Valero Texas Open round four: Watch out for Chopra

“Give the credit to Justin. He didn’t do too much wrong today.” That might be Jesper Parnevik’s view, gracious as ever in defeat. I beg to differ.

If you were in the live betting market Justin Leonard did a whole lot wrong. He looked so sure of victory so many times, only to hand the initiative back to Parnevik, I was beginning to think this was a charity event in aid of sartorially challenged Swedes. Certainly any prizes for scrambling should be directed my way for repeatedly recovering from overconfidence in Leonard’s short putting skills.

Not to detract from Parnevik’s work - he hit some amazing shots, not least the one over the trees from the cart path to save his par on the first playoff hole - but Leonard would never have got away with that in better company. It seems Parnevik wasn’t the only one consumed by nerves, certainly towards the end. I thought the playoff was never going to end.

So the massed ranks of the Swedish golfing army ended up being confounded by a lone American. They may yet have their revenge. Daniel Chopra posted some of the most impressive stats of the tournament: top 10 for everything except accuracy off the tee, where he placed 22nd. That’s handy form to be taking into the Frys.com Open, where he placed second last year.