Golf Betting Blog: Top Trumped

DownThe18th talk about Dustin Johnson's return to the winner's circle and another winning pick for Golf Monthly, read more in this golf betting blog

Golf Betting Blog: Top Trumped

Dustin Johnson threw everything at Doral, J.B Holmes threw the towel in and Rory McIlroy threw his 3-iron into the lake.

If you wanted to sum up the first 'big' tournament of the year in one sentence, that would just about do it.

DJ (20/1) recovered from all his personal tribulations to tame the Blue Monster and based on his stats alone, he deserved the victory – 52 of 72 greens in regulation and averaging 328 yards off the tee, which was 1st in both categories. That says it all really!

And we got to hold our hands up and say well done to the Golf Monthly team for plumping with the American, continuing what is turning into a cheeky hot streak. Well, it's like a volcanic explosion compared to how we are doing currently...

Neither of us looked at Holmes (55/1) thankfully, but for those who did, it would have been a miserable Sunday. He started the round odds on with a 5-shot lead, whilst you could have got Bubba Watson (started at 16/1) and DJ at low teens with most bookmakers.

We saw the market fluctuate ludicrously when Bubba went into the turn with a 2-shot lead and many would have lumped on him, so the 3 bogeys he found on his back nine would have been just as tough to watch.

Henrik Stenson (28/1) and Adam Scott (20/1) tied up the final placings and that meant 4 of the 5 players who would have got you money back were inside the top 10 in the pre-tournament market.

As for our bets? A combined total of +15 over the weekend having gone in with Jamie Donaldson (45/1) and Brooks Koepka (40/1) very much in the hunt.

Over in South Africa and local lad Trevor Fisher Jnr (70/1) maintained the 100% record of home winners at the Africa Open. It was his first European Tour win and it came with a simply majestic 63, 64 weekend finish.

If you had gone with overnight leader Matt Ford (250/1) we can only imagine the disappointment but his final day outing was by no means a bottle. He lost it on the 9th when he bogeyed only for the 3rd time all week and Fisher Jnr rallied home a birdie.

Eduardo De La Riva (175/1) defied the form book and sneaked in to tie 3rd with Morten Orum Madsen (60/1) and Jorge Campillo (125/1) whilst we watched Byeong Hun An (20/1) and Richard Bland (66/1) decide to give up at the half way point.

All in all, a tough week for us, but real glory for the GM team. And just to finish with a little bit of trivia for you – if you had a £1 e/w double with the overnight leaders and they'd carried on you would have won £14,990. The difference when they came 2nd? £934.62.

Head over to http://downthe18th.wordpress.com for this week’s preview and picks.

DownThe18th European Tour £-6.30 PGA Tour £-17.28 Total £-23.58

Golf Monthly European Tour £-26 PGA Tour £69 Total £43

Golf Monthly lead by £66.58