on the punt … presidents cup the market of the day

so i’m back on the punt. managed to run out of money last phase just before the melbourne cup, so that was really intelligent.

never mind. apart from a couple of long-term punts on the Green Bay Packers (my tip, natch) and the Second Test (i’ve gone with the Aussies), the Presidents Cup golf is catching my attention today.

rather than speculate wildly on the top scorers for the teams, which seems like even more of a mug’s game than usual, i’ve sprinkled some cash on today’s quartets.

i’ve gone for Adam Scott & KJ Choi over Tiger Woods & Steve Stricker (2.10), Aaron Baddeley & Jason Day over Dustin Johnson & Matt Kuchar (2.00) and Geoff Ogilvy & Charl Schwartzel over Bill Haas & Nick Watney (1.95).

we shall see.

UPDATED: Marginal success today … Adam Scott and his mate touched Tiger Woods up something rotten so that was a winner, but the other quartets went down the gurgler.

My latest over at goldcoast.com.au … ‘Winners are grinners’

You can read this here, or you can read it here:

YOU beauty!

Saturday morning’s decision to award the Gold Coast the 2018 Commonwealth Games is the best thing to happen to the city since the glory days of the IndyCar racing — and then some.

You won’t find a bigger group of cynics than a newsroom full of journalists, and I’m not ashamed to say that in Friday afternoon’s editorial conference there weren’t too many of us in the room who thought the city would win the bid.

Not only that, we didn’t think many people would show up yesterday morning at the Broadwater Parklands either.

I’m pleased to say we couldn’t have been more wrong.

Not only have the comments on goldcoast.com.au since the win been overwhelmingly positive, but at least 5000 people turned up to cheer the result and celebrate some rare good news for the Gold Coast.

Good on you!

Of course there are the whingers and the Negative Nellies who want to remind us all how much it’s going to cost, and how awful the traffic’s going to be and how much higher the rates are going to be.

Apart from the traffic, I think the rest of those complaints are just complaining for the sake of complaining.

Of course it’s going to cost money. Infrastructure always does.

I’ll tell you what else it does — creates jobs, creates confidence and creates facilities we’ll still be using 50 years for now.

If anything, winning the Games has accelerated the process of making this city the best it can be.

Get over yourselves, whiners!

Would you rather we not get that infrastructure at all? Or at a slower rate, on a whim of a politician who may or may not need our votes?

This way the politicians — regardless of stripe — are committed, publicly, legally, GLOBALLY, to providing top-class facilities by April 4, 2018.

Where’s the loss in that?

One thing’s for sure, if we all sit around grumping about how awful it’s going to be, it will be.

The Commonwealth Games, and the World Expo six years later, turned Brisbane into a fantastic place to be. I was in my last year of high school. Trust me, it was AWESOME.

The same thing will happen for the Gold Coast if we throw ourselves into this wholeheartedly.

So, c’mon, whingers. Get up off your miserable backsides, and head out into the sunshine and feel how excited this city is, suddenly.

Give it a shot.

i know it’s cruel but this photo just makes me laugh like a drain

“Stage nine of the Tour will be remembered for this cringe-inducing crash which left Johnny Hoogerland bearing numerous scars (as well as his backside). Hoogerland somersaulted through the air before being flung into a barbed-wire fence Photograph: Lionel Bonaventure/AFP/Getty Images.”

found here.

my favourite sporting moment of the year to date

vale Seve Ballesteros

great player, great personality. a joy to watch.

seve ballesteros, posted with vodpod

on the punt … yes, it’s back

so, in an effort to distract myself from the Digestion System From Hell, i am back on the punt. because it’s fun, and i live large in the dream that The Big Win Is Coming.

i’ve had a good week, puntifically speaking. i’m about $60 up on $50 investment.

partly that’s cos i managed to pick 10 out 10 NRL winners last weekend — and 2 from 2 so far this weekend.

but i also did something silly.

yes, i have been putting money on Samantha Stosur … her of the million-dollar arm, and the five-cent head.

so far, it’s paid off, despite her best efforts to lose. yesterday she won her quarter-final in three sets after losing the first set, then giving up a 5-0 lead in the third, she finally got through in the tiebreaker.

tomorrow she’s playing a no-name in the semi-final. i’ve put $16 on her at about $1.20.

i’m doomed. DOOMED, i tell ye.

