The Punter's De-Brief: Marathon man Rafa wins in Spain and G-Mac gets the job done at the Heritage

G-Mac with his new plaid jacket and trophy

Steve takes a look back on the weekend's golf action in Spain and South Carolina, where there were playoff wins for both Rafael Jacquelin and Graeme McDowell...

Day four of the Open de Espana began with two Scots and two Englishmen filling the first four spots on the leaderboard but it finished with a record-equalling playoff between a Frenchman, a German and a Chilean.

Third round leader, Marc Warren, had looked by far the most likely winner for most of the day, trading at a low of just 1.364/11, but just as he'd done at last year's years Scottish Open, he finished very poorly and snatched defeat from the jaws of victory.

He led by one with two to play after chipping in from the greenside bunker for birdie on 16 but back-to-back bogeys followed and he didn't even make the playoff - won by Raphael Jacquelin, a pre-event 70.069/1 shot, at the ninth extra hole!

The playoff will go into the record books as the longest in European Tour history but making them play the same hole over and over again resulted in a dull and forgettable affair. Why they didn't switch to the tricky par 3 17th after a couple of deadlocks up the 18th is hard to fathom.

The RBC heritage also went to a playoff but mercifully, that one was decided at the first attempt. The title went to pre-event 46.045/1 shot, Graeme McDowell, courtesy of a par four on the 18th hole, when Webb Simpson failed to get up-and-down after missing the green.

One quirky footnote from the Heritage result is that an international player has now won the last three PGA Tour events. Not particularly striking maybe but noteworthy given that Americans had won the first 14 of the season.

My Bets
It's been a poor week. The result in Spain was bearable, as I hadn't gotten too involved and I managed to get most of my stakes back trading the swings in the lengthy playoff but the result of the RBC Heritage was a bad one.

As detailed in the In-Play Blog, I made the decision to take on the third round leaders, Charley Hoffman and Webb Simpson, and if I'd have left it that I'd have finished the week in front, but I didn't.

The plan had been to try and get a few others in the book but in windy conditions, there wasn't exactly a wave of contenders and the only other lays I managed to make were on G-Mac so it was a disappointing result.

A day for wind-specialists
There was no let-up at all yesterday at Hilton Head and only the best wind players were left standing.

It was a particularly bad result for me because I'd always believed the 'G-Mac's a great wind player' mantra was something of a myth. I'd witnessed him lose his way in breezy conditions more times than not but after yesterday, I won't make that mistake again.

This is a great round to look back on, as anyone who broke par can clearly play in the wind.

Players to follow
It was impossible not to be impressed by German youngster, Maximilian Kieffer, who went the distance with Rafa in the playoff, and he looks sure to win on the European Tour sooner rather than later but the one that caught my eye for the near future, was Emiliano Grillo.

Argentines have a good record at the Madeira Islands Open and next month's renewal at Clube de Golf do Santo da Serra might offer up a good chance for the talented Grillo to break his European Tour duck.

Players to swerve
Both third round leaders, Marc Warren and Charley Hoffman, wilted really badly and they're both players to treat with the utmost caution.

What have we learnt for next year?
Many a major winner has taken the Heritage title and this year's playoff was contested by two of the last three US Open champs, but having the US Masters played out the week before puts us punters in a bit of a quandary, as it's odds-on than the majority of major winners pitching up at Hilton Head have just played Augusta.

The market was dominated by those that had contended last week's US Masters but of those that figured at Augusta, only Luke Donald and Marc Leishman figured here at all. G-Mac and Simpson had both played in the year's first major but both had missed the cut. They had the class but they hadn't experienced a gruelling weekend at Augusta and that could be an angle in next year.

With its tiny greens, Scrambling is the key stat to concentrate on at Hilton Head. G-Mac ranked 1st and Simpson 3rd and in the last 6 years, the leader in Scrambling for the week has now finished 4th, 1st, 1st, 6th, 8th, and 1st.

We seem to be faced with a new course almost every time we have an event in Spain and it's possible that we won't see this week's venue, Parador de El Saler, again for many a year but just in case we do, it reminded me of a couple of different courses.

I've previously mentioned how I felt it correlated with both Kennemer in Holland and Oitavos Dunes in Portugal but when Marc Warren hit the front, I couldn't help but think about Barseback, home of the Scandinavian Masters on a number of occasions.

Warren beat Robert Karlsson in the 2006 renewal of the Swedish event and Jacquelin finished 5th. Given that Warren should have won here this weekend and the other two have, an examination of the results and stats at Barseback may pay dividends if we do return.

Don't back the Spanish at the Open de Espana. The home contingency's record really isn't great and yet again they struggled this year. Sergio Garcia put in an early run yesterday but it soon fizzled out and he eventually finished tied for 12th alongside fellow countryman Nacho Elvira. That pair were the only two from Spain to finish inside the top-26.

I'll be back later today or tomorrow with previews for this week's two events, the Ballantine's Championship and the Zurich Classic.