The Punter / Steven Rawlings / 09 February 2009 /

No-one wanted to win at Torrey Pines and our man ended up backing a whole bunch of losers...

Charley Hoffman was the only one of my selections left with any sort of chance going into the weekend and it didn't take very long for his hopes to fade.

As he hit his first tee shot of round three he was four off the lead and as the ball flew to the right of the fairway heading for the rough he may have thought that a par would be a result. I doubt at anytime did he think he wouldn't see his ball again! But that's what happened, his wide tee shot clattered into a tree and never came down.

Under the rules it's a requirement that you identify your ball, and even with the aid of a borrowed set of binoculars Charley was unable to do so. So it was back to the tee, a few more scruffy whacks and a triple bogey seven to start and the end to his challenge. To his credit he fought back well and had regained the lost shots by the seventh tee but he continued to struggle and by the end of the third round he was seven shots shy of the new leader, John Rollins.

Going into the final round Rollins led Camilo Villegas by three, Nick Watney by four, Luke Donald and Paul Goydos by five and a few others by six.

I really didn't like the way this event had panned out and struggled to find an angle in and was edging towards not playing any further, but I didn't like Rollins at around [2.0] or Villegas at around [3.10] and convinced myself that there had to be value somewhere.

In the end I took a small interest in Donald at [19.0] and when he birdied two of his first three holes, Rollins bogeyed his first two and Villegas bogeyed his second, it looked like I'd done the right thing, as Donald traded as short as [3.85]. But it didn't last long; poor old Luke clearly got too close to the lead too quickly and soon lost the plot. A shank off the 8th tee led to a double bogey and did for his chances.

I also backed Ben Crane at [100.0] as he started off quickly. He got as close as second at one point and was only three behind Rollins but bogeys at 11 and 12 put pay to his challenge too.

It was a horrid event, Rollins looked all over the place, Villegas was no better and every time someone got near Rollins they messed up. When Rollins eagled the par five 13th it looked as though he was finally going to put it to bed and he traded below [1.30], but he still couldn't get the job done!

In the end Watney stole through to take the title with a birdie on the very last hole.

It was an event I was glad to see the back of. With the benefit of hindsight I should have just layed Rollins and Villegas yesterday but that's not my only regret. I know he didn't win but if I'd have kept the faith with Rollins, having backed him in this event the last two years as well as at last years US Open here, I'd have won plenty with him trading so short.

As for Watney, fair play to him but I couldn't have fancied him at all after his dismal display last week after leading at halfway.

So using a great big, thick, black marker pen I'm drawing a whopping great line under the whole week and moving swiftly on.

The Race to Dubai resumes this week with the Malaysian Open, where Anthony Kim makes an appearance. While on the USPGA it's another laborious Pro-Am with the AT & T at Pebble Beach. I'll preview both events on Wednesday.

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