Golfing matters

With the Fulham play-off games being covered by Alan Tanner I did not get my normal Monday or Tuesday slot. On the Rust you get what you’re given.

Last weekend we had the so-called fifth major the Players Championship at Sawgrass. Its prize money is the highest on the PGA which is why it always attracts such an elite field, the 50 best in the world. I am more interested in the course designed by Peter Dyer than the field. The signature hole is the superbly designed seventeenth. It’s a par 3 island green that can entrap the best.

Winner Webb Simpson might have shot a 59 but hit  the drink there. Unfortunately the hole is marred by the raucous behaviour of spectators. I heard a interview with a rookie who played his round with Tiger Woods. Asked what he learned, he replied that the 14 time major winner really focuses on his golf blocking out the noise of the spectators.

My only winner was  each way on Jason Day who is back to his best game. Steve Palmer backed Webb Simpson at 80/1 and  at 50/1 Joakim Lagergren the winner of  the Sicilian Open. I shall enjoy his column in this Sunday in the Racing Post.

Alan Tanner was unusually confident that Fulham would qualify so I had some of that at 2/1 and a 3-0 score at 12/1. I was cursing Abou Kamara who, when through at 2-0, chose to dive.

This weekend is the Bryon Nelson at the Trinity Course, a new track which like a British links favours the player who can control flight in the wind. Jimmy Walker, a Texan, is my pick.  He contracted Lime Disease but looks like very much on the mend.