There are times when humble pie can actually be rather tasty, especially with a nice dollop of brown sauce on top. But I’m not about to indulge - I’m on a diet trying to create space for the inevitable Christmas pudding and other gastronomic excesses coming my way soon. Which will come as disappointing news to those who think I should now be eating platefuls of pie, not to say whole tabletops groaning with the stuff, over my comments earlier this year about Justin Rose. The issue has arisen because good old Justin has won a competition at last after a ...

Here’s a line from the sports pages of London’s respected Guardian newspaper that deserves a wider audience. “Hamburg were breathing out of their arses and the last thing they needed to see was someone who can catch pigeons coming on.” Translation: the labouring Germans were undone late in last week’s European Champions League football (soccer) game against Arsenal by a fresh substitute with lightning speed. So what has that got to do with Michelle Wie, you won’t ask because you didn’t know that was the point? Bear with me. The pigeon-catcher in question is called Theo Walcott, and he is an ...

Job done and in exceptional style. Adam Scott did not rest on his laurels, with an almost flawless round of four under, although as I thought two under on the day would have been enough. Would he have done it if Tiger had been around? Who knows, or cares really? But I do think in this mode he’d have had Lefty for breakfast. It is lovely golf to watch and we can only hope this emboldens the Australian to make a serious tilt at the majors next year. His East Lake stats are simply awesome: 3rd for putts per ...

Spare a thought for Davis Love III Sunday as he trundles his lonely path round the Tour Championship course, wooden spoon sticking firmly out of his bag. It can’t be much fun trying to make amends for that dreadful opener, even if a nice fat cheque still awaits at the end - presumably what’s still keeping him going. The fickle hand of fate eh? He looked for all the world someone likely to be trading blows at the top come Sunday, his reputation as a golfing heavyweight restored. Instead that libertine hand has decreed that a different messiah is ...

You should thank your lucky stars I’m not Adam Scott if you’ve backed him this weekend. I’d be so excited right now my clubs would be shaking like a vibrator, not that I have first-hand knowledge of how that oscillates you understand. But there’s quite a few punters out there convinced the excitement, tension or whathaveyou will get to Scott too this weekend. He has form on the American circuit - you may recall for instance how he deferred to Vijay Singh on the final day of the Barclays Classic. Which is why many are suggesting he is poorly priced at ...

“Nothing’s going to be pretty out there today,” said Stewart Cink. How right he was. “Pretty” never even got out of bed as the wind played havoc with Thursday’s play. I bet Davis Love III wished he’d never got out of bed either after shooting 12 over, apparently his highest score to par in 21 years of playing. Yup, even worse than the 83 that sent him crashing out of the Players Championship in March. Exactly what went wrong, apart from bunkers, plugged lies and general gusty mayhem, is not clear. All I could discern was a cryptic suggestion by ...

The Tour Championship this year has the feel of a great banquet with empty chairs at the top table, notably the guest of honour’s. It sends the message that this is really just a little end of term money-spinning celebration for the season’s stars. It leaves a bit of a question mark over the death or glory commitment of some of our intrepid heroes this weekend. Without Tiger Woods around to concentrate minds, it also seriously muddies the waters as to likely winners. The stats that last year’s top six brought home illustrate how you need a pretty all-round game, with ...

So now we know what done it - K J Choi’s new driver. The sound of Nike’s new “SasQuatch Sumo” (don’t ask because I don’t have a clue) striking the ball has been likened to hitting a cola can. Ernie Els described it as a tuna fish can with a shaft on the end. Did the trick nicely, whatever the noise, leaving Choi 16th for accuracy off the tee, part of a very impressive all-rouind set of figures for the match. Struck me he was having far more difficulty with his English than the Copperhead course. It certainly didn’t take ...

Are we in for a small bit of golfing history Sunday? It’s been a long time since Ernie Els took home a first place cheque - almost exactly two years ago in fact - but today could just mark the start of his long overdue return to winning ways. He leaves no doubt about how important a win would be - “huge … The last three months I’ve been really thinking about winning, because I feel over my injury finally.” The market certainly gives him the nod with a slight price advantage over K J Choi, even though the Korean ...

