Those of you who like me watched The Open Championship at Turnberry this past weekend were so nearly witness to what would have been one of the greatest sporting achievements ever.

Tom Watson had won this event 5 times previously but the last of those had been back in 1983. He is now 59 years old and a par on the last hole would have seen him become the oldest player to win a Major by 11 years and incredible feat and one which I doubt any of us will see in our life times.

Sadly he fell just short missing a 12 footer on the 72nd hole which would have given him the win before going down in a 4 hole playoff to Stewart Cink.

The performance will probably linger in your memories for some time but rest assured I will never forget it.

After 2 rounds Watson led the field but I just couldn’t get my head around the fact that this man who turns 60 on the 4th of September could compete against guy’s a third of his age.

With this in mind I decided to buy or go high on his finishing position at 27 in the spreads markets. I reasoned that the old man could not go on sinking monster putts and that being a senior his body would not be used to 4 rounds of golf. The way this bet worked the worse Watson did the more I would make and of course the reverse also applied.

When placing the bet I never even considered the fact that he might hang on to challenge for the title and I am sure you can picture me sitting on the couch Saturday waiting for the 3rd round collapse that just never came.

By late Sunday I had written off the money and was now pulling along with the rest of the world for history to be made.

Sadly taking that final step proved beyond Tom but it did not prevent me from losing 25 times my stake and I will never again underestimate a person on the basis of age alone.

Looking back the ironic thing I suppose is that Watson faded badly in the playoff as I had expected him to do over the balance of the weekend but his capitulation to Cink came too late to save my skin.

Brent Graham is a blogger on www.goodforthegame.co.za and presents a sports betting radio show every Saturday morning at 07h30 on 1485AM Radio Today or Channel 169 of the DSTV Audio Bouquet.

You can follow him on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/brentgraham or get on his mailing list by dropping him a line at brent@goodforthegame.co.za

Goodforthegame will be posting betting previews on every Tour de France stage as well as the Currie Cup, Tri Nations and the Ashes.