A waiting game

By Dave Tindall Last updated: 9th November 2009

It's been a long wait.

And I mean that on two levels.

1) My wife was due to give birth to our second child eight days ago but still no sign.

2) This morning I played a round of golf for the first time in over four years.

Now, I know what you're thinking. The latter looks a little irresponsible given that the new arrival could come at any moment.

However, I can assure you that as soon as the round was finished I turned my mobile phone back on (joke courtesy of Rob Brydon who found himself in a smiliar position recently).

So, why has it taken me so long to return to the fairways?

Well, the bottom line is that it needs a lot of planets to align before I can slip the spikes on.

With a lively three-year-old boy, a wife who has felt poorly during all nine months (or is it 10 now?) of her pregnancy, a lack of any nearby relatives, a terrible aversion to cold weather and a shortage of potential playing partners on week days it means a six month lay-off became a year, then two years, then three and now four.

And if that all sounds like an excuse it probably is. When I did play I used to frustrate myself beyond belief by frittering shots away and my set aim to break 90 would end in disappointment nine times out of 10.

However, a new set of Nike Slingshots has come my way in the last month and they were simply crying out to be used.

So after dipping my toes in the water with a couple of visits to the driving range and another booth-based hit in a journalists' event at TopGolf in Watford, the planets finally aligned today and I'm now an active golfer again.

Old habits are hard to shake though and after seeing a neighbour walk past my window this morning with her umbrella up, my fair-weather golf gene kicked in and 18 holes at my local club (Baildon) was downgraded to 9 at Fardew GC a couple of miles away.

I know you're on the edge of your seats waiting to know how it went so here's a very brief summary.

The good - my driving. I'm in love with my Nike Slingshot hybrids (3 and 4). No sniggering Lee (my playing partner) but I reckon a decent player could have come close to breaking par of 36 if he'd been given my tee shots.

The bad - my putting. Utterly woeful. How many putts a round is a 22/24ish handicapper supposed to take? I'm sure the answer isn't 22 for nine holes.

The ugly - two shanks which turned good par (even birdie) chances into a quadruple bogey and a triple.

And there you have it. I've come away with the belief that I could actually be okay if I sorted a few things out - the exact same feeling I've had since I first took up the game 25 years ago and probably the same one experienced by a million golfers the world over.

Still there's always next week - if the weather is okay and I can get a babysitter and...

With a good two hours before I collect my son from his regular Tuesday stint at his childminder's I can focus on this week's "unofficial fifth major" at Sawgrass.

As I'm on a sort of odd combination of holiday/paternity leave, I'm leaving the betting preview to colleague Matt Cooper as I don't want to get halfway through it and then be called on to help deliver a baby.

But I'll still be having a punt.

I sometimes like to look back at who I tipped the previous year(s) to see how their prices then compared to those on offer now.

In 2008 my quartet were: Hunter Mahan 80/1, Robert Allenby 66/1, Jim Furyk 20/1, Stewart Cink 28/1.

In 2007 my tips were: Arron Oberholser 66/1, John Senden 125/1, KJ Choi 125/1, Luke Donald 40/1.

The prices for these same players this year is Mahan 55/1, Allenby 100/1, Furyk 40/1, Cink 110/1, Senden 150/1, Choi 150/1, Donald 45/1.

The big discrepancy is Cink (110s this year compared to 28s last) while it's interesting to see that Furyk, who lives right by the course, has doubled from 20s to 40s.

Obviously current form explains the change of odds but if you take the view that these are the same experienced and talented players teeing it up on the same course, should there really be such price fluctuations from one year to the next?

Cink's Twitter page is always extremely useful if you fancy a bet on him and just 11 hours ago he's revealed that he's just had a "good 3 hour session with coach Butch (Harmon)".

If a bet on Cink is speculative, the 40s about Furyk looks really good business.

He was 10th at Augusta, tied 11th at Quail Hollow last week and he's made the top four at Sawgrass twice in the last five attempts.

Furyk's patience is a big asset on this course and, talking of patience, it looks like I'll need more of it over the next few days as Mrs T has just told me "nothing yet" for the 700th time this week.

Dave Tindall