I wonder if K J Choi will rue that double bogey on his 17th hole Friday? He might not think it such a “good experience” if he loses by a stroke or two come Sunday. This is certainly not the wire-to-wire win he pulled off in 2002. Friday, he muffed a great chance to kill off a lot of potential challengers. As it is, with windy conditions threatened for Saturday - gusts of up to 30 mph are forecast - it’s anyone’s guess who will emerge the most unscathed. What a day of contrasts Friday was, ignoring the keystone kops ...

All those guys desperate for money and who do we get at the top? Brian Gay, who’s comfortably numb at 96th in the money list, and Mark Calcavecchia, who’s exempt anyway so it doesn’t matter where he is. It seems nerves - and the course - are getting the better of those who really need to win because they are not doing well at all. It’s certainly a much different and tougher course from the birdie bonanza track we had last week - which marks out Gay’s seven under as a pretty fair day’s work. Benign weather meant the course played ...

All aboard the last train to Exemption, stopping once only at the Tour Championship. It’s packed and there’s quite a few in the first class compartment, meaning excellent company for the journey. But who’s getting off the train first? And how do we know there isn’t another Joe Durant hiding in the baggage compartment to surprise us all? Funnily enough, now that he has emerged from the shadows, Durant figures prominently in this week’s calculations. He is one of those rare PGA beasts who has won back-to-back (in 2001) and is enjoying a sizzling October. He also has the right ...

Joe Durant’s stats were perfect for this tournament. How come I missed them? Easy. These were the actual tournament stats, which almost perfectly fit the description I set out to look for at the start of the tournament. Unfortunately, they bear little resemblance to his resume coming into this event. At Disney he was first for putting , against 49th in my stats, and third for greens in regulation, against 73rd in my stats (which, because they show recent form, are far more flattering than the PGA’s). That’s the beauty of golf - you never know where the next great ...

One sentence among today’s reports sums it up. “Rose took only five holes and 90 minutes to fritter away his four-shot lead.” My only caveat would be with the word “fritter". I would go more for chuck, blast maybe, hurl, or even toss - mmmmmm that one sounds particularly appropriate. Justin Rose’s surrender was so total and abject he should consider taking Italian citizenship. Basically he has 18 holes left to avoid being indelibly dubbed the Tim (anyone for tennis?) Henman of golf - a gallant but perennial English loser. It’s not my pocket talking because I have actually done alright ...

Justin Rose must have been as puzzled as me when he came out in the afternoon Friday to find he was still sitting pretty atop the leaderboard. None of the early risers, least of all Charles Howell III, had much of a fight in them, which lifted some of the pressure off the Englishman. He was able to rip up the script that says a poor round follows a great one - he let Howell & Co play that role. So who said 3-1 on Rose was cheap? I still say that was a fair verdict at the time, ...

Justin Rose must know the hard part is still to come. Thursday’s 12-under was an immense start, but its a bit like one of those Tour de France races where one rider hurtles away from the pack, only to be slowly reeled in by the peleton. Even so I thought the reaction of commentators was a bit miserly, the conclusion being he should have done better, with a PGA record-smashing 14 under suggested. Cut the guy some slack, it was really hot out there Thursday. Sure we shouldn’t get too carried away: the layers are surely having a laugh by bringing ...

Cripes. If you thought last week was tough to call you aint seen nothing yet. First problem down at Walt’s place is trying to spot a golfer who’s got his mind on the job, in between taking the family to the Disney attractions and carting off the spoils of sponsorship. I take it Mike Weir’s caddy wasn’t joking when he wrote: “I was asked several times today what exactly Funai is. After watching all the players come out of the locker room carrying televisions in big Funai boxes, I am going to guess that they are an electronic equipment ...

Thank goodness that didn’t go to a playoff. or we might still be waiting for a winner. An excruciatingly long day - it seemed everyone had caught Ben Crane’s disease - looked certain to be the undoing of Troy Matteson when he was hauled back from a three-shot lead to a four-way tie at -20. He admits he was feeling the effects of having to finish the previous round in the morning. Seems it was that caddie brother of his, whispering sweet nothings in his ear about what a great player he was, that saved the ...

