Betfair: The Punter’s review of this weekend’s golf action

Today’s update from Betfair:

Steve had been only mildly hopeful of a profitable outcome to this week’s golf, was he right to have such little faith?

Going into the weekend, with my Canadian Open selection, Anthony Kim, seemingly a few too many shots back, my hopes of a profitable week looked to lay with Ricardo Gonzalez, my in-running pick at the SAS Masters, but he had a horrendous third round.

It wasn’t really that unexpected though, there was an awful lot riding on a big finish for the Argentinean, who was languishing a long way down the Race to Dubai money list, and the pressure soon took its toll on Saturday, as he dropped three shots in his first ten holes. He looked at one point to be re-grouping quite well and managed to get back into a tie for the lead with three holes to play but bogeys at the 16th and 17th soon saw him tumbling back down the leaderboard.

Meanwhile, very little play was staged in Canada on Saturday, with poor weather yet again halting proceedings, but they did at least get the second round finished and thankfully Kim picked up a couple more shots to give himself a chance at the halfway stage.

Going into the final round yesterday the picture looked no clearer in Sweden, with a leaderboard littered with players I simply couldn’t trust but I was very tempted by Jeppe Huldahl. The Dane had recently won the Wales Open in impressive fashion, as a [1000.0] shot, and was trading at over [7.0] on Saturday night. But his win in Wales had come out of the blue following a string of missed cuts and he hadn’t made a cut since the win. I had niggling doubts for some reason and, only just, decided not to back him.

As a result I spent most of yesterdays final round cursing my decision, as Huldahl stormed to a three shot lead, traded at less than [1.50] and looked the only player with enough composure to take the title. In sharp contrast, Gonzalez was woeful and at one point trailed by six and traded at around [75.0]. What happened next was quite extraordinary.

Jamie Donaldson made a charge for the line, birdying three of the last five holes and as Huldahl finally started to feel the heat, it looked as though the title would be fought out between the two, but then Gonzalez, from a seemingly hopeless position, played the last six holes in five under!

Gonzalez always looked to have a bit too much to do and when his approach shot on the 17th hole finished up plugged in the greenside bunker it looked as though his race was run and I was pretty philosophical about it. He’d looked dead and buried but he’d at least given me a bit of excitement with a late rally, but remarkably he holed out from the bunker.

Although I wasn’t winning fortunes I layed a bit back after that at [1.70] and when he hooked his tee-shot on the last into the trees left of the fairway, it looked like a wise move but Gonzalez wasn’t to be denied and he hit another remarkable shot - out of the trees and to within five or six feet, from where he popped in the birdiee putt to win by two.

It was the luckiest winner I’ve had in a very long while. Gonzalez must have felt his chance had gone and therefore relaxed, I’m not sure how else his win can be explained.

As for the Canadian Open….well it’s barely gotten past halfway! Round three started yesterday morning and my man Kim was on fire, birdying five of the first seven holes to join Jason Dufner at the head of the field. Unfortunately he bogeyed the 9th hole and had driven into the rough on the 10th when play was yet again suspended. And that’s where we are still. Play was due to start at 10.30pm last night but lightening returned to the area, so play will resume later today and they’ll attempt to play 72 holes.

Kim’s currently the favourite, trading at around [4.50], so I’m in a decent position. My hope is that he can get to the lead by the end of round three, just in case the event gets reduced to 54 holes.

It’s a bit odd reviewing the weekend’s golf before it’s ended but I didn’t want to wait until the Canadian Open finished as I’m beginning to doubt it ever will!

On Wednesday, I’ll review the outcome in Canada and preview next weeks events, the Moravia Silesia Open in the Czech Republic, and the Buick Open, where Tiger Woods returns after his missed cut at Turnberry.

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