Bob Hope Chrysler Classic round one: Smell those burning fingers after Allenby's phantom eagles

Heard the one about Justin Rose’s hole in one on a par five? For a while the PGA Tour’s infamous Shotlink scoring system was trying to convince us it was so. I doubt anyone was fooled by that, but there were plenty who got their fingers burned when Shotlink showed Robert Allenby way ahead of the pack at 12 under, courtesy of two phantom eagles.

It was so convincing, bookies hurriedly cut his price to less than 4 - one poor soul reported scrambling to get on at 3.75. Ouch!

Now what have I always told you children? Unless you’ve got money to light your cigars, never bet on a play you haven’t seen. I was going to add heard, but there are legendary cases of wrong shouts by radio commentators. Shotlink and its twin sister Tourcast are notorious for erroneous calls - scores are collected by volunteers, sometimes l’ill old ladies! - and I imagine their problems are magnified by having four different courses to contend with.

Bear in mind also that these guys don’t give a monkeys that punters could potentially lose squilllions on a miss-call. What do they care - internet gambling’s illegal in America ain’t it?

Still, even nine under was a great performance by Allenby. You have to go four shots back to Andrew Buckle in 12th place to find the next player from the La Quinta course, which was playing the hardest of the four Wednesday. For the record the scoring averages, with last year’s figures in brackets, are: Bermuda Dunes 69.4 (69.1); Classic 69.8 (71.3); PGA West 70.7 (69.6); La Quinta 71.4 (70.9).

So Appleby’s done the hard part. What’s amazing is that he did it by leading the field in accuracy off the tee, which is at a premium on La Quinta. He is normally more a power player and will be able to bring that strength to bear in subsequent rounds. So although his price in the 5s must be a very tempting lay I’d stay my hand.

Phil Mickelson must be another tempting lay after his epic struggle. He too was on La Quinta and at 113th for accuracy you could see the root of his problems. His round was four shots poorer than last year’s effort. A seven shot deficit with four rounds still to go is more than achievable, but he’s going to have to get to grips with his new driver on the PGA West course Thursday.

Good to see Craig Kanada just two shots off the pace. Since he played the easiest course Wednesday, the Bermuda Dunes, I ‘d be tempted to lock in some profit now his price has halved.