The Punter / Steven Rawlings / 26 March 2012 /

Tiger Woods wins his first official PGA Tour event for 30 months, as he makes it a magnificent seven at Bay Hill. And it's been a good week for Steve too as his pre-event [85.0] pick, Michael Hoey, wins the Trophee Hassan II in Morocco.

Michael Hoey overcame a nine shot deficit over the last three days to overtake Damien McGrane in Morocco. Hoey had been three-over par after just six holes on Thursday and he ended day one on two over. McGrane, on the other hand, had bolted out of the gates and opened up with a seven-under par 65. As the saying sort of goes, it was a case of slowly slowly catchy McGraney. Hoey eventually won by three strokes.

And in Florida, Tiger Woods won his seventh Arnold Palmer Invitational, comfortably beating Graeme McDowell by five strokes.

My Bets
As detailed in the In-Play Blog, I made a bit of a mess of the Arnold Palmer, laying back some of my in-running Tiger bet before squandering a few quid on Ernie Els and Johnson Wager prior to round four but I did make a profit on the event, albeit a tiny one. Events in Morocco were far better though...

I layed back a fair bit of my Hoey wager, at all rates down from [7.4] to [1.02] but I'm not complaining in the least. I'd quite fancied his chances before the off and had backed him accordingly. Of course, you're always going to feel as though you've layed too much back when a selection wins, but hindsight's a marvellous thing.

What next for the winners?
Woods heads straight for Augusta with an army of fans following close on his heels. It was fantastic to see him win again and it was lovely to see how well received his victory was. Chants of "Tiger Tiger" echoed around the 18th green and you could feel the genuine affection for him. That must have meant a lot to Woods, who only a couple of years ago, rightly or wrongly, was made to feel like some sort of pariah.

Now trading at just [5.3], what we punters have to decide now is whether he's a good thing for the US Masters or not. I'm not going to crab his performance, that would be ridiculous, but one caveat I do have is that the opposition was conspicuous by its absence yesterday. It was like the good old Tiger days when all around him folded like cheap suits when they saw him atop of the Sunday leaderboard. He may well go onto to Georgia and gag-up or he may just have created lots of lovely value in the US Masters market. I favour the latter.

As for Michael Hoey, I'm very surprised to see him having the week off. Maybe he hadn't considered the venue for this week's Sicilian Open anywhere near closely enough? The Verdura Golf & Spa Resort looks right up his street to me but wherever he pitches up going forward he'll be worth checking out. He's now won three times inside a year, and in commanding nerveless style to boot, but no doubt it won't be long before he's trading at triple-figure prices again. Some players are just far too unfashionable and Michael's one of those. And long may he remain so I say because I wouldn't be surprised to see him win again soon.

What have we learnt for next year?
The Golf du Palais Royal, venue for the Trophee Hassan II, was once again praised to high heaven by all and sundry this week and it certainly was pleasing on the eye (though maybe I had my Hoey-tinted specks on!) but one thing that struck me was the similarity between this venue and another Trent-Jones design - Valderrama.

Valderrama hosted last year's Andalucía Masters but it isn't yet confirmed as the venue again in 2012. It's too good a course not to be used on the Race To Dubai though and even if it doesn't host the Andalucía Masters, it'll be back on the rota soon enough. And when it is, it might be worth looking for players that have fared well at the Golf du Palais Royal. Valderrama is a far tougher test, but there were definitely similarities.

At the Arnold Palmer Invitational, yet again, Par 5 Performance was crucial. Tiger played the 16 long holes in 12 under par and that was most definitely the key to his victory.

I'll be back tomorrow with previews for this week's two events, the aforementioned Sicilian Open and the Shell Houston Open from Texas on the PGA Tour.

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