The Punter / Steven Rawlings / 16 March 2009 /

When Phil Mickelson was admitted to hospital with heat exhaustion and mild dehydration, The Punter feared his profits were about to dry up. However, the world number two returned to the tee refreshed and even managed to play a shot right-handed...

I was a strapped in, paid up passenger on this weekend's Phil Mickelson roller-coaster ride, and as usual it was neither dull nor straight forward.

It really should have been an awful lot less stressful than it was though; I'd set a target of [1.40] to lay back part of my in-running bet on Lefty and I could have done that on Saturday night, if I'd been on the ball.

But when he birdied the 14th and played his tee-shot on the 15th to within about eight feet I was making a sandwich! When I got back to the coverage, Nick Watney had just pitched up to the hole from a tricky spot and Mickelson was just missing his birdie putt. Several thousand had been matched at a low of [1.35] but I'd missed it all.

A scruffy finish saw my man end the day trading at around [1.8], tied with Nick Watney; with the pair four clear of the field. I went to bed with a full belly but I was damn cross with myself.
When I logged on an hour or so before play started yesterday I was amazed to see Lefty trading at odds against. A quick look at PGATOUR.COM revealed why; Mickelson had been admitted to the Baptist Medical Plaza at Doral where he'd received two bags of IV solution because he'd been suffering from heat exhaustion and mild dehydration!

The vibes about his recovery were clearly good though because by the time he teed off he was trading back below [1.8].

Both leaders started very well and went toe to toe until Watney bogeyed the seventh, then when Lefty birdied the eighth the gap was two and I finally got to lay what I wanted at [1.37].

Watney looked all over the place and his tee-shot on the par three ninth was miles long and a long way below the level of the green, but then he hit an absolutely miraculous, blind chip shot straight into the hole for birdie. He then eagled the 10th to Lefty's birdie - and they were level again!

Watney actually went odds on as they played the 12th hole, despite trailing by a shot. Lefty had driven into the really thick rough, under a huge clump of pampas grass and had to play it right-handed. He was a little unlucky that it hit a palm tree and shot straight down and with Watney sitting safely in the fairway it looked heavy odds on that he'd at least draw level. But the youngster made a pig's ear of the hole, taking two shots to get out of the greenside bunker and matching bogeys meant that they went on to the 13th with Lefty still one ahead.

To cut a long story short, both players bravely parred their way to the clubhouse and Lefty had deservedly won his first World Golf Championship event.

At the Puerto Rico Open, my in-running pick Bart Bryant had a poor third round and dropped off the leaders coat-tails but came back a new man yesterday, getting himself to within one of the lead on more than one occasion. He was even matched as low as [3.0], but it wasn't to be and in the end it was left to Michael Bradley and Jason Day to fight out the finish.

Having short-listed Day but left him un-backed, I had mixed feelings when Bradley birdied the last to win. My attentions were pretty much on Lefty all night but I think Day touched about [1.5] in-running. If I had backed him, I've no idea if I'd have layed him back and got something out of it. I suspect not.

I'm pleased I stuck by Mickelson again. I admit, I seriously doubted him before the Northern Trust. I honestly thought his career could be on the slide but now... Well, with Tiger recovering nicely over the weekend to finish in a tie for ninth and looking much sharper, we can again start to dream of future battles and all of a sudden I can't wait for Augusta.

The two events next week are the Madeira Islands Open and the Transitions Championships, known last year as the Pods, as usual I'll preview the two on Wednesday.

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