I sat up till the very early hours of Monday morning to see if Sean O’Hair could hold off a charging Tiger Woods and in so doing deliver me some handy profits. He blinked in the presence of greatness though and money aside it was a privilege watching Tiger at work.

I had backed the promising O’Hair at 35/1 and going into the final round he led by 5 shots and was as short as 1/3 for the title. There was one serious concern though and that was the man lying second who I have no doubt is the greatest golfer ever to have lived. In the early stages of the round I found myself getting annoyed with an obviously nervous O’Hair and by the 8th hole his lead had been cut to 1 shot. He pulled himself together though and would have won the tournament had his playing partner been anyone but Mr. Tiger Woods.

Tiger never stepped off the gas for a second (overcoming some really bad breaks with no fewer than 3 bunker shots ending right up against the lip) and at about 3 am SA time he drained a 16 foot birdie putt to win the tournament for the 6th time. I was obviously disappointed at having missed out on a 35 unit payout (O’Hair at least delivered me each way returns) but truth be told I just felt privileged at being able to watch Tiger at work as well as a sense of relief at finally being able to get to bed. 

As an aside I was also able to follow the in running betting with Great Odds and although I never had a chance to really trade around my O’Hair position (even when 3 shots back Tiger was favourite) it will be great to have this opportunity in the future. 

I ended up pulling pretty much square in the golf with a 0.25 unit profit better than a loss I suppose. 

My Super 14 form is going through what I hope is a temporary dip and after leading the FantasySports handicap competition a few weeks back I am down to 10th place and scrambling just to stay in touch. 

The only highlight of my weekend was backing the Highlanders to beat the Bulls at 2.17/1 but I lost money on the Blues and Lions games with my Best Bet* the Crusaders falling 2 points short of delivering returns for me when they only beat the Stormers by 4 points in what was a really poor match. 

I lost 7.58 units in the rugby and 1 unit on the SA Idols when Pixie my 18/1 selection was dumped out last night.

Overall a pretty slow weekend on the fixed odds front with a nett loss of 8.25 units.

BUTTON YOU BISCUIT

Not a huge F1 fan I was delighted to see the new Brawn team go well in the opening GP. This is because I have 2 units on Button to win the title at an average of 53/1 having grabbed the big prices when I saw him shortening overseas – keep on rolling Jenson.

BETTING SUMMARY

Balance after week 11: +122.89 units
Week 12 result: -8.23 units
Running balance: +114.66 units

Pending

Champions League: 8 units (Chelsea win 2, any English team 6)
Golf: Race to Dubai: 30 units (10 wins Garcia and 20 places Garcia)

PSL: Ajax (5 units at 2/1)

Super 14:

60 units (Sharks Top SA, Brumbies Top Aus, Hurricanes Top Kiwi, Cheetahs for last, Sharks and Canes to win, a match bet treble Lions/Cheetahs, Reds/Highlanders, Sharks/Blues)

F1: 2 units Button for the title at an average of 53/1

*BEST BET

Get my best and value bets each week – simply drop me a line at brent@goodforthegame.co.za and I will add you to the list and you can also follow me on http://www.twitter.com/brentgraham  

Finally you can take a look at my early thoughts on the week 8 S14 handicaps in our discussion forum by clicking here.