Shell Houston round four: Scott slashes his Masters odds

Thank goodness I’m not the only golfer (ish) to have trouble with water. Why is it that the merest drop has such a magnetic effect on my golf balls? You’d expect professionals to have learned how to beat it though, so the water on Redstone’s 18th must have a particularly strong magnetic field. Splish, splash, splosh, all three of the leading group went in Sunday to produce a rather comical finale to the last round. But what a great round it was, as memorable a duel as you could hope for. Give me this over a Tiger procession any day.

Stuart Appleby rued the weather change that split this into two quite different tournaments. He obviously felt he would have won if it had continued to play hard and fast. He might have anyway if his putting had been any sharper. Hard luck all the same - Adam Scott holing out for par on the 18th from a near 50-footer he was merely lagging says it all.

Actually it says more than you might think. To me it says Scott, who played some superlative golf Sunday, has found the “bottle” to close out that used to be the big concern. Sure, he still has his puzzling moments, but this is not the player that had me so exasperated with his performance last year. He’s not a multiple PGA Tour winner this season, but he is now a multiple winner over less than 6 months, and at 26 that’s something. Eat your heart out Justin.

His success has shortened his exchange odds for the Masters by 10 points to 38. I don’t think that’s an over-reaction, even though the competitions are chalk and cheese. This Aussie is no longer a coming man; he’s arrived.

PS: Appleby was gracious in defeat and much too hard on himself. Funny though. Asked about having his little daughter on the sidelines he replied: “She hasn’t got a clue what’s going on, which is sometimes the way I felt for me today.”