“If Shigeki wins I shall throw the computer through the window…. “. So wrote a frustrated punter on the forums early Sunday morning, not because he’d layed Shigeki Maruyama, but because he’d stopped backing him. This is one of the great frustrations of golf betting: you zero in on a player you think is working up to a win, but after he lets you down over two or three weekends you give up. Next week, hey presto, victory! It’s happened to me more times than I care to mention. Which is why I am praying my patience with Charley Hoffman ...

Looks like touch and go Saturday, with thunderstorms throughout and several games still to finish from Friday. A lot of punters appear to have given up the ghost already - the market is very sluggish. So do some of the players I rather fancied, although I still think there’s life in Jim Furyk, now seven shots off the pace. It’s still possible and might even be worth a small additional punt - Wes Short Jr, who again poses a threat, was six shots behind at the half way point last year. Furyk’s putting was sharper Friday, but there’s still work ...

Jim Furyk had better get a move on if he still fancies his chances of a jackpot in Las Vegas. Five shots off the pace after round one is not usually disastrous on courses as generous as these two proved on Thursday. But things may tighten up a little and, according to the excited chatter of radio commentators I picked up, the competition might even be shortened to three rounds. We’ve been here before with dodgy weather forecasts, but thunderstorms do look to be on their way Saturday, with the suggestion golf might be washed out altogether that day. That ...

The PGA Tour headline says it best: ‘Your guess is as good as anyone’s’. The Invensys … Michelin … Frys … whatever competition certainly has something of the roulette wheel about it, which makes Las Vegas a highly appropriate venue. Last year was a spectacular example, as punters failed to spot the rank outsider Wes Short Jr sneaking up the blind side and took Jim Furyk’s price to the floor thinking he had won. The PGA Tour’s Fantasy Insider insists poring over stats is futile. Too late. I’ve started so I’ll finish. The most powerful stats suggest there’s only one man for ...

Who doesn’t love happy endings? Probably those frustrated souls that pumped more than £70,000 ($130,000) on Eric Axley at odds-on as he took a three-stroke lead into the last six or so holes. At the time it must have seemed like money for old rope. Unfortunately, the rope turned into a noose. What these over-eager punters had forgotten as they hunted Axley’s price all the way down to 1.5 was that he had effectively run out of birdie holes, while Davis Love III still had a few up his sleeve, including three par fives. And that is what made ...

Oh heavens! Chris Couch isn’t going to win again is he? I’m sure he’s a really nice chap ‘n ‘all, and obviously he’s no mean golfer when he puts his mind to it, but I find his “doing God’s work” routine faintly nauseating. If I was a contestant of an alternative religious persuasion, I might even find it offensive. Or is success on the PGA circuit now restricted to Bible-bashers? Someone should tell John Daly - that’s clearly where he’s going wrong. And if I was Davis Love III I would cry foul that Couch is, by his own admission, being ...

If the fat lady tried to sing on the Forest Oaks course she’d be drowned out by the howling wind. But she might have a go at Saturday’s close, if recent history is a guide. Since the start of the millennium, at least, the third round leader has invariably gone on to win. The other intriguing factoid is that the winner was also never more than two shots off the pace after round two. With more wet and windy weather on the way Saturday scoring could be even tougher for our heroes and I doubt the claims of some over-eager ...

Is the curse of Greensboro about to strike again? The morning crew were smiling Thursday as they plundered a course at its most benign and bagged most of the top spots. But the experts talking about Friday’s weather suggested the smiles would be on the other side of their faces as they head out into some nasty stuff supposedly due Friday afternoon. Among them will be defending champion K J Choi and current joint leader Brent Geiberger, a winner here two years ago (and whose father is a previous champion!). Just how far will the fates go to ...

I feel very fortunate this Thursday morning, having returned barely alive from carousing in the frozen north of Britain (actually it was quite balmy) with some Scots pals. I am also fortunate because at least the huge headache I have copped as a result will go away sometime soon. For many of the competitors in this week’s Chrysler Classic of Greensboro at the Forest Oaks country club, their financial headache is likely to continue for a while yet. Difficult to make my aching mind up whether to go for the few heavyweights or to follow the advice of the ...

D J Trahan found his bottle at last and it was a Nebuchadnezzar big enough to last him through three tense playoff holes. I don’t know about the players, but I was getting giddy just trying to follow them round and round the 18th to find a winner. What a roller-coaster finish that was. From a punter’s perspective it was Christmas and New Year thrown into one - providing as you will see later you were a little bit careful. It would have included everyone’s birthday as well if more money had been available. The game plan worked a treat for once: ...

