The Punter's De-Brief: Wood and Woods this week's winners

Tiger Woods hits a poor drive in round four

Chris Wood breaks his duck and Tiger Woods gets back in the winner's enclosure. Our man takes a look back on what, in the end, was a long week....

At the 115th time of asking, Chris Wood finally broke his European Tour duck, thanks to a brilliant eagle at the 72nd hole of the Qatar Masters. George Coetzee, another looking for his well-overdue maiden ET win, and Sergio Garcia looked set to at least contend a playoff, having posted a 17 under par total, but Wood was having none of it. He'd started off the day in typically in-the-mix jittery fashion but ended it in fine style. Considering Wood had traded in single figures way back at the 2008 Open Championship, this win was a long time in coming but the floodgates may open now the monkey's off his back. He certainly has the game to win many, many times.

Whilst in the States, after losing all of Saturday to fog, Tiger Woods came back on Monday and despite a scruffy, painfully long final round, resumed his normal Torrey Pines service, with a comfortable four-stroke victory. He's now won at the venue an incredible eight times. He's claimed the Farmers Insurance Open seven times and he also won the 2008 US Open here.

My Bets
Given I was more than happy to oppose Wood in Qatar, the result there was a poor one. In addition to the bets already listed in the In-Play Blog, I also backed Gary Lockerbie and Steve Webster in-running on day four, so I was more than happy that Tiger redeemed the week.

I layed some of my in-running Woods wager back on Sunday at just 1.121/8 and I got Brandt Snedeker onside, just in case, at 30.029/1, but I needn't have bothered. It was a gamble to plough into Woods so early on in the event but it paid off and I ended the week in front, albeit only just.

What have we learnt this week?
It's a woman's prerogative to change their mind and it's also the right of every golf trader. Being dogmatic about an opinion just for the hell of it can prove costly. After a distinctly uninspiring performance in Abu Dhabi last week, I was completely and utterly anti-Tiger before the off at Torrey Pines, and it would have been very easy to have stuck by that stance as Woods thundered towards odds-on in California. Fortunately I didn't. It was very soon apparent that a different beast had turned up at his familiar hunting ground and it's important to be flexible.

I was hopeful of Paul Lawrie putting up a bold defence in Qatar and I'd been prepared to overlook the fact that his putting had been poor. That was a mistake, and one I've made before. If someone's not putting well, alarm bells should sound a lot louder than they did with me last week.

I'd written in the Qatar Masters preview about the possible link between Doha and Ocenico Victoria and I didn't see anything this week to dispel the theory. Chris Wood finished 10th on his debut at the Portugal Masters and Ricardo Santos, who's based at Ocenico Victoria led here after day one. Steve Webster, the inaugural winner of the Portugal Masters, hit the front during round four here and George Coetzee, who came very close to finally getting off the mark, has a great record in Portugal too.

Make sure you back Wood at the Johnnie Walker Championship in August - the last two Qatar Masters winners have doubled-up at Gleneagles. Coetzee boosted that course correlation link too; he was beaten by Tomas Bjorn in a playoff at the Johnnie Walker in 2011.

Stats-wise, driving distance was again key. Wood ranked 13th for Driving Distance, and Garcia and Coetzee ranked 2nd and 3rd respectfully.

At the Farmers Insurance Open, even if you discount Tiger, previous course form came to the fore again. Defending champ, Snedeker finished runner-up and 2009 winner, Nick Watney, frittered away a few shots at the end but still finished in a tie for 4th.

Where now for Tiger Woods?
I wrote about Tiger's habit of winning at the same venues year after year, in this piece published around Christmas but so bad did his game appear to be in Abu Dhabi that I chose to ignore my own advice.

The two things to take out of this week are that Tiger can still turn up at certain places, seemingly not at his best, and put the rest to the sword, and secondly, he is by no means the player he once was.

His final round was not a thing of beauty and that will irritate him I'm sure. After some sublime golf, Tiger was far enough clear that Monday's final round was a mere formality but he would have dearly loved to have finished it off in style, and that's far from what he did. The pace of play was painful and that couldn't have helped but it was impossible not to notice Tiger's untidy finish. He played the last five holes in four over par and that was enough to remind me that caution is advised going forward.

Is the old Tiger back they'll be asking? Not for me he's not and I doubt he ever will be. Will he win again at gaffs he loves? More than likely, but he's not the ruthless machine of old, far from it.

I'll be back later with previews for this week's two events, the Dubai Desert Classic and the WM Phoenix Open.