The 1st Tee

My golf punting career is in its infancy. As a teenager, after playing golf for several years, I decided to hate golf. My younger (and more talented brother) did not, and neither did my Dad. Continuing to grow up in a house that glorified a sport that horrified me with it banality was awful. Years of meeting people who knew my brother's golfing greatness and constantly being asked "Oh, do you play as well?" left me a golf  hating Harold. Sunday evenings were ruined by hours of boring men with bad tans and worse dress sense walking around fields, sometimes in the rain.

However, at some point last year, I played a round with some friends at a local golf course (shooting 127) infatuated me with the sport all of a sudden. My new(re)found love for the sport of the middle classes meant that I was taking as many half days at work as possible to play throughout the summer months. Then, watching golf came back. Spieth's two Major wins of 2015 fired up the betting man in me.

£50 on Ireland at 2/1 in the Six Nations gave me some ammunition to start punting on golf. Healthy chunks on Spieth, Dustin Johnson and Mcilroy in the Open Championship left me wanting more after an astonishing 3 man play off, of whom I had none. The US PGA provided no more success and neither did The Players Championship. But by now, I was emotionally and financially invested.

£5 each way @ 14s on Henrik Stenson in the Deutsche Bank looked fantastic until the last day, Fowler was hunting, and so was I (I was playing Deer Hunter 2005). My racing heart meant that I was pulling my shots and so was Stenson. Thankfully, PaddyPower were offering a cashout of 70.25 looked extremely tasty and I took it, and Fowler surged through and won. Cashout, a mugs game, had proved helpful.

A couple of dull weeks left me hurting, but then, the young hero, Matthew Fitzpatrick saved me from a sour patch. £5 ew @ 30s returned just shy of £200 and I was a hero again. From then until the end of the season there was zero success,