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Written by Brent Graham
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 When Lee Westwood holed his birdie chip on the 18th green at the Gary Player Country Club on Sunday few would have attributed it any great significance. The world number 1 had simply won by 8 shots instead of 7 but to those who agreed with my weekends Best Bet it led to a massive swing in fortunes.
Doing my research prior to the tournament I discovered a market quoting the number of shots between 1st and last place. The line was set at 18.5 shots at Betxchange and I noted that backing more than 18.5 shots (19 shots or more) would have arrived 7 of the last 10 runnings.
I also felt that there were players capable of shooting lights out while others were returning from injury with little match practice under the belt. My hope was that those at the tail end of the field would fade come Sunday at a hot Sun City.
Coming down the stretch Westwood continued to build his lead and at -17 with Oosthuizen in the club house at +2 a par, par finish would have done the business. The 17th hole is a tough one though and Westwood dropped a shot taking that gap back to 18 shots.
He then missed the green in regulation on 18 only to chip in as the likes of Furyk and Woods have done over the years.
That hole out while not at all important in the overall result meant that the gap of 19 shots was restored and I along with a few other punters could toast a dramatic victory that looked dead and buried just 10 minutes earlier.
It also salvaged my weekend as I had been in trouble after Nick Price dropped me in the Seniors when he failed to finish in the top 3 and the way in which the bet arrived is a great example of why I love sports betting.
As I write this final column of 2010 I am able to reflect on a dramatic year with some great wins but also some heavy defeats. It was a year in which I managed to beat the bookies but which was soured by a late collapse where I gave an all too significant portion of my hard earned profits back.
It is time to recharge the batteries and prepare for battle in 2011. All of the best to CitiGaming readers over this festive season.
This article was written for the CitiGaming supplement of the Citizen Newspaper and was first published on the 9th of December 2010.
Brent Graham is a blogger on www.goodforthegame.co.za and presents a sports betting radio show every Thursday night from 22h00 – 22h30 on 1485AM Radio Today or Channel 169 of the DSTV Audio Bouquet and to get on his free weekly e-mail list just send a message to brent@goodforthegame.co.za titled “Best Bets”.
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
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