The Punter / Steven Rawlings / 15 September 2008 /

A dull, frustrating weekend according to The Punter, who tipped Karlsson to choke.

Having punted the event with the assumption that Robert Karlsson would choke, a victory for the Swede was never going to be a great result and so it proved.

It was a frustrating weekend and quite frankly, until the final hour yesterday, it made for pretty dull viewing too.

On Saturday, other than Lucquin, none of my picks looked likely to threaten overnight leader Karlsson, who had a fairly decent day. He'd bogeyed the last hole and was eventually, after much deliberation, adjudged to have double bogeyed the 2nd hole but still shot a four under par 68.

I say eventually because it wasn't until sometime after the round that the scoreboard was adjusted. I won't expand on what's not the most riveting of tales; suffice to say Andy McFee, Senior Referee for The European Tour, in his words 'took a call'. Apparently someone phoned in and questioned whether Karlsson had grounded his putter when the ball had moved before his bogey putt.

Now if itty bitty golf rules are your bag I'm sure you'll be able to find more reading on the incident but I've just got one question about the whole issue. Who on earth would bother to ring up? And who do they ring up? Is there a Ridiculous Rules Hotline?

Anyway, after things were sorted out the tall Swede was to take a three shot lead into the final round. He was three clear of two players, Lucquin, who'd had a poor third round but had rallied really well late on, birdying four of the last six holes and Molinari, who'd shot the round of the day with a 65.

I'd held off placing any further bets on Saturday until I backed Molinari as he ended his round at an average of [19.0].

So going into the final round it was all about how Karlsson, who started the day at around [1.48], would cope with his three shot lead. I was of the opinion that he was definitely beatable. He'd taken a four shot lead into the final day at both the Hong Kong Open and the PGA at Wentworth this season and crumpled like a cheap suit both times. He'd also taken a four shot lead in Italy early on in round three before folding there too, so when he birdied the 1st hole and shortened further I layed him at [1.25].

It looked like perfect timing as he bogeyed both the 3rd and 4th holes but unfortunately for me his closest challengers were even poorer. Karlsson had opened the door nice and wide but player after player refused to go through it.

My great hopes Molinari and Lucquin were very disappointing and both were two over par for the day by the time they'd played just five holes. Indeed Lucquin had a disaster, finally blowing up and in some style too, slumping to 16th after shooting an embarrassing 79.

England's Richard Finch stepped up to the plate but withdrew again once he got within a couple of shots and in no time at all the tall Swede was sauntering along six shots clear.

Then from the 12th hole Molinari finally got back on track, birdying four holes on the spin and when Karlsson bogeyed the 16th the lead was down to just two.

But it was enough of a lead, the Italian unforgivably left his birdie putt on the 17th hole short by an inch and his late rally proved to be too little too late.

So have I any regrets? No not really, Karlsson looked dodgy again and was worth taking on and will be again. And I suspect Molinari will be quite short in price for a while and is worth swerving. A decent enough finish, but yet again he only got going once his chance had gone.

I'll be back on Wednesday to preview next week's event which I can reveal, as Derek "Thommo" Thompson would say, just in case you've been on Mars or in a comer for several months, is the eagerly awaited Ryder Cup.

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