They really will have to name the 18th hole at The Grove after Tiger Woods. The WGC radio guys initially got it wrong in suggesting it won the tournament for Tiger, but they weren’t far wrong - the three eagles and a birdie gave him all but one of his eight-point lead. Shame he couldn’t repeat the eagle on Sunday, but it was getting so dark they could have done with landing lights, and the weather was not at it’s best. The radio commentators were not the only ones slipping up yesterday. I was a trifle flippant about the weather ...

Remember Greensboro! It sounds like a rallying call from the American Civil War; in fact it’s the increasingly desperate cry of D J Trahan layers on the forums. It harks back to almost exactly a year ago when he shot a three over par 75 on the final day of the Chrysler Classic of Greensboro to plummet from joint leader to joint 13th. Today things are a tad different. He is two strokes ahead of the pack - for the third day running! - and the lineup in question is hardly on a par with last year’s winner K J Choi ...

Time for some three-ball in-play fun Sunday. I haven’t had time to look at them in detail - the indecently early Sunday start has caught me out after a heavy Saturday night, if you get my drift - but the tussle between Adam Scott and Brett Quigley in the final threeball might provide interesting in-play ebb and flow. No doubt Tiger Woods will simply sail serenely on, but Quigley has been playing well the last couple of rounds and looks like he could be a match for Scott. Otherwise it’s a bit of a damp squib in more ways than one, ...

Is it Groundhog Day in Mississippi? Only I see D J Trahan still leading by two? The figure that tells us it isn’t is that his price has halved overnight to about 4. But there’s a head of steam building up behind him and a flick through his record suggests the strong possibility of a wobbly round to come. Intriguingly one of his challengers, Joe Durant, heads my overall performance table, with the kind of profile tailor-made for this event. You’ve also got an old hand in the shape of Brad Faxon up there, although his current form really ...

Over so soon? 1.15 for Tiger Woods says it is, rain or no rain (and there’s some about Saturday as well). He’s in his special comfort zone and there’s seemingly no catching him. For a while Friday it looked like he had slowed down, but that was illusory. He’d had similar difficulty with the same back nine holes the day before until yet again he eagled the 18th. What odds he does it four out of four? The statistic that guides us today is that Tiger’s lead matches the competition’s 36-hole record - no prizes for guessing who’s it is ...

I fancy a dabble against D J Trahan. I know he really really needs the money and he’s two shots clear, but he’s out in the afternoon Friday and that could prove a little more taxing. By all accounts conditions tended to flatter those that went out early on day one. Trahan is one of that legion of somewhat infuriating golfers who post good-looking stats without translating them into results (a T4 in Milwaukee is all that stands out this year). Another that falls into that category is Bo van Pelt, and my finger hovers over his lay button, but ...

It’s all over, I hear people shouting. The runaway Tiger is back. But hold on a minute. As I sit typing not 20 miles from The Grove course, the heavens are chucking it down. It’s no torrent but I guess there’ll be quite a bit of rain landing on the course before daybreak. What was it Tiger Woods said yesterday? “When greens are slow I struggle and I always feel more comfortable on fast greens.” Well, it looks like they will be slower Friday and you would imagine the course will also play a bit longer. So it strikes ...

Interest in this event is pretty rock bottom. The money in the winner market is barely in the tens of thousands and it’s not exactly captured the imagination of the world’s press either. Look at what happened at San Antonio last week and think it could happen here too as the dash for qualifying cash gathers pace. To add to the confusion, it’s not quite the same course as last year because the greens have been changed to Bermuda grass. making them flatter, firmer and faster. I’m going to leave this one well alone at this stage. The fact that the ...

Back to normal service with Tiger Woods this week? At least he returns to what he does best and the stats he brings with him are frightening - 9 wins from 14 WGC strokeplay events and he’s never finished worse than ninth. He’s a four-time winner of this event alone, one of them in Ireland. And of course, he’s seeking to equal his 1999-2000 record of six strokeplay wins on the trot. While the last two weeks suggest a reverse side, I would always discount matchplay performance and you can look at his Ryder Cup glass as both half ...

