The Punter / Steven Rawlings / 09 March 2009 / Leave a Comment

Steve backed the winner again though sadly not at an enormous pre-event price. Read his Honda Classic debrief here.

Two of my pre-event picks, Robert Allenby and Ben Crane, had moved into contention after round two and I'd added Will Mackenzie at [11.5] and Yong-Eun Yang at [15.5]. This meant I had four of the top-six on my side at halfway and I was quite confident of getting a result. But then Saturday's third round was played out and the confidence drained away.

Yang shot level par on Saturday but the other three all shot over par, a big disappointment. I honestly felt I'd be going into the last day in a commanding position but it wasn't to be.

As I thought might be the case, nobody came flying through from the pack and so Yang still led after round three. Jeff Overton and Nationwide Tour graduate Jeff Klauk were one back on -6, with a few unlikely suspects two back and my terrible trio three back.

The Korean started the final round trading at around [5.6], and my other three were all double figure prices so I wasn't in anywhere near the strong position I thought I'd be, but I got lucky.

Yang shot out of the traps and after he'd birdied the third and fourth holes I layed him at [2.24]. Under different circumstances I may have held off a little longer but the nearest challenger at that point was Allenby, who had also started well and I'd felt I'd get a chance to lay him back too.

As it was Yang then birdied the fifth as well and was soon trading at around [1.8] so I felt I'd definitely jumped the gun a bit.

I got my chance with Allenby when he birdied the tenth and briefly closed the gap to two. A well timed lay at [3.80] made me feel a lot better about the Yang trade and it wasn't long before Allenby's chance had gone again, following a brace of bogeys at 12 and 13.

It was sad to see him keep missing from inside six feet all week and the poor bloke must me close to despair. He's been playing really well for ages now but is so poor on the short putts that he simply has to be avoided now. I still think he'll win one this year, but catching him at the right time and at the right price is going to be almost impossible.

Yang powered on and was soon a very shot-priced favourite and it looked like it was going to be a pleasant stroll to the line, but then John Rollins came through to challenge when he birdied four out of five holes between the 8th and the 12th and he traded below [4.0] at one point.

Rollins' run predictably stuttered and then stalled when he bogeyed the 15th, giving Yang the buffer he needed but with four holes left to play I layed him again at [1.10], providing a completely stress free finish.

As it transpired he won by just a single shot but that didn't really reflect the cosiness of his success, he'd been quite impressive, very reminiscent of fellow countryman KJ Choi and now he's got this win he might be worth keeping the right side off.

So another really good week but I couldn't help feeling just the tiny little bit miffed that Yang hadn't won on a week I'd backed him at a massive price before the off. He'd been a pre-event pick seven times last year at all sorts of fancy prices.

It's back to two events next week with the second of the World Golf Championship events, the CA Championship and the Puerto Rico Open on the USPGA Tour. As usual, I'll post a preview of the pair on Wednesday.

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