by Steve Palmer
IT was a case of Angeldelight for the bookmaking industry on Sunday night as an unfancied 150-1 shot landed the US Open title and the 7-2 favourite was found wanting.
Angel Cabrera's Oakmont triumph was greeted with glee by layers who were fearing the worst when so many well-backed players went into the final round on the leaderboard.
Coral's golf chief Karl Schalm summed up the sense of relief in the bookmaking community when he said: “I was a very worried man on Sunday morning with Woods, Rose, Casey and Furyk in contention.
“We thought Baddeley was our only hope and when he triple-bogeyed the first hole, things didn't look good. Thank goodness Cabrera came to our rescue.”
Schalm said that patriotic punters had seen them build up serious liabilities on English duo Justin Rose and Paul Casey.
“For about 20 years Jimmy White has been our worst result in the snooker World Championship and now it looks like Rose is going to be our worst result in every Major,” joked Schalm. “Justin is the new Jimmy!”
VCbet golf odds compiler Glen Hyslop was also bowled over by the levels of support for the English players.
“Sunday morning was ridiculous,” he said. “No matter what price we went about Casey, we were filled in. First I went 14-1, then 12-1, then 10-1 – the patriots were mad for him.”
Skybet compiler John Rhodes said he has to employ different laying tactics in Majors than for regular tour events because the patriotic punters suddenly arrive on the scene.
“Some punters only have a golf bet four times a year – on the Majors,” said Rhodes. “And they always tend to be attracted to the British players.
“We could have chalked up 16-1 about Rose before the off and still have laid him. The patriotic punters don't seem to worry about what price they're getting.
“Colin Montgomerie was our second-worst result despite us being 80-1 when 125-1 was available elsewhere.”
Rhodes added that Woods failing to win but finishing in the places was a perfect scenario. “It's great when Tiger takes up one of the places – we only had to pay out £728 to the few who backed him each-way.”
It wasn't a bed of roses for all the bookies, though.
Hills reported a £1,000 each-way bet at 150-1 on Cabrera and spokesman Graham Sharpe said: “Ironically, we were rooting for Tiger by the end as this client has made a profit of £190,000.”
And punters also managed to do some damage through Jim Furyk and David Toms getting placed.
Ladbrokes' Brad Barry said: “Furyk and Toms were extremely popular each-way selections. We laid £10,000 each-way on Furyk at 20-1 and lots of smaller bets at 50-1 on Toms.
“Good job Cabrera was a virtual pre-tournament skinner.”
Before he teed off on Thursday, Cabrera was of no interest to punters, and 150-1 was freely available. But there was some in-running interest in him over the weekend.
Bet365 spokesman Steve Freeth said: “We laid plenty of Cabrera in-running because we thought he would struggle to close the deal.
“He is not the best of finishers and capitulated in a similar position at Wentworth last month. He had a trademark wobble at the 16th and 17th, but just scraped home
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US Open 2007