Time to be realistic, Sam Stosur

here’s my latest blog post over at goldcoast.com.au:

Sam Stosur in 1995 and (inset) the story I wrote on her at the time. Pics: Michael Ross (Gold Coast Bulletin)

I’VE been watching Samantha Stosur play tennis for a long time.

My first chance came back in 1995 when I interviewed her for the Gold Coast Bulletin.

She was 11, and although she wasn’t packing the guns she has these days, she was still hitting the cover off every tennis ball that came her way.

She had just won two tournaments — a junior event at Ferny Grove in Brisbane, and the Gold Coast Closed junior title — when I talked to her.

I was a fair player in my youth, and I volunteered to be up the other end while our photographer, Michael Ross, took some shots of Sam in action.

She blew me off the court, unsurprisingly.

At the time I asked young Sam what her goals were in the game and she said that winning a few Grand Slams would be pretty good, and that the French Open was her favourite.

Sam now has two WTA titles to her name — the 2009 Osaka championship, and last year she won in Charleston, North Carolina.

It was also in 2010 that Sam reached the final of the French, where she lost to Italian Francesca Schiavone, the same player who beat her in today’s Fed Cup tie.

Since reaching the Roland Garros final, things have not gone as planned for Sam, despite reaching No. 5 in the world rankings.

A first-round loss at Wimbledon to Estonian Kaia Kanepi, ranked 80 in the world, a creditable quarter-final appearance at the US Open, where she lost to Kim Clijsters, were followed by early-round outings in Tokyo and Beijing, before losing to Clijsters again in the semi-final of the season-ending Tour Championships in Qatar.

And then came the Australian season.

A second-round loss in Brisbane to Jarmila Groth in straight sets was followed by a second-round loss to Svetlana Kuznetsova in Sydney in three and a third-round loss in the Australian Open in Melbourne to Petra Kvitova in straight sets.

Kvitova went on to be flogged by Vera Zvonareva who went on to be hammered 3 and 3 by Clijsters.

Perspective.

It was after that loss that Sam’s ranking went from No.6 in the world to No.5. Go figure.

Here’s the thing — there is nothing wrong with Sam Stosur’s tennis game, physically. She has arguably the best serve in the women’s game and her groundstrokes are awesome.

Experts on the game say she is arguably the best female clay-court player in the world.

And yet, Sam Stosur has two relatively minor titles to her name and a string of big-match disappointments that leave even her biggest fans wondering what is going on in her head.

Here’s what Sam had to say after her early exit from Brisbane:

“I don’t want to dwell on it and freak out and worry about the rest of the summer.”

Here’s what she said after her third-round loss in Melbourne:

“I actually thought I played really well so … It’s hard to walk off the court thinking you played well. It was so close, I mean, that first set. Don’t really know how I lost it, to be honest.”

And right there is the problem.

Everyone watching, including, I’m willing to bet, the people in Sam’s box, knew exactly how she lost it.

Unforced errors and a baffling unwillingness to hit the ball to the open court when the chances presented themselves.

I counted at least three occasions when Sam had Kvitova absolutely cooked, sliced, diced and on the plate, when instead of putting the ball out of reach, she played it back at her opponent, who went on to do the killer thing and win the point.

Sam is unremittingly positive about her form and her prospects. I’m sure that 15-odd years of training have hammered that particular piece of sports psychology into her head.

But there’s a point where positivity becomes denial, and Sam Stosur is pretty much right there.

There’s a very cruel line in the cult baseball film Bull Durham, where Kevin Costner’s character describes the team’s first-string pitcher as having `a million-dollar arm and a five-cent head’.

