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, ...