Most golfing eyes would have been focused on Hoylake this weekend, as the world’s best players fought it out to win The Open. But with not having a golfer anywhere close to winning there (and no-one did if they weren’t on Brian Harman), my attention was on the less prestigious Barracuda Championship over in sunny California, where Weekly Golf Value pick Joel Dahmen worked his way into strong contention. In fact, Dahmen was just two points off the lead at roughly halfway through the final round. I say points and not shots, because some daft scoring method was employed for this tournament which to be frank, I don’t understand.
What I did know was that Dahmen winning would provide a very nice return to this win-only backer. Did he win? No, did he heck! Bogeying three of the last five holes is never going to have you going in the right direction no matter what the scoring system. Dahmen finished in a tie for 10th.
And you know what? I couldn’t but help feel a little bit smug. Seeing someone collapse from 2nd to 10th over the last few holes would be particularly disappointing had I backed the lad each way. I’d likely have assumed I was in for some sort of decent return from the place part of the bet, and felt rather annoyed had I not bagged it.
I know far, far more golfers I back win-only are going to finish in the frame than repeat what Dahmen did on Sunday night. But for this week only, let me enjoy my completely irrational smugness.
Results update on Wednesday…
