Golf

The PGA tour seems to have the monopoly on exciting finishes and it didn’t disappoint once again at the weekend. Vaughn Taylor finally won, eleven years after his last victory on tour and this following a bout of illness the week before. He says he doesn’t know how his game left him and that he was even more mystified this week when it suddenly came back. A stunning final round of seven under was enough for the title as Mickelson missed a five foot putt on the last hole to force a play-off.

In South Africa, Charl Schwartzel was far too strong for the field as we predicted he would be if he wasn’t ring rusty and he clearly wasn’t. He could have another good season and will compete well in the majors.

The European tour moves to Malaysia for the Maybank Championships which is a new event on the tour. A strong field has assembled and as there is no relevant course form to go on, it will pay to look at players in form. Martin Kaymer and Louis Oosthuizen will be well fancied as will Danny Willett but it may pay to look at the Asian players like Jeunghun Wang or Younghan Song.

In the states the action moves to Riviera for the Northern Trust Open. James Hahn was an unlikely winner last year and this tournament is wide open. There is a good chance of a play-off as three of the last four years have ended in one. Spieth and McIlroy take each other on again but perhaps this is the week for Dustin Johnson who played well last year. Outsiders to look at are Sang Moon Bae and Keegan Bradley and never leave out Bubba Watson who is one of the few who could rip this course up.