Pavin Sparks Armour Down Kelly

Golf Betting Lines

From there, both players made pars despite having decent looks at birdie putts. Pavin holed a seven-foot par putt at the 10th that he did not think was going in, but maintained his four-stroke advantage.

 

Both players parred the 16th and 17th holes, but with a reachable par-five for the closing hole, there was still drama. Pavin could not get home in two so he laid up down the fairway, but Kelly had the length to reach, but his ball took a bad hop into thick rough.

 

Woody Austin (65), Joey Sindelar (67) and Billy Andrade (68) shared sixth place at 14-under-par 266. Dicky Pride (63), Dean Wilson (63), K.J. Choi (64) and Nathan Green (69) tied for ninth place at minus-13.

 

Philadelphia, PA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - With her third victory of the season Saturday at the Evian Masters, Karrie Webb bumped Lorena Ochoa from the top of the LPGA Tour money list and also snatched her No. 3 position in the Rolex Women's World Rankings. Webb, now a 33-time winner on the LPGA Tour, also won the first major of the year, the Kraft Nabisco Championship, and the Michelob Ultra Open. Sunday, she beat 16-year-old Michelle Wie and two-time Evian Masters champion Laura Davies by one shot.

 

Mi Hyun Kim moved into 10th position, bumping Ai Miyazato to 11th. After that, Se Ri Pak, Hee-Won Han, Pat Hurst, Shiho Ohyama, Morgan Pressel, Natalie Gulbis, Seon-Hwa Lee, Brittany Lang and Sakura Yokomine rounded out the to 20.

 

Grand Blanc, MI (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Tiger Woods bogeyed his first hole after the re-start Saturday morning and fell one shot behind leader Brett Quigley at the Buick Open. Two weeks after winning the British Open, Woods stands at 12-under-par 132 through two rounds at Warwick Hills Golf and Country Club.

 

The tournament has struggled to catch up following two weather delays during the first round Thursday.

 

Two-time defending champion Vijay Singh -- the only three-time winner ever at this event -- went one-under on five holes Saturday morning and leads a group of four players who are tied for third place.

 

Joining Singh at 11-under 133 were Jeff Sluman (67), Bo Van Pelt (66) and first-round leader Mike Weir (70).

 

Lancashire, England (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Sherri Steinhauer fired a flawless six-under 66 at the Women's British Open on Saturday, vaulting past a bevy of stars to take the lead after three rounds at Royal Lytham & St. Annes. Looking for the second major title of her career -- and first in 14 years -- Steinhauer had four birdies to go along with an eagle at the par-five 15th on Saturday.

Lassseters Golf Betting Blog

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<< Birdie Putt Joins Feet For Time

<< Champion Edition Pound Claim On Open Edition

<< Woods Warns Hole From World

<< Sergio Garcia Leaves Woods Of Round

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Points Warns Feet From Matt >>

SPORTS BETTING - Tennis is an underrated and under-utilized bettors' sport.

Ten years ago, at just about this time, I called Alan Boston in Vegas and left him a voicemail that went something like this (abridged version): "Hey Alan, Chad Millman from ESPN The Magazine calling. I want to do a book about wise guys, you in?"

A couple weeks later I got a message back (abridged version): "I don't know, maybe," Boston said. "Call me and we'll talk about it. But not later today. I got $1,000 on Andre Agassi to win the French Open at 40-1, and he's in the finals."

Here's what happened next (abridged version): Agassi won his tourney. Boston won his $40,000. I wrote sportsbook.

In the ten years since, how much has been wagered on the big-time tennis events? Put it this way: The Nevada Gaming Commission doesn't even track the number year by year because it's so small.

"Tennis makes up about one-tenth of one percent of our take," says Lucky's bookmaking boss Jimmy Vaccaro. "The last big golf major we probably had $100,000 worth of bets. In tennis, we might have written two big tickets."

Tennis' lack of popularity amongst the American bettoratti is no surprise, really. For starters, the biggest sports betting holidays -- the Super Bowl, the NCAA tourney -- are must see TV. People, at least the degenerates I know, plan vacations around watching those events in Vegas sports books.

But Wimbledon? Doesn't exactly reel in the whales. "Seriously, it's the nuts as an event," says Boston. "But who even knows when it's on?"

Here's another reason that helps explain why golf gets traction, something I call "The Bubbe Theory." My Bubbe is pushing 95 and has cataracts so bad that, to her, even the most crystalline Chicago day is mostly cloudy. But she still listens to the Cubs games, and she still calls me in a fit if she disagrees with something Rick Telander writes in the Chicago Sun Times. She's a sports fan. If she doesn't know you, you're just filling a niche. And niche players, even historically good ones like Roger and Raf, don't drive betting volume. Only the highest profile names attract square money, which inflates wagering totals like a shot of saline to the lips. Bubbe, and the public, loved Agassi, tennis' last cross-the-rubicon, mainstream draw. She also has a crush on Tiger. She's given me standing orders to put a sawbuck on the big cat whenever I walk through a sports book (or mistakenly tap into one via my Internet machine.) That explains why the Masters is getting $100K in action at some books while the four tennis majors might not get that combined this year.

This isn't a case of tennis being a difficult sport to bet. In fact, in Europe, it's probably the second most popular sport for gambling after soccer. Granted, as the WSJ football betting last week and The Mag's Shaun Assael examined in even greater depth last year, that might be because gamblers across the pond see it as an easy game to fix. But it could also be because, over there it holds the kind of sway the big two do over here.

Street corners in Spain are peppered with public courts and kids doing their best Raffy impressions. In some war torn parts of Eastern Europe poverty-stricken kids view tennis as an escape route, like football or basketball here. A couple years ago The Mag's Lindsay Berra wrote a great piece about Belgrade's Jelena Jankovic, Ana Ivanovic and Novak Djokovic. They learned the game as kids while bombs were raining down on their homeland. They practiced in drained swimming pools. Not exactly Nick Bolletierri conditions.

In the United States, casual fans think tennis is played four times a year. But on the tightly packed European continent, national interest in homegrown talent runs deep every weekend. Of the ATP's current top 20 players, only two, tennis betting and James Blake, are American. Fourteen are from Europe, representing six different countries.

No wonder fans from Lisbon to Bhudapest get jacked up for the net game, whether it's Wimbledon or a low-level tourney like the Estoril Open in Portugal (congrats to Spain's Albert Montanes for winning that one, btw). Chances are good that someone representing their flag will not only be playing, but have a shot at winning.

And that's all any bettor can ask for.

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