Golf Review / Steven Rawlings / 09 June 2008 /

Trevor Immelman redeems a dissappointing week for Steven Rawlings

At the Austria Open on Saturday the day ended with Jeev Milkha Singh eagling the last hole to stay four clear. None of the afternoon starters could get in a blow and his nearest challenger was Simon Wakefield, who I begrudgingly backed. I say begrudgingly because it really did look like Singh would convert and I wasn't going to have any further involvement but when [17.0] was offered up on Wakefield when he was a best and more realistic price of [9.0] elsewhere I had to take an interest.

It was a frustrating and rather dull final day's play in Vienna. Singh made 18 straight pars which should have meant he'd be overhauled but nobody got within two shots until Wakefield birdied the last to lose by one. I had the wherewithal to trade back Wakefield [8.2] and some trading on Singh reduced losses but it was a disappointing tournament.

I was particularly disappointed in Wakefield, his stats show that he has a really fine record when in contention and looking at his score alone you couldn't fault him yesterday but the truth was he didn't get going at all until it was virtually all over. Curiously he seems to be able to construct a decent score in the mix without ever looking like winning.

Singh was very fortunate on the 15th when his second shot was so wildly inaccurate it finished up wide of the really thick rough and his putting kept him going on a couple of occasions. Although he won, the performance showed he's still not one to trust implicitly but if anyone deserved a win on tour this year it was the affable Indian.

In the US it looked for most of the third round that I'd be in a really strong position with my three in running picks but Tim Clark finished with a wet sail while my trio limped in, bogeys at the last by Immelman and Ames and a double bogey at the 17th by Dean Wilson certainly put the dampers on things. The diminutive South African Clark would take a two shot lead into the final round. Clark has struggled when in the mix and is still searching for his first US win so I just left things alone and waited for Sundays battle to commence.

Poor Tim Clark played himself out of it on the very first hole with a triple bogey seven leaving a wide open tournament. It was the tightest Sunday in the US this year and looked very difficult to call and as a result there were trading opportunities aplenty.

Stephen Ames started almost as poorly as Clark, bogeying the 1st and 3rd holes but I took a gamble and backed him again [30.0] & [34.0] when he birdied the 6th. When he followed that with another at the 8th I layed him back [13.0] and had him running for a very nice profit at no cost. Unfortunately he lost his way badly after that and never looked like winning.

Trevor Immelman had looked my best hope at the start of the day but when he made seven on the par five third he looked out of it.

So I was left with Dean Wilson who played very solidly, picking up a couple of birdies at the 2nd and 11th.

Sergio Garcia had looked a likely winner at one point but he wasn't able to add to his birdie tally at the last two holes and when he posted -3 it didn't look like it would be quite enough. And so it proved when Robert Allenby brilliantly birdied the last hole to post -4, at which point I backed him [6.2].

Left on the course at that point with a realistic chance were Dean Wilson and Justin Leonard, both at -4 with the easy par 5 16th still to play. Disappointedly my man Wilson let nerves get the better of him and he played the last three holes in four over par while Leonard birdied the 15th to go heavy odds on, trading as short as [1.16]. But he failed to birdie the easy 16th and when his tee shot on the 17th went astray I layed him [1.36].

A bogey followed and when he failed to birdie the last it looked like a play off between Leonard and Allenby. But Immelman had other ideas, matched at [1000.0] in running he astonishingly birdied the last three holes to join the other two on -4.

It was great news for me, I was able to lay him back [3.05] and back Leornard back [3.0] and with Allenby already covered it was going to be a profitable event whoever won.

The play off was won by Leonard with a brilliant birdie two from 19 feet at the second play off hole. He now joins last week's winner Perry as a likely Ryder Cupper and the Americans must be wondering, Anthony Kim apart, where all the young talent is.

Immelman would have been the best result but I wasn't complaining. An hour earlier it looked like it was going to be a disappointing week but thanks mainly to Immelman's amazing finish I had traded my way to a decent profit.

It's the big one next week, the Saint-Omer Open. I'll also take a look at the US Open on Wednesday, but I'll give you a clue now, my main picks left handed, and not Canadian.

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