The Punter / Steven Rawlings / 27 November 2009 /

Dead rats and hipping - it's no fun on the early shift for Steve in China...

Getting up in the dead of night goes with the territory at this time of year - recent events in Singapore, Hong Kong, China, Australia and Dubai have resulted in hours and hours of lost sleep. This week it's back to China for the Omega World Cup, but I wasn't going to get up for this one, not on the first day anyway.

Last year I'd backed England to win and I can still remember the disappointment of getting up on day one to see that they'd made a woefully inept start and that I'd already done my dough, so watching the recorded play yesterday morning was done with a degree of trepidation. I needn't have worried though- the first thing I saw was a leaderboard showing my two picks, Italy and Argentina, sitting in 1st and 2nd.

It was a great start but it was a misleading picture, both my teams had started early and they'd played the bulk of their rounds. As the stagger unwound and the other teams played more holes they slipped back a bit. And by the end of the day, behind the Irish duo of Graeme McDowell and Rory McIlroy, they'd slipped back a lot!

Birdies aren't hard to come by at Mission Hills and playing in fourballs, with two bites at the cherry on every hole for each team, the scoring was always going to be good. Even so, the 58 shot by the Irish on day one was some round, and it resulted in them trading at odds on with a lead of three.

With Argentina lying in 2nd and Italy three shots further back in a tie for 4th, I decided to get up early this morning and watch it live.

Not a great start. At just after five, having just started my breakfast, I was suddenly confronted with a man regurgitating a massive dead rat! If you've seen the advert, warning not to buy unlicensed drugs, you'll know where I'm coming from, if you haven't, you're lucky. It's absolutely bloody revolting, especially when you're eating! And when does 'after the watershed' become 'before the watershed'? Nobody wants or needs to see that first thing in the morning surely?

Anyway back to the golf, where both my teams started well enough, but unfortunately, so did the Irish and when McDowell, or G-Mac to use his super-hero sounding nickname, hit a sublime approach to the par five 7th, setting up a certain eagle, I was wishing I'd stayed in bed. I watched incredulously as he and Rors (to use his super-hero sounding nickname) jogged towards each other, jumped, twisted in the air, and clashed hips - I thought 'knuckling' was bad enough but this was something else.

Sky's Richard Boxall christened it hipping; it was later referred to as 'body-bumping'. I only hope it doesn't catch on. Call me a prude but it just looked wrong to me and I couldn't decide what was more nauseating the Irish team hipping or that horrid rat advert!

By the 13th hipping had evolved into shouldering - a sort of pathetic little jump, coupled with a shoulder barge. The dynamic duo had forged five clear and they were starting to get right on my nerves.

It hadn't helped that I was tired, that the Argentineans had started to fall apart and that the Italians had lost a ball on the 11th! To their credit the Italians reacted very well, a par on the 12th was followed by three straight birdies and they're still in with a chance.

As are the Swedes now too, who I backed at [6.2], just before they birdied the 17th and just as the Irish were finally making mistakes. After a scruffy bogey at the 11th, G-Mac and Rors made a complete mess of the par five 15th and ended up making a double bogey. Suddenly they were only one shot clear of the Italians and the Swedes. The [1.34] they'd earlier traded at was but a memory as they drifted out to [2.0], and I was sitting very pretty indeed.

Unfortunately for me and my book, they immediately regained composure and birdied the next two holes and yet again they've ended the day with a three shot lead, this time from Sweden, with Italy a further shot back. There's three shot to the 4th placed team, Japan, and I'd be very surprised if the winner doesn't come from the front three.

The equation for me is simple; I need the Irish to falter. Not just to provide me with a winning week but also to avoid even more embarrassing celebrations! We've gone from high-fivin' to knuckling, to hipping, and on to shouldering - heaven knows what they'll do if they win! The watershed may be needed first thing in the morning after all.

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