The Punter / Steven Rawlings / 01 November 2009 / Leave a Comment

Steve's had a quiet weekend - days out, nights out, even gardening, but has he been winning?

What a difference a week makes - last Sunday I was captivated by two exhilarating finishes at the Castello Masters and the Frys.com Open, this Sunday I just about got up in time to witness the end of the Singapore Open and didn't even bother to watch the Match Play final. And my best result all week came at the Viking Classic, where stakes were returned when thanks to incessant rain; the event was eventually scrapped altogether!

I still had Robert Allenby running for me in the semi-finals of the Volvo World Match Play on Saturday but I didn't get to watch much of the play. It's rare to get a chance to get me away from the golf at the weekend and Mrs R took full advantage. When I said I had no intention of trading and didn't need to watch the play, before I knew what had happened I was planting winter pansies!

Allenby succumbed to Anthony Kim in my absence and my afternoon's gardening was followed by an evening out, resulting in my desire to get up in the middle of the night, to try and eek out a profit in Singapore, being extinguished quicker than the tea lights in the kid's pumpkins.

I did have a couple of small bets before I went to bed though. I backed recent Madrid Masters winner Ross McGowan at [42.0] and Sang-Moon Bae at [170.0]. McGowan was four off the lead and Bae five. Both wagers were as small as they were speculative.

When I got up yesterday morning, both were miles back, Ian Poulter was in control, with just three holes play, and I had no chance of making a profit.

I had backed Poulter when he'd led by five after two rounds, in the middle of Friday night, but I'd backed out of my wager when he'd started to stutter on Saturday morning. I was a little vexed to see him leading, but then I looked at his scorecard to see that he'd had another blip during the final round, dropping four shots in six holes, and I was philosophical about the result.

I had always believed Poulter to be one of the most mentally strong players in the game but recent efforts in contention - last years Korea Open and this year's Open de France had changed my opinion of him. Maybe I'm wrong, or at the very least, I'm being harsh, as you couldn't fault his stoic finish yesterday, but he'd sure as hell made hard work of it, and it was one of those events that nobody seemed to want.

I see Graeme McDowell had hit the front before going on a bogey run. My man, Phil Mickelson, had moved up at one point before retreating, Ernie Els put in a very weak finish, and so did several others. Daniel Chopra, Thomas Levet, and Soren Kjeldsen will all be disappointed by their final two rounds.

When the Singapore Open finished, coverage switched to the final of the World Match Play but I was off out for the day. If I had stayed in and punted it I'd have got it wrong anyway. I thought Anthony Kim would have beaten Wentworth's Ross Fisher but the trophy's now on its way back to the tournaments old Surrey home. Ironic given this was the first time the tournament's been played away from there.

Fisher is fast becoming an accomplished match play exponent now; this win follows his semi-final showing at the WGC Accenture Match Play back in February.

There's just the one event next week and it's a cracker. The HSBC Champions is now a World Golf Championship event and as a result the field is a strong one. I'm now suitably refreshed after my easy weekend so I'll be studying hard over the next few days and I'll preview the event on Wednesday.

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