The Punter's De-Brief: Hot Homa holds off Keegan as Olesen wins again

Steven Rawlings
09 May 2022
4 min read

Thorbjorn Olesen - the 2022 British Masters winner

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Max Homa has won his fourth PGA Tour title and his second Wells Fargo Championship and Thorbjorn Olesen has won his sixth DP World Tour title. Steve looks back at all the action here...

"For the second week in-a-row we witnessed three players trade at long odds-on on the DP World Tour on a Sunday and yet again on the PGA Tour, money could be made by laying at long odds-on in the Top 5 Finish and Top 10 Finish markets.

Pre-event 46.045/1 shots, Keegan Bradley and Max Homa, dominated the market with a round to go at the Wells Fargo Championship.

With a two-stroke lead, Bradley was trading at around 2.3411/8 before round four but it didn't take long for everything to change.

A birdie at the first by Homa saw Bradley's lead halved and after the 54-hole leader had found sand off the tee at the par five second, Homa seized control. Bradley went from sand to rough to sand again before eventually chalking up a double-seven and Homa had gone from hunter to hunted.

It was a ding-dong affair after that and Bradley was matched at a low of 2.01/1 when he briefly regained the lead after three birdies in four holes from the fifth but Homa birdied the ninth and tenth to return to the front and after Bradley double-bogeyed the 11th, Homa always looked like holding him off. He went on to win by two.

The defending champion, Rory McIlroy, who was matched at 400.0399/1 in-running, briefly threatened and he was matched at a low of 4.67/2 but even when Homa made mistakes, which was inevitable after such a draining week, on such a tough track, he always looked like doing enough to win.

Having just announced that he and his wife, Lacey Croom, are expecting their first child, a son, Homa was another winner for Nappy Factor fans.

So much perspective incoming #babyboy pic.twitter.com/OykOjbC4DK
? max homa (@maxhoma23) April 26, 2022

It was Homa's fourth PGA Tour success and his fourth since May 2019 when he won this title for the first time. And it moves him up to 29th in the Official World Rankings.

Homa is now a 70.069/1 chance for the US PGA Championship next week and he looks made for major championship golf but he has only an ordinary record in them so far with a tied 40th at the Open championship last year his best performance to date.

The world number one and US Masters winner, Scottie Scheffler, still heads the US PGA Championship market but after another solid performance, Rory McIlroy, who finished fifth yesterday, is pushing Jon Rahm for second favouritism and there's been money for Sheffield's Matt Fitzpatrick, who finished second alongside Bradley and Cameron Young.

Over at the British Masters, Thorbjorn Olesen had eagled the 17th and birdied the last on Saturday to take a three-stroke lead into the final round at the Belfry but in search of his first win in four years, it was never going to be plain sailing for the 32-year-old Dane and so it proved!

A bogey at the opening hole after a poor drive set the tone for Olesen and although he birdied the par five third, he spent the day struggling.

He made a great par save on the eighth to keep the field at bay but he was finally caught at the next when he made his third bogey of the round just as Sweden's Sebastian Soderberg birdied the 16th - his third hole in-a-row.

Having started the final round six strokes off the lead, and having been matched in-running at 1000.0, pre-event 400.0399/1 chance, Soderberg, parred the last two holes to post a nine-under-par total but with the likes of Olesen, Richie Ramsay, Hurley Long, Chase Hanna and Justin Walters having so many holes to play, it never looked like being enough.

Hanna, who was generally a pre-event 750.0749/1 chance, was matched at a low of 7.06/1 before he bogeyed the par five 17th to lose his chance and Walters, hit a low of 3.65 in-running but it was Scotland's Richie Ramsay that looked the most likely to benefit form Olesen's scruffy final round.

Ramsay got it to -10 with a birdie at the par five 17th and given he led Soderberg in the clubhouse by a stroke, and the rest of the field by two, the pre-event 180.0179/1 chance looked far and away the most likely winner.

Ramsay was matched at just 1.42/5 after splitting the fairway on the 72nd hole but a heavy contact with his approach saw the ball find the water short of the green and he eventually chalked up a double-bogey six.

The 36-hole leader, Hurly Long, looked like he might catch Soderberg when he gave himself a chance for birdie at the par five 17th but he missed the chance and parred the last and Soderberg must have thought he'd won.

The 31-year-old Swede was matched at a low of just 1.061/18 as he sat in the clubhouse on -9 and Olesen, who had traded at 1.75/7 earlier in the day, stood on the 17th tee trailing by two and trading at 44.043/1.

It looked like the Dane, who had been matched at a high of 100.099/1 before the off (generally a 95.094/1 chance) had blown his chance but incredibly, for the second day in-a-row, he finished the round in style, eagling 17 from 30 feet to tie Soderberg, before birdying the last from 36 feet to pass him!

Eagle-Birdie finish @Thorbjornolesen made two consecutive putts of 30ft and 36ft to win for the first time in four years.

#BetfredBritishMasters pic.twitter.com/Vj7BrU6ZGb
? DP World Tour (@DPWorldTour) May 8, 2022

For the second week in-a-row we witnessed three players trade at long odds-on on the DP World Tour on a Sunday and yet again on the PGA Tour, money could be made by laying at long odds-on in the Top 5 Finish and Top 10 Finish markets.

Jason Day, who had led by three at halfway at the Wells Fargo, shot 79 on Saturday to fall away. He steadied the ship on Sunday with a level par 70 to finish tied for 15th but it was too little too late for those that had piled in at odds-on in the place markets.

Day was matched at a low of 1.241/4 to finish inside the top five and just 1.111/9 to end the week inside the top ten.

With the second major of the year, the US PGA Championship, now looming large, the PGA Tour warms up for it in Texas with the AT&T Byron Nelson Championship and the DP World Tour visits Belgium for the Soudal Open. I'll be back later today or tomorrow with my previews.

*You can follow me on Twitter @SteveThePunter