Memo to Justin Rose: if you can’t win a tournament like this against a bunch of rookies and journeymen what’s the point? Eric Axley was there for the taking Sunday, four-shot lead or no four-shot lead. But he was never put under the slightest pressure, so much so that at one stage he and his caddie were having a long and animated discussion about music, with full vocals. Rose wasn’t the only one to blame. Just about everyone melted away - too busy protecting what they already had in the bank I guess. It was over before Axley had even turned ...

Let the excuses begin. For PGA commissioner Tom Finchem the Americans were outputted. For Captain Tom Lehman they never got momentum. For others it was lack of American team culture (you don’t have teams in America then?). For Scott Verplank the problem was something he knew (but didn’t tell us), adding hurriedly that it wasn’t the PGA of America, it wasn’t Lehman, in fact it wasn’t anything at all. Confused? Moi? I’ve got no excuses. Some you win, some you lose. But I am annoyed, because in backing America I believed they would at least come out fighting. Maybe I’ve watched ...

Difficult to know what to make of Eric Axley after yet another sizzling round of 63 on Saturday put him four shots clear of the pack. His stats are hot - first for greens in regulation, fourth for putting, sixth for accuracy off the tee. Look at his previous record and wonder where on earth all that came from. Four over Sunday morning is not necessarily such a large margin - we’ve seen far more experienced players throw away bigger leads on “wobbly Sunday". Ted Purdy for one thinks there’s still 20 players in with a chance. So just how ...

So here’s the deal guys. Basically, we forget all this European nonsense and revert to the way it was, you know just you and us, USA versus Great Britain. That way you get to win every time (well, until Paul Casey learns how to get holes in one on the par fives) and we don’t get all those miserable American faces on our TV screens. To be honest, you guys don’t do adversity particularly well. My suggestion has actually appeared in print this weekend, so comprehensive has the European domination of this event been so far. Now of course, there’s ...

Eric Axley anyone? Best results T24 this season and missed the cut 13 out of 23 outings. He hasn’t really crossed my radar before. and with earnings of just $200,000 he’s got a mountain to climb to qualify for next year. But a seven under is a pretty strong message on day two. Co-leader D A Points does not come into sight too often either - it’s that kind of tournament. He’s missed the cut 16 out of 24 but at least he managed a T10 at the Honda Classic in March which I vaguely remember. He also lurks very much ...

I’m sure glad they don’t behead people for treason here in England any more or I’d be in trouble. Every time an American sinks a birdie putt and I let out a muted ‘yesssss’ I get the filthiest looks you can imagine. It’s no good telling them its purely business, they want the Yankees beat like never before. If you ask me Dubya and his Iraq war have more to answer for than we thought. But he’s not the only one. I don’t know why everyone keeps laying into poor Tiger Woods - at least he brought something home on ...

Oh my goodness there’s Justin Rose trying to kick the door down again! Amazing - it’s not raining in Texas yet there he is bold as brass at the top. In fact hardly a whisper of wind interrupted Rose’s majestic early morning procession to 64 Thursday. I suppose one of these days dear Justin is going to end our (and his) years of frustration and win one of these things, and no one will celebrate louder than me when he does. But until then I am going to lay him when he hits the front, especially if it’s ...

Let’s get right down to it: it’s got to be America. Not that I think they are definite winners, just that I think they are the better bet for one simple reason. If they win you get more money - more than 2.4 against 1.9 for the Europeans. Did anyone catch the biggest bet in golf history going on the Americans Thursday? Some Brit with deep pockets stands to win just over $1m if the Stars and Stripes ends on top. But he’s had to risk half of that for the privilege (gulp). For all the arguments about who has the ...

In a land far, far away, a band of men are fighting for their golfing lives. Who said Ireland? I’m not talking about the Ryder Cup. Believe it or not there’s quite a big golf match going on in San Antonio that could decide one or two careers before the weekend is over. I know, there’s only one golfing story and it’s not happening in the Lone Star state. Even AP seems to have sent all its people over to the Emerald Isle while the PGA Tour site has been running the same story all week - that even in ...

