The Punter's De-brief: Fitzpatrick claims the spoils at St Andrews

• Five-man playoff on the PGA Tour

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The Alfred Dunhill Championship has finally finished and pre-event 16.5 chance, Matt Fitzpatrick, has won by three after a six-under-par 66 around St Andrews today.

Following two days of torrential rain over the weekend, the event was reduced to 54 holes and today's final round wasn't the most exciting I've ever watched.

The organisers and ground staff did a remarkable job to get all three venues playable, as the photo below of Carnoustie this morning testifies, but it did feel as though those bang in-contention drawn to play Carnoustie in round three were a little hard done by.

I haven't seen the hole averages yet, but I suspect those playing St Andrews were advantaged slightly on what transpired to be a benign day today.

With the course in such a state, a shotgun start was employed at Carnoustie, and they didn't start until 11:30 so by the time they got in position to start round three, they'd already lost ground on the leaders and that must have added a bit of pressure.

Grant Forrest, for example, had been matched at a low of 9.28/1 once the news broke that the event was only going to be played over three rounds, but he drifted all the way out to 30.029/1 before he began round three.

He'd ended round two trailing by just a stroke but with Fitzpatrick starting almost an hour and half before him, he was miles back by the time he started his round on the par five 14^th at Carnoustie.

Fitzpatrick, who had led the event by a stroke after a fine finish around Kingsbarns on Friday was a 1.75/7 chance before today's third and final round but he'd shortened up considerably over the weekend.

At the close of play on Friday, before we knew the event would be shortened to 54 holes, the Englishman has been trading at around 2.26/5.

Although Fitzpatrick never really looked like losing, Matthew Southgate started like a man possessed at St Andrews, playing the first five holes in five-under par and the pre-event 100.099/1 chance hit a low of 2.26/5 before he ran out of steam.

Marcus Armitage started well at Carnoustie today, playing his first four holes in four-under-par, and he hit a low of 6.25/1 and the defending champ, Ryan Fox, hit a low of 2.89/5 when he put in a bit of a charge to get to within one of the lead, but Fitzpatrick always looked in control.

Armitage looked like his chance had gone when he followed a bogey at the 18th (his eighth of the day) with three straight pars but he made it slightly interesting after that, birdying four, six and seven to get within two of Fitzpatrick.

But needing to birdie his last two holes to catch Fitzpatrick, he three-putted the par four ninth for bogey and parred ten to finish tied for second.

Playing alongside his mum, Susan, Fitzpatrick also won the team event so it was a fabulous day for the likeable Sheffield family.

Over on the PGA Tour, Ben Griffin took a three-stroke lead into the fourth and final round of the Sanderson Farms Championship on Sunday and he was matched at a low of just 1.222/9 when he still led by two with just three holes to play, despite not playing particularly well.

Level par for the day through 15, it looked like the 27-year-old might hang on but after a bogey at 16 and a poor approach at the last, he needed to hole an eight-footer for par on the 72^nd hole to claim his first title. He came agonisingly close to doing so.

This close for the win ...

We're headed to a 5-way playoff @Sanderson_Champ. pic.twitter.com/aHxzAbC8C0

-- PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) October 8, 2023

Prior to Griffin's finish, Henrik Norlander was also matched at odds-on. The Swede hit a low of just 1.51/2 when he led by a stroke with five to play but after finding the fairway off the tee on the reachable par five 14^th, he hit his approach into the water left off the green.

That led to a bogey six and he dropped another shot at 16 to drop back to -18 but at least he made the playoff, which is more than can be said about Carl Yuan and Mark Hubbard, who both missed out by one after bogeying the last.

Yuan was matched at a low of 4.216/5 and poor Hubbard was matched at just 3.55/2 when he set up a birdie chance to hit the front at 17 from 12 feet but he three-putted for a bogey five before the bogey at the last.

Griffin won't be the only one to wake up this morning feeling like he threw the event away.

After Griffin's miss on 18 we were into extra time and with five men playing off for the title - Griffin, Norlander, Scott Stallings, Ludvig Aberg and Luke List - it was likely that we might see something special from someone to separate themselves from the other four and List delivered in style form 44 feet!

WHAT A PUTT!

Luke List drains it from distance for the win @Sanderson_Champ pic.twitter.com/KdIlrAjS57

-- PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) October 8, 2023

List began the event trading at around 60.059/1 and he was a 16.015/1 chance after three rounds when he trailed by four in a tie for third, but he was matched at a high of 110.0109/1 when he trailed by six after he'd played his first six holes of the final round.

*You can follow me on Twitter @SteveThePunter