The golfing weekend
Jordan Spieth trousered a cheque for $9m from FedEx by winning the U.S. PGA event at East Lake, Augusta. He and Jason Day with 5 wins respectively and 3 of the 4 Majors dominated the year. Day didn’t really feature on the leaderboard but Henrik Stensen who always comes good this time of year did. Not for the first time he did not maximise the lead and the steely Spieth took the lead and crucially held it with his clinical putter. He is not the biggest bomber off the tee but his game holds up in those crucial 8-10 feet puts unlike Dustin Johnson.
Four out of the five in the world rankings are under 27 (Spieth, Day, McIlroy, Fowler) the only one more elderly golfer is Bubba Watson. These 4 are likely to dominate golf sor some years to come. This is a good thing as rather than Tiger dominating totally we go back more to the era of Palmer, Player and Nicklaus.
Thomgchai Jaidee, the 45 year old Thai ex-paratrooper, represented the silver-lined generation, though I should be so fit, by winning the Porsche event by holding off the challenge of Englishman Graeme Storm. To qualify for the Ryder Cup you need to compete in 13 events and the rejuvenated Paul Casey has shown no willingness so to do. If Garcia, Stensen and McIlroy take this route then the Ryder Cup team will be weakened. The European prize money is well short of the USPGA and factor in traveling, caddy expenses, hotels then it’s not such an attractive option. David Lingmerth the Swede is another who prefers his golf across the pond.
Betting-wise I followed Jeremy Chapman on Stensen and Fowler and Steve Palmer on Rose. So as all gamblers say “just about broke even”. Alan Tanner advised Dembele as first scorer, a bet I don’t like, and Stefano told me to lay Inter – both of which recommendations I was foolish enough to ignore.
