Getting up on Saturday morning I was hoping to see that Allenby had shot clear but he hadn't. Having only picked up one more shot after his albatross, he ended the day tied for the lead with Michael Sim, the pair two clear of the field.

Overnight leader Tim Clark had yet again imploded and is without doubt a player to avoid or lay when he hits the front too far from the winning line.

My other pick David Horsey had made no further ground up, his one under par round left him four off the lead.

At the World Cup the Spaniards had been caught by the Australians and the two teams had a cushion of four shots over the Swedes in third. My halfway pick, the United States, had a very poor day and had no chance eight shots of the lead. It was time to give the event up as a bad job.

Prior to the final round down under Allenby traded just a shade over [2.0], which was about right but too big to lay anything off.

Three too many Old Speckled Hens on Saturday night meant I wasn't going to monitor proceedings through the night but I did set the alarm for 4.00am so I could take a peek at my man's progress.

The beeping broke my slumber and I logged on in trepidation. Yet more disappointment, Allenby had played nine holes in level par and was two off the lead, jointly held by Marcus Fraser and Rod Pampling. As for Horsey, well he'd virtually pulled up, a couple over par for the day. Fed up, mildly hung-over and not remotely hopeful of a turnaround I went back to the land of nod.

The event eventually went to Pampling at the third play-off hole. Fraser, who had the distraction of a heavily pregnant wife being taken to hospital while he played, had fired a superb 65 to tie Pampling in regulation play. Both men then made some brave par saves in extra time before Fraser finally succumbed and made bogey.

Allenby's chance had gone at the 15th hole where he'd made double bogey after visiting two bunkers. After the disaster he stopped to hug his mother Sylvia who's seriously ill with cancer, she'd come out to follow her son over the closing holes from a golf cart.

It was all rather sad and he was distraught afterwards, and although it was obvious his mother's illness had distracted him, he preferred to look elsewhere for reasons for his defeat, "It's been tough, I might have pushed it a bit too much or I just keep losing concentration - that's all it is," he said.

In the World Cup, Sweden blasted past both Spain and Australia with a fantastic 63, while my pick England finished very strongly over the weekend to finish sixth.

There was to be no solace from the LG Skins game either. Stephen Ames had a chance to win but K J Choi took the spoils with a nine foot birdie on the last hole.

So another disappointing week, it's seems to have been a bit of a struggle since Quiros won in Portugal but I'll be looking to finish what's been a good year strongly, hopefully starting this week with the Nedbank Challenge and the Australian PGA Championship.