No Green Jacket for Westwood

Lee Westwood's 71 on Sunday night was never going to be enough for him to win his first major. For me, Westwood never reached the heights of the previous three days as his driving and putting came unstuck. All this allowed Phil Mickelson to win his 3rd green jacket.

A record of third, third and second in his last three majors for Westwood sounds impressive. But you have to wonder if he is ever going to get accross the finishing line.

He threw away a great chance at last years Open Championship, I thought he lost he nerve on the final day there. Did that happen here as well?

I think it did a bit, but it's hard to take anything away from Mickelson, who was magnificent with his 4th round, bogey-free 67.

Mickelson's shot through the trees out of the pine straw to the 13th green was just out of this world, he then somehow missed the eagle putt from about 7-8 feet, but still birdied the hole.

That was the time when you just knew it wasn't to be Westwood's day.

The sight of Tiger Woods, 3 putting from about 8 feet on the 14th hole was amazing, it all but finished off his slight challenge. He did well though to finish fourth after his 5 month absence.

After been the joint halfway leader, Ian Poulter's challenge also fizzled out with 74 and 73 over the weekend. Despite all the early promise, he was disappointing in the end.

Golf majors are hard to win, and no one gives you anything easy. Westwood was shown by Mickelson that you have to do it over 4 days, as well as Lee played over the first 3 days, it wasn't enough. Mickelson is a true champion and when it mattered he upped his game, and that was the difference.

Come on Lee, you can do it!

Can Lee Westwood finally win a major and cap the best period of form in his career so far?

Can Westwood's putting hold out for one more day?

It's been great so far this week after previous performances when he didn't look like he knew which end of the club to hold.

For the last 2 years or so it hasn't been a problem getting the ball from tee to green, it's what has happened on the green that is generally the problem.

It was remarkable on Saturday to see both, Westwood and Poulter at the top of the leaderboard and the last pairing. How ofter have we seen two Englishmen in that position on the 3rd day of a major? Just a shame Poulter fell away.

If Westwood can win it, he can say he did it the hard way. He will be partnering Phil Mickelson, and will also have Tiger Woods breathing down his neck, any success Westwood might have will be well earned.

Westwood (-12) and Mickelson (-11) are the leaders, and the two bookies favourites. Sky Bet are the best price and can't seperate them both at 13/8. They will go out as the last pairing in Sunday's final round.

Woods is still hanging in there at -8, and is still dangerous. A Woods surge could put unbearable pressure on the rest of the leaderboard, it wouldn't be the first time it cracked a fellow pro mentally. He can be backed at 9/2 with Sky Bet, Totesport, Paddy Power, Ladbrokes and William Hill to pull off another victory.

Can't wait to see what happens, come on Westwood, you can do it.

Sporting Round-Up

What a weekends sport is has been so far, and there is still Sunday to come.

Barcelona took Real Madrid apart at the Bernabeu, it could and should have been 3 or 4-0. Think Father Ted will be looking for a new job at the end of the season unless Barcelona throw the league away.

Martin O'Neill must wonder what he's got to do to get a penalty and opposition player sent off at Wembley. James Milner was lucky that John Terry's tackle didn't snap his leg in half, clearest red I've seen in ages.

As for Iain Dowie, he's now lost 3-2 to Portsmouth, and 4-1 at home to Burnley. Hull deserve to go down for those two results alone.

In the Heineken Cup, Leinster won a tight exciting contest against Clermont, thanks mainly to the useless kicking of Brock James for the French side. Munster did their usual thing, and overpowered Northampton 33-19.

In the days other Quarter-final, referee George Clancy - the Howard Webb of Rugby - decided not to give Ospreys a clear kickable penalty in front of the posts in the last minute after a deliberate knock-on. As a result Ospreys lost 29-28 to Biarritz.

In Friday night's boxing Audley Harrison was at it again, it took him 12 rounds to finally knockout out Michael Sprott. Had to laugh at his claims that he is closer to fighting one the Klitschkos than David Haye is. Although I do think it is probably Audley trying his best to get a fight with Haye.

Audley's remarks were not as ridiculous as Bernard Hopkin's, who after beating Roy Jones Jnr on the senior's circuit, said he next wants to fight David Haye.

In the US Masters, this must be Lee Westwoods best chance to date to win a major. Ok, so he's got Woods and Mickelson breathing down his neck so it won't be easy, but he is in the form of his life at the moment.

Shame that Ian Poulter fell away, but as Englishmen we can't be too gready. Afterall we had the two of them going out as the last pairing on Saturday. And thats unheard off these days.

