FBR Open round four: Quinney's splash drowns foolish backers

The way he explains it, you can understand why Jeff Quinney took the fateful decision to use driver off the 17th tee. He needed a birdie and reckoned that was the only way to get it. Cue big splash and a sudden dramatic end to his victory march on the FBR’s easiest hole. Jeff should have tuned into the radio - the collective intake of breath from XM’s commentators might have made him switch clubs.

So Wobble Sunday lives up to its reputation and our man Aaron Baddeley squeaks past for victory. That was the best Sunday of the season so far. I thought the devil would be smiling after God’s golfer slipped up badly on the 14th to go three behind. The way he clawed his way back emphasises what a cool dude he is under pressure. Or maybe it’s those good-looking ladies wearing Badd’s Brigade T-shirts that do the trick. The headline ‘Badd’s birdie binge’ takes on a whole new glow when you look at them.

Betting-wise it was a brave soul who took on Quinney as he sailed round seemingly unflappable, “like he’s been on Tour five or six years and won two tournaments” as one commentator put it. But his serene progress lulled punters into a dead end - to have him 1.47 with two holes to go, just a shot ahead of a rampant Baddeley, and John Rollins threatening to tie his score on the 18th was way too cheap. Punters piling in on him at that price deserved a good spanking, which they promptly got with a three-shot swing in the space of a few minutes.

What a bookie’s delight that was: Baddeley’s charge caught out so many people that only half the money ended up on him to win compared to the weight of money for Quinney.

What concerns me, however, is yet another sign of a sharp decline in the US Tour market. Total receipts on Betfair’s winner market for the FBR were a bit over £1.6 million ($3.1 million), against £1.9 million last year. I suspect punters on my side of the pond are getting a bit fed up with being stiffed by people in America - you know, the land where they’re not allowed to gamble on the net? - who obviously have access to truly live information, as opposed to the broadcast delays of at least 30 seconds we apparently have to suffer. This is a topic I intend to come back to.

Couple of other pointers: nice showing again by Rollins, turning into an early season bridesmaid like Charles Howell III. And an interesting seven under from Vijay Singh Sunday to claim seventh spot - oh but for his woeful opening round. Is this a sign he’s ready for another big one? He certainly deserves more credit than most of his peers who performed like pussies. But perhaps that’s what made the ending so good: we had a really hungry bunch at the top. All credit to the way they made a fight of it.

PS: An interesting piece from Sports Illustrated on the Tour’s top “young guns” puts Baddeley in seventh place after his win and records that up to Sunday night his world ranking was 90th. Just behind him in eighth place is good old Justin Rose, who is a year older and 37th in the world rankings up to Sunday. Baddeley has now won twice on the Tour. Justin, on the other hand …