You wonder why some players bothered to turn up Sunday. Rory Sabbatini four over for the day? J B Holmes five over? David Toms, Vijay Singh, Sean O’Hair two over? Even Steve Stricker was doing an Italian job. Sure the drying course made scoring difficult. And the return to grounded balls caused considerable angst, with several players moaning to rules officials how muddy their balls still were (cue jokes about mud-wrestling). There’s certainly something odd when it’s safer to play into the rough than the fairway because the ball stays cleaner. But that’s no excuse for the droopy performance by ...

The jumbled mass of humanity (golfmanity?) atop the 84 Lumber leaderboard must have the layers cracking broad smiles Sunday morning. “Like a pileup of Ladas” is the most amusing description I caught on the forums. Bit unfair - there’s a few BMWs there. Indeed there’s a few decent players all the way down to Vijay Singh, now six shots behind the leader, and in this company and these conditions you wouldn’t discount a winning charge from any of them. How about Rory Sabbatini, for instance, to repeat last Sunday’s smash and grab attempt? We all know what Vijay can do ...

I wonder if Shaun Micheel feels anything like General Custer, the last American left standing at the matchplay in Wentworth, surrounded by those pesky Europeans. But even though other members of America’s Ryder Cup squad were also falling like flies at Farmington this week, don’t raise the surrender flag just yet. At least two of your number have valiantly risen from the dead. I had great hopes for Chris DiMarco and Brett Wetterich at the start of the 84 Lumber and, while those hopes lie mostly in shreds, at least the pair stand shoulder-to-shoulder above the cut line - just. Not ...

Look through rookie Nicholas Thompson’s PGA Tour record this season and you’ll see missed cut after missed cut after finishes in the 70s and 80s. It’s been getting better - he hasn’t missed a cut since early August and he’s been finishing as low as the 40s. And there’s that one T6 at the BC Open courtesy of a final round 64, the only clue to yesterday’s storming start by the American. His scorecard is busy - only five pars - and the stats tell a surprising story of the triumph of accuracy over distance - on a day ...

The 84 Lumber website celebrates “50 years of helping to build America!". Unfortunately, after lavishing untold squillions on this course for the best part of 10 years, it has decided building America no longer includes golf. Which is bad news especially for golfers who love firing missiles into the near blue yonder. But beware those say this is simply a bombers’ course. Ben Crane only ranked 35th for distance when he came third last year, but made up for it with his putting. And some of the strongest fancies this year are not as high up the distance chart as you ...

Tom Lehman can take all the heart he likes from Jim Furyk’s victory and the late surge by Stewart Cink Sunday that put him in a tie for 11th, if not ever in contention. But if I was him, I would be ruing the fact that I had a seemingly out-of-sorts Vaughn Taylor on my Ryder Cup squad instead of a hot-to-trot Sean O’Hair. Mind you, neither O’Hair nor Bart Bryant were hot enough to force Furyk into a playoff as they might (should?) have done at the death. So Sunday was profitable, but not the trading bonanza we ...

There is obviously a small difference of opinion between myself and Canadian weather people over the definition of a light shower. To me that’s such a gentle and short sprinkling of water it’s hardly worth putting up the brolly. To our hairy-chested Canadian weathermen (and hopefully not so hairy-chested women) it is clearly just a few degrees down from having to tell Noah to build his boat. Okay, Saturday’s downpour might not have been le deluge exactly, but it was enough to delay proceedings for two hours and send them out by the threes (Noah please note). Armed with such information, ...

Form an orderly queue. The wind and drying conditions flattened a few reputations Friday and enhanced others, but the end result was a logjam at the top. It all seemed to happen so suddenly. One moment everyone was bumbling along nicely, Nathan Green three under on the day, Tom Pernice Jr cruising nicely in his wake, when suddenly bogeys started peppering the scorecards as frequently as the birdies. The Hamilton course at last found some bite. Fears about the afternoon session were well founded. By the time Jim Furyk came out to play he had the field at his mercy. No one ...

Form an orderly queue. The wind and drying conditions flattened a few reputations Friday and enhanced others, but the end result was a logjam at the top. It all seemed to happen so suddenly. One moment everyone was bumbling along nicely, Nathan Green three under on the day, Tom Pernice Jr crusing nicely in his wake, when suddenly bogeys started peppering the scorecards as frequently as the birdies. The Hamilton course at last found some bite. Fears about the afternoon session were well founded. By the time Jim Furyk came out to play he had the field at his mercy. No one ...