EDS Byron Nelson round four: Never mind Mickelson, disqualify Verplank!

You’ll struggle to find anguished Luke Donald backers on the betting forums. Barely a ripple of angst greeted his dramatic slump around the turn Sunday, when a three-stroke lead became a one-stroke deficit in the space of three holes.

Donald has something of a reputation as a last round lightweight, despite his one-and-a-half victories, and I assume most had already laid him off. It wasn’t difficult - having gone as low as 1.3 his price hovered around the 2 mark for a long period after the rot had clearly set in.

It’s not “bottle” as such that’s the problem, though. He showed plenty of that to pull back into contention. Instead, as he pulled away from Scott Verplank in those early holes, I heard echoes of commentator Peter Alliss imploring Justin Rose to “slow down Justin, slow down” in the Masters. Like Rose, Donald was starting to go about his business too quickly, as if anxious to get the job done, and like Rose he ended up making a complete hash of a tee shot. Even then he didn’t take a deep breath, but charged on relentlessly, as if the faster he got through the horror of it all the better.

Beside him Scott Verplank played a superbly controlled round that minimised the possibility of error. It was classic hare and tortoise stuff.

Luke can probably still see in his mind’s eye the way his ball suddenly “dived left” at the hole on the 18th. He was a rather unlucky victim of those awful greens, a key reason why so many top players stayed away. But he knows he effectively lost it with that six on the ninth.

Hats off to Verplank, although surely he should be disqualified for illegal outside assistance. Not the hand of God as some befuddled English journalists interpreted his comments, but the spirit of Byron Nelson enveloping him in an aura of calm and confidence. A pity Byron couldn’t have done something about the greens while he was at it, but maybe that was all part of the plan. Anyway, that’s enough Byron Nelson: Ed.

Guess we’d better keep an eye on the pink panther Ian Poulter now his new Cobra clubs are bringing an edge to his game. At one point he looked like pipping Donald for second spot.

More important though is that Phil Mickelson seems to be getting back on track. It’s still a work in progress, but there’s an important anniversary coming up that he dearly wants to wipe clean, and that is what he is working towards.