Beware, there’s always someone from left field

As Roger Federer proved on the tennis courts of the world, there is a great deal to be said for taking a break from the pressures of sport at the top level – especially if you can afford to do just that.

It was one of the more interesting points raised as the gathering of the usual suspects settled themselves comfortably to watch the final round of the SA Open at Glendower.

It might be added at this point that there were some grumbles from some cricket aficionados who held out for the second Test against India at Centurion, but democracy triumphed and golf it was. And the question of taking an extended gap was first raised.

Certainly Branden Grace, with more than an adequate cheque from winning the Nedbank Challenge at Sun City in November, had the financial cushion to take off the seven weeks he did before the world’s second-oldest Open championship teed of last Thursday.

It failed to convince the Arithmetically-challenged One. “I know he came out firing with a 65 in the first round,” said the self-styled expert on all sporting matters. “It looked like not touching a club helped – this by Grace’s own admission – in nearly two months.

“But then the first signs of rust started to show and he could do no better than a one-under-par in the next round and following Federer’s example didn’t seem such a great idea.

“Grace must have had a good think overnight and he then weighed in with the 66 that left him a single shot behind Chris Paisley, a Brit I have never heard of, going into the final day. I truly thought that it was Branden’s title for the taking.”

It was a thought the Golf-mad Travelling Salesman fully subscribed to. “I really fancy Grace,” he said. And when the South African opened birdie, eagle to snatch a one-shot lead, it looked like their predictions could be realised.

But from the sidelines a voice cautioned “there’s many a slip ’twixt cup and lip” and another urged “don’t count your birdies before they rattle into the cup” which is pretty much the same thing if you think about it.

But it was at the sixth where the wheels started coming off Grace’s game when he took two to get out of the greenside bunker for a double bogey, another dropped shot on 12 when his ball had a toenadering with a water hazard and Paisley, who didn’t drop a shot all day, found the door wide open for the biggest payday of his career.

The Arithmetically-challenged One’s face was a picture. He didn’t even have the back-up of the Travelling Salesman, who in the anticipate glow of certainty left before Grace ran head-first into his own brick wall.

The same voice which had initially made a plea for caution, piped up again. “You can’t just walk away from the golf bag and hope to win when the pressure is really on – if your game is flaky, some Brit will come out of left field and beat you.”