This Week in Golf - August 23rd through August 29th

Golf Betting Lines

08/23/2010 - Philadelphia, PA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - THE BARCLAYS, Ridgewood Country Club, Paramus, New Jersey - It's playoff golf.

The PGA Tour playoffs begin on Thursday with the first round of The Barclays. The top 125 on the FedEx Cup regular-season points list were eligible and there are only three who are skipping the week.

Sergio Garcia is in a needed, self-imposed exile from golf for the next two months.

Corey Pavin has Ryder Cup captaincy on his mind.

Paul Goydos withdrew on Monday without stating a reason.

Tiger Woods, despite the worst year of his professional career and probably his personal life, is in the field. He won the FedEx Cup last year, but will need to make a lot of ground starting this week.

Woods is 112th on the FedEx Cup points list and the top 100 advance next week to the Deutsche Bank Championship. A good week wouldn't kill his chances for the Ryder Cup, either.

Woods missed out on the automatic eight spots following the PGA so he'll need a pick from Pavin. Woods is "high on my list" according to Pavin, but a good week would definitely cement Woods' chances at a spot in Wales.

The top five on the FedEx Cup points list heading into the first round of the playoffs are Ernie Els, Steve Stricker, Jim Furyk, Phil Mickelson and Justin Rose.

Els and Stricker tied for second place last year along with Woods and Padraig Harrington. They finished one stroke out of what would have been an incredible playoff.

The man who emerged victorious was Heath Slocum. What made Slocum's win all the more amazing (besides trumping those future Hall of Famers) was that Slocum headed to the Barclays ranked No. 124 on the FedEx Cup points list. He vaulted up to third after the win.

Scott Piercy was the only player outside the top 125 last week at the Wyndham Championship to move his way into the Barclays field.

Golf Channel will handle the telecast on Thursday and Friday and some early- round action on the weekend. CBS takes over for the weekend broadcast of the leaders.

Next week is the Deutsche Bank Championship at the TPC Boston. Stricker won last year and remember: it's played over the Labor Day holiday in the U.S. so it starts Friday and ends Monday.

EUROPEAN TOUR

JOHNNIE WALKER CHAMPIONSHIP AT GLENEAGLES, The Gleneagles Hotel, Perthshire, Scotland - While the PGA Tour begins a new chapter with the playoffs, the European Tour will end a chapter Sunday at The Gleneagles Hotel.

This is the final tournament for European players to earn one of the automatic nine spots on the Ryder Cup team. Colin Montgomerie's squad will be finalized on Sunday with the announcement of his three captain's picks.

Lee Westwood, PGA Champion Martin Kaymer, U.S. Open winner Graeme McDowell and Rory McIlroy will make the team from the World Points list.

Ian Poulter and Ross