And finally, at last he's done it. The remarkable Tony McCoy has won the Gran National, he did it on Don't Push It, and apparently it cost the bookies around £10 Million, so it's a double result.

Congratulations to AP.

Tiger cut after Day 1

At times it looked as if Tiger Woods had never been away, he played a controlled round today and is at -4, two shots behind the leader.

The bookies have now cut him from 6/1 at the start, to 5/2 with Ladbrokes, Paddy Power, 888 Sport, Blue Sq and Betfred. Some firms have him as short as 2/1.

For England, Lee Westwood and Ian Poulter are up there, Westwood on -5 is a best price of 8/1 with Bet365, Skybet, Paddy Power, Stan James, Ladbrokes and Sportingbet. Poulter is on -4 and is 16/1 with Sportingbet, 14/1 with most others layers.

Padraig Harrington at +2, a full 8 shots behind leader Fred Couples is a massive 100/1 with Bet365.

The other big hitter on show is Phil Mickleson, he is on -5 and is 6/1, 2nd favourite with Hills, Coral, Ladbrokes and Stan James.

I'm still sticking to my call that Woods is too short, I know he is well placed at the moment, but if he didn't represent value at 6/1, then I'm hardly going to back him now at 5/2.

There is still a long way to go, and a lot can go wrong in the remaining three days.

Is Tiger Woods value at The Masters?

He's a best price of 6/1 with Ladbrokes at the moment, a day before the start of the tournament. He has been as short as 3/1 with some firms when he first confirmed he would be playing in this weeks event, which was just ridiculous.

For me he dosen't represent great value to win his 5th Green Jacket this weekend. I think that Woods is just using this tournament to ease his way back into the world of golf after his 5 month break. The controlled enviroment of The Masters is the one place he is guaranteed no heckling or abuse, or no tabloid celebrity style press to annoy him.

Tiger generally plays a tournament the week before a major, so if he is serious about winning the event I think he would have come back earlier and played a warm up event. If ever he would have needed one, it would be this time.

Never the less, I still wouldn't back against him (he is 6.8 to lay on Betfair). If anyone can come back after all what has happened and show the mental strength to win, it is 'The Tiger'. I will though, adopt a watching brief and if his odds go out to something stupid over the first couple of days I might invest a small wager on him. I just think 6/1 is too short at the moment.

In fairness to him, he impressed me in Monday's press conference. He answered nearly all the questions asked of him, and generally always looked in control. He still had a level of control over the press, and kept his cool with them, showing a high level of dignity when asking the press not to bombard the other players with questions about him.

A request, which unfortunately they ignored.

I felt this was a far more assured public showing than his previous stage managed events. I also felt that I warmed to him more with the way he answered the questions, unlike before.

I have heard some people saying maybe Tiger has lost his aura of invincibility, only time will tell. Another question for me is, had it already gone? Did he lose it when he lost to South Korea's YE Yang in last years PGA? The first time Woods failed to win a major he led after 54 holes. For these reasons I probably won't back him this year.

Tiger Woods set to return

Despite not giving any indications of an imminent return to Golf in his (apology) speech a couple of weeks ago, it would now appear that Tiger Woods is likely to be back playing Golf, either before, or at The Masters in Augusta.

The word is that Woods is back in training, and back practising on the range, this has seen a dramatic cut in the odds on him participating in this years Masters, with him now at 2/5 on Betfair to compete in this years event starting on 8th April.

The bookmakers are clearly expecting him back as well, with Paddy Power (5/2), William Hill (3/1) and Ladbrokes (4/1), all making him their respective tournament favourite.

It makes sense Woods coming back in time for the Masters if he really wants to beat Jack Nicklaus' record of 18 Majors, we already know how much he enjoys playing at Augusta.

He would also want to have plenty of Golf under his belt before playing the US Open and (British) Open Championship. This year the Open is at St Andrews, where Woods has won 2 of his 3 Championships. Also, his US Open victory in 2000 came at Pebble Beach Links, which is where it is to be held this year,

Bearing in mind his track record on these courses it would be highly unlikely that Woods will pass up these opportunities to try and close the gap on Nicklaus.

A further twist has seen Tiger offered a $75 Million, 5 year sponsorship deal by Irish bookmakers Paddy Power, bucking the trend of sponsors dropping him.

His management company IMG have apparently rejected the deal, but it is understood that the Irish Bookmakers are still keen to sponsor Woods and a new offer is set to be tabled soon.