After collecting a cool $220,000 for winning last week’s Australian PGA Championship, you’d think Daniel Popovic might have let Andrew Martin off the $5 he owed him.
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But it was no such luck for the Bendigo golfer, who owed Popovic after losing to him in a nine-hole warm-up round before the event.
Just moments after Popovic sunk the championship’s winning putt on the 18th at Coolum, he walked past fellow Victorian pro Martin.
“He said you still owe me five bucks,” Martin said.
“I was meaning to give it to him, but I just never had the five dollars. I just happened to have the five dollars when he won – he probably didn’t need it.”
That was the end of the conversation, Martin said, as a jubilant Popovic hurried off to sign his scorecard. While Popovic had the tournament of his life, Martin finished tied for 68th after a final round of six-over blew out his promising position of one-over going into Sunday’s play.
“I played pretty well, I just didn’t hole enough putts, it was good to play solid,” Martin said.
“I made the weekend, I just couldn’t get anything going, so that was a bit of a shame. It was still a good way to finish the year off.”
Despite making the cut, Martin couldn’t keep his place inside the top-30 in the Australasian PGA Tour’s order of merit. The top-30 gives exemptions into bigger tournaments, though his top-50 spot gets him into Australia’s major events in 2013.
Martin’s next big event will be the Victorian PGA Championships at Creswick, near Ballarat from January 17 top 20.