I’m not for one moment suggesting that Samantha Stosur is dumb, believe me.

When she’s at her best — psychologically, as well as physically — she is unbeatable.

But psychologically, Sam Stosur has some work to do if she wants to win a Grand Slam and inhabit that top 10 ranking with conviction.

She should start by being a little less positive and a little more realistic.

kim clijsters … nice green (you know you’re soaking in it)

some pics posted by the Australian Open on their facebook profile:

go The Pack!

i have been totally negligent in my Packer love this season, i admit. haven’t watched a single minute of NFL action, let alone Packers’ games. why? too busy sleeping and working to figure out what time the damn games are on.

but you can bet your life i will be tuned in to the Super Bowl on Feb 6 when the Mighty Pack take on … who cares? … it’s THE PACK … in the SUPER BOWL.

w000000000t!

hey Beanie?? bwaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahahahahahahaha.

better get my cable fixed.

Aussie cricket a load of old balls

my latest column at goldcoast.com.au:

I KNOW there are more important things in the world than cricket, but honest to God, I cannot sit by and let the first day of the Boxing Day Test stand without comment.

So far this summer it has been a painful, nay torturous, affair to be an Australian cricket fan. Especially one with a couple of smug Pommy relatives staying for the duration.

The players have been variously awful.

Mitchell Johnson in Brisbane? God-awful. Yesterday? Did you see that ball he pushed down the legside?

I have never seen a cricketer so riddled with self-doubt in my life.

Unless he starts well, he has no capacity to recover. None.

Ben Hilfenhaus? Mediocre at best.

Phil Hughes? Honestly, I cannot watch the boy bat. He looks cramped and rushed and his glory or death approach makes me wonder if professional cricketers these days give a damn about building an innings.

Katich? Good but injured.

M. Hussey? Genius, but a lone voice.

Brad Haddin? When he’s good he’s one of the toughest around, and behind the stumps he’s better than solid, but let’s face it, you cannot bank on his batting. You just can’t.

Ricky Ponting and Michael Clarke?

Oh, where do I begin?

Both are batting like they’re terrified.

And as for their leadership qualities … oh dear.

Ponting spent most of his captainship marshalling the talents of Matt Hayden, Justin Langer, Adam Gilchrist, Shane Warne and Glen McGrath.

Hell, my old granny could have captained that team and come away with a winning percentage and a reasonable middle-order average.

Now that his biggest asset is … well, Hussey, who doesn’t need captaining, and Shane Watson, who just needs to be pointed in the right direction and given a gentle shove, his weaknesses as a leader are showing.

He’s defensive, reactive rather than proactive and he still wears his heart on his sleeve too much in the field.

You know exactly when Australia are in deep trouble. Just look at the way Ricky reacts.

And the biggest indication of all that his captaincy is weak is that his batting form has plummeted.

The last century he scored was in January this year when he walloped a double ton against the Pakistanis. And it was another six months before that to his second-last.

And now to Michael Clarke.

Clearly, the team’s biggest celebrity was dubbed heir apparent far, FAR too early in his career.

By all accounts half the dressing-room don’t listen to him and the other half don’t need to.

One of the ABC radio team — Kerry ‘Skull’ O’Keefe, I think — made the very sensible suggestion yesterday of making Brad Haddin the skipper for the next few years, with Clarke as his deputy.

It takes an old head with few distractions to steer a team through that dreadful but inevitable period of rebuilding.

And Clarke — with his woman troubles, fast cars, flash lifestyle and lack of respect from his teammates — isn’t that old head.

As for the selectors … I have no idea what their thinking is.

For a start, why this obsession with left-handed offies?

Get over it, guys.

Let’s go back to what we used to be pretty good at — developing awesome quicks, reliable, hard-working seamers and let the occasional once-in-a-generation freak show like Warnie come along naturally.

Wasting time destroying the psyches of Nathan Hauritz, Xavier Doherty and Michael Beer is criminal.

All out for 98.

That’s criminal too.