The Punter / Steven Rawlings / 17 November 2008 / Leave a Comment

A frustrating week of golf betting is brought to an end with Jeev Milkha Singh's victory in Singapore.

Already suffering from Scoop Six fatigue and with two races still to tackle, Saturday morning was a bit chaotic, with notes and papers strewn about my office and - in the background - Ernie Els' hopes of winning the Singapore Open fading rapidly.

When everyone had completed their second rounds, sometime during the night, Simon Dyson and Els had led by two shots and they were joined by young Rory McIlroy in the final three-ball for round three.

Whether it was the hanging about waiting to get started I don't know, but for whatever reason the leaders all struggled and by the time play was suspended for the day, which frustratingly was sometime after the coverage on Setanta had ended, my man had eased out to around [9.0] and was four behind new leader Chapchai Nirat.

It was all very frustrating as I've backed Nirat many times this year at some massive prices but not this week.

As Els wasn't in a particularly strong position I didn't even bother to get up early yesterday and when I did start watching at around 7.30am the leaderboard was unrecognisable. The third round had finished and they were well into the final round with the final three-ball through 11 holes.

Phil Mickelson was part of the last grouping but he and his playing partners were having a collective nightmare. Big Phil had managed to notch up an eight on the par five 7th and Nirat, who had traded as short as [1.58] when leading by four shots, had dropped out of the lead with a string of bogeys.

The new leaders, playing in the same group, were Jeev Milkha Singh, who'd birdied the first two holes and Padraig Harrington who had birdied three of the first four holes.

Within five minutes of me watching, Els bogeyed the 12th hole which gave the two leaders a two-shot cushion. With the course playing really tough and the greens fast that counted as a massive lead. Back nine birdies were almost non-existent and it looked a two horse race.

I didn't have another bet, I couldn't split the two and if I had I would have just favoured Pod at that stage but it was too close to call and I never like getting too involved in an event I haven't followed closely.

Then it was all change on the 16th hole. Pod's second shot raced through the green to find water and he made double bogey, Singh three putted for bogey and Els, in the group behind, made birdie. Singh led by one from Els and Harrington and all of a sudden I was back in the game.

Poor old Pod had more bad luck on the par five 18th when he hit a wonderful second shot but it somehow got stuck up on the bank at the back of the green. It almost defied the rules of physics by not rolling down to give him a short eagle putt but instead he was left with a devilishly difficult third shot and he failed to make birdie.

Singh also made par, so it was all up to Ernie: could he make birdie and force a play-off?

Sometimes you just know and for some reason this was one of those occasions. Els had very narrowly missed a birdie chance on the 17th and although he made a bit of a hash of the last he had a putt for the play-off but it somehow kept above ground, just running out of pace a roll before the cup and dying off to the left. An agonising miss.

So the amiable Indian had struck gold again and who could begrudge him? One of the game's true gents and one of its hardest workers too. He was humble in victory and claimed that the golfing gods had been on his side.

I like Singh and I've rated him highly for some time but though it's great to see him win again it's also a bit frustrating. For some reason I just can't catch him at the right time.

As for the Japanese event (the Taiheiyo Masters), well I had just the one bet there, Ryuji Imada, and that was over and done with by the end of round three. One under par was nowhere near good enough to keep tabs with the leaders. The eventual winner was Shingo Katayama, who was up there from the start but never what I would call a value price.

The Race To Dubai resumes next week with one of my favourite events, the Hong Kong Open and there's a quality field assembling for the Dunlop Phoenix event in Japan. I'll preview them both on Wednesday.

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