Golf Central

Westwood gratefully accepts his trophy

We're pretty pleased with ourselves today after tipping you the winner in last week's British Masters. High-fives, back-slapping and Special Brew all round.

Lee Westwood @ 18/1: 1st

We told you that 18/1 seemed good odds that Lee Westwood would find some consistency and thats exactly what he did to prevail by five strokes. His return to form saw him become only the seventh  player to win £10 million in their European Tour careers and put him on top of the Ryder Cup points table. 
         

Colin Montgomerie @ 33/1: Tied 19th

A fair performance from Colin but he only threatened to make some money for his backers. Having been in contention, he failed to sustain his challenge and eventually finished on four-under.

Darren Clarke @100/1: Missed cut

We suggested that he might be worth a punt at 100/1, but we were completely wrong because he missed the cut, finishing the first two rounds on plus eight.

If Only...

Just to remind you that we tipped Lee Westwood to win the event and yep, he did. If only we had also told you to back…

Ian Poulter: Available before the tournament started at odds of 20/1, he would have returned a reasonable profit if backed each way (a quarter of the odds for finishing in the top four).

Mark Foster: Finished third and his supporters were rewarded with considerable winnings as he started the competition at a delectable 150/1.

Sam Walker: Likewise his fourth placed finish would have paid his backers a handsome return as his starting price was a huge 1251.

It could have all been ours... if only we'd got the selections right

We were unlucky not to have a placed selection at Turning Stone. Close but no cigar (or cash).

Carl Pettersson @ 25/1: 5th 

After starting the final round in second place he fell away and finished in an agonisingly-close-to-being-paid fifth place on minus 14, just one stroke away from a profitable return.

Sean O’Hair @ 33/1: 13th

Sean was the second of our selections to put in a solid performance. Unfortunately his final score of 11-under wasn’t quite low enough to have the bookies reaching in their pockets.

Brian Gay @ 80/1: missed cut

Our final selection never approached his best form and failed to make it to the weekend. Still, we can always have a chuckle at his name...

If Only...

It turned out that the Turning Stone Resort championship was a hard tournament to predict as the top three finishers started far from favouritism. What we should have told you was to get on…

Steve Flesch: Flesch won after starting the tournament at a lovely 40/1. He started the final day as short as 2/5 having built up a five shot lead.

Michael Allen: Finished second at a whopping 125/1 and would have delivered a tidy profit when backed each way.

John Senden/ John Mallinger: A less substantial, but still well worthwhile return could have been made from backing the two Johns who finished tied in third place.  Senden’s starting price was 50/1, while Mallinger’s was 40/1. 

'Have you ever seen a grown golfer naked?..'

So which of the Fall Series competitors managed to boost their bank roll?: Steve Flesch is the man with the fullest piggy-bank in Verona after his one-over final round was enough to secure his second win of the season and the $1.08 million purse.
The man with the fullest piggy-bank in Verona...sounds like a bad 'B'-movie: Well it wasn't the prettiest day of golf either really, Flesch carded a double-bogey at the first after finding a bunker from the tee and then chipped past the hole at the second and ended up with a bogey.
So no-one from the chasing pack stepped up?: Carl Pettersson and Charles Warren at four shots behind were the closest at the start of the day, but they failed to press the Flesch, shooting one-over and two over respectively.
Who did go close then?: Michael Allen finished two shots back after a final round of 68, he made up five shots on Flesch but it wasn't quite enough. John Senden had the best round of the day and his 67 was enough to grab him a share of third with John Mallinger at 15-under.
And the InGolfWeTrust picks?:  Jinxed, just like I thought. Pettersson finished tied fifth in the end, while Sean O'Hair's even-par round dropped him to tied 13th.

Quinn? I thought you said Quorn...

Come on then, don't leave me in suspense: OK, I won't because it was really exciting...
Well then?: Yes thanks.
Just tell me what happened can't you?: Yep I can.
Just do it now: Ooooh errr. OK. Lee Westwood came out on top after a thrilling final round in which three players all had a chance to win it.
But Westwood dropped the bomb on them?: Errrm, yeah if you like...Is that a Tim Westwood reference?
Yeah. Check yourself fool: Riiiight. Anyway, Ian Poulter and Mark Foster both threatened, but in the end a 35 foot birdie at the 16th and an eagle at the seventeenth held off the challenge and was enough to give Westwood a four shot, 15-under-par victory.
And what happened to Rory McIlroy?: He managed a final round of 73 to finish tied 42nd. He was pretty chuffed with the £10,000 prize money and plans to move out now, but making sure he stays close enough to mum so she can still do his washing.
I didn't ask for his life story, but good to see he has his priorities sorted out: Yep, and staying in the family theme, he'll be playing a father-son exhibition match against Darren Clarke and his pa next week and this Saturday, Ian Poulter's getting married.
Fascinating: Yeah, rumour has it that Poult's has been offered a five figure deal by InGolfWeTrust for exclusive rights to the pics...
Five figure?: Yeah. A fiver.

Sorenstam's cocktail making skills are much less publicised than her golf but no less impressive...

On this day, in 1995, Annika Sorenstam won the Michelob Light Classic by a whopping ten strokes over Jan Stephenson.

Annika was born in 1970, near Stockholm and took up golf at the age of 12 having already enjoyed prodigious success in both skiing and football. She shared her first set of clubs with her sister Charlotte; she took the odd numbered clubs, Charlotte the even. Annika was so shy as a junior that she used to deliberately three-putt to avoid giving a victory speech, tournament organisers noticed this and arranged that the runner-up must give a speech too, forcing Annika to start winning.

Start winning she did and to date she has 69 LPGA titles to her name including 10 majors and tops the all-time women's money list at over $20 million. Annika has garnered several awards in the process of becoming one of the most succesful female golfers ever; 8 player of the year trophies and six Vare Trophies have strained her already full to bursting point IKEA trophy cabinet. In 2003, Annika became the first woman to play on the men's tour since 1945, when she competed in the Bank of America Colonial Tournament. Unfortunately she missed the cut however with rounds of 71 and 75.

Also on this day, in 1947, President Truman supposedly formed the Majestic 12; a secret committee of scientists, top army bods, and government officials to investigate UFO activity. The US government have strenuously denied that the committee exists which has been seen by UFO nutters as a big cover-up of real alien activity. In fact, just by reading this you are now being investigated by the FBI for being a conspiracy theorist. Sorry.

Meanwhile in 1991, Nirvana release their classic album Nevermind leading to global megastardom and riches, heroin abuse, Courtney Love getting more fame than she deserved and the eventual death of Kurt Cobain.

And it's Vasilievich Ostrogradsky! As they say in the Ukraine, to; foot-like-a-traction-engine John Arne Riise (27), Norwich hall-of-famer Mike Phelan (45) and deadpan (as he must be described, by law) Jack Dee, also (45). It would also have been Phil Hartman, the voice of The Simpson's Lionel Hutz and Troy McClure's 58th birthday had he not been shot dead by his wife in 1998.