Funds are in short supply. Professional gamblers are
just bookmakers these days. But the Pebble Beach Pro-Am was coming. An historic
location combined with a celebrity and professional golfer line up looked like
a stellar week was ahead.
£5 each way on Spieth & Stone at 5s & 30s
seemed favourable. Both had already won this season and Stone was back on home
turf in the Tshwane. A further double on Bubba Watson and Jaco Van Zyl was
hopeful. £10 win on Snedeker was a consolation.
These all proved to be complete wastes of time. I
considered backing Rose, seeing on Twitter that he had arrived in Pebble Beach
on Sunday. But this was his debut here and I couldn't justify it.
Settling down on
Thursday evening to watch 7 of the world's top ten I have to say I was excited.
But the coverage was abhorrent. Whilst I could happily watch almost any
professional golfist play at any of the three course on rotation this week,
what I could not stomach was an amateur called "Boomer" something or
other. Apparently some kind of sportscaster in the US, this beefy man with a
swing like an elephant trundled round the course in worse form than I would
have. Footage of the world's golfing elite was restricted to a couple of shots
and I was forced to watch lucky amateurs play. This did not improve until
Sunday.
I was basically out
of the running immediately.
A whole bunch of
useless. Until, that is, the final day. Mickleson was leading and was odds on
for his first victory since 2013. I couldn't muster up the interest for a big
enough bet so I didn't bother. But then, disaster struck. Back to back bogeys
on 4 & 5 were clawed back by birdies on 6 & 8. Bogey on 11 from an
errant drive was followed by birdie on 13. Phil was making unforced errors all
over the place. Another bogey on 14 was a massive error.
Huge. Avoidable and
huge. For a player of Phil's skill and experience, dropping a shot on a par 5
is unacceptable. In to the bunker for 3, then a poor two putt suggested Phil
had lost his bottle. Meanwhile, Vaughn Taylor, previously 408th in the world
was storming through the ranks. By this point he was adding the finishing
touches to a seven under 65, matched only by Patrick Reed.
Phil's bogey on 14 put him two shots behind with four
to play. I finally had some interest. Two pars put Phil in an even worse
position. I seized the moment. £5 at 17/2 would certainly yield some interest.
Seconds later Phil knocked in his best putt of the day to move one behind with
one to play. Mickleson had played Pebble Beach the day before and had birdied
18 then also, with a brilliant 32 foot chip in, displaying his short game
prowess once again.
Mickleson then
proceeded to cream one down the fairway, just past the tree. From there, an
excellent shot ran up the bottle neck and left Phil 60 feet to the pin. I
fancied him to knock it in and take the outright. Five years ago he probably
would have. But not today. Phil stuck it to five foot. Excellent, he'd been
nailing these all week. This was confirmed by a stat that appeared on the
screen. 23/23 putts under six foot holed this week. My play off was assured.
But suddenly, Phil missed the putt. It was never in. Tap in par meant a final
round score of level, tied 29th for the day, and second in the tournament.
Small ventures are meant for small gains and this was a gainless week.
Again.
Bad form.
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