Adam Scott’s stranglehold on the BetEasy Masters trophy was wrestled away by Adelaide’s unheralded Nick Cullen on Sunday. The 30 year-old leftie was sitting just inside the World’s top 600 in the Official World Golf Rankings prior to the final round; a stark contrast to closest rival Adam Scott (T2) who as the second best player in the World was a $3.25 favourite to take the title last week. However, as the final round progressed, Cullen was looking the more composed,and the more likely of the many Australians on the first page of the leaderboard to win the BetEasy Masters title.
His 69, including a fine bunker shot on the 18th, which he later described as the best shot of his life, was enough for a one shot victory over Scott, James Nitties, and Josh Younger, with four others a further shot back at -7. Scott needed a strong final round to contend and his 68 was just shy of being the perfect tonic. He was slightly unfortunate to kiss the edge of the cup with a birdie try on the last that may have sent it to a playoff hole, but even the staunchest Scott fans couldn’t deny the former One-Asia Tour player a deserving title, even though he was denying Scott a BetEasy Masters three peat.
Interesting, Nick Cullen’s twin brother Dan Cullen played one test and five one day internationals for the Australian cricket team. Now the family will be arguing which is the more prestigious achievement and finding room in the pool room for the BetEasy Masters trophy and the coveted gold jacket.
We imagine Cullen will put his BetEasy Masters $180,000 winners cheque to good use by having the gold jacket better tailored. The diminutive Cullen looked like Paddington Bear playing dress up in an old mans wardrobe as he collected his oversized prize.
Of our predictions, Scott was quite predictably the best finishing. Although, in our preview post we pretty much covered the entire field, so we don’t deserve too much credit there.
Adam Scott moves on to an Australian Open showdown against Rory McIlroy starting on Thursday. We’ll preview the odds for that event later in the week.
