Gambler’s luck

Going into  the final day of the Northern Trust I was well poised to a return to form. Jordan Spieth my main pick was some 4 shots clear and my top five choices Patrick Cantley, Kevin Chappell and Patrick Reed  were well up the Leaderboard. Sadly it was not to be. Spieth hit the drink and never recovered for Dustin Johnson to win a play-off and none of my other selections made the top five. If you had to back anyone post Tiger to hold onto a two stroke lead it would be Spieth. In fact he has never lost a tourney when 2 strokes ahead on the final day.

Always a first time and it had to be yesterday. I made a daft decision to lay Liverpool given Arsenal’s poor form so it was bad day at the office.

We had the grandkids over and my own putting stroke deserted me on the local mini golf course where 12 years old Nathan coolly two-putted every hole.

Much has been made of the younger generation  of American golfers, guys like Spieth, Justin Thomas , Daniel  Berger and Cantley who started their careers in 2011.

Apparently  come the Ryder Cup we should be fearful but what of Spaniard Joe Rahm and European skipper Thomas Bjorn working on Mr Consistent Casey to play?

A terrible error was made last time too in excluding Russell Knox. We have our young prodigies too: Alexandre Levy, Matt Fitzpatrick, and some who have been round the block, which you always need, like major winners Henrik Stensen, Justin Rose and Rory.

The biggest difference between the US and European Tour is moolah.

We are now in FedEx Cup countdown and rest assured everyone will be anxious not to be eliminated as each tourney more drop off the list of 124 for the $10m prize winning pot. Perhaps more than any other game golf has extreme polarities of wealth.

Over in GB 2000 apprentices are competing in a qualification tourney annually.

Maybe 2/3 will turn pro and of those 1 might make living on the European tour where you need to bank £100,000 in winnings before making a profit with travel, hotel and caddy expenses.

In the old days the pro would run a golf shop just as the journeyman footballer would buy a pub but even this is not so secure these days. Remember Paul Way? I met him the other day. He was reckoned to be the as good a talent as Ian Woosnam who won one major but he never maximised that talent.

Mind you, Tiger  Rory and Phil Mickelson may be multi-millionaires but they are way short of  the $860m Floyd Mayweather has made from his sport. He bought out his contract from Bob Arum for €750,000 too.

Whilst I could only admire Conor McGregor for surviving 10 rounds in his first ever bout, I have a deeper admiration for the son of a convicted drug dealer father and addict mother for  making something of his life.

Which is more than I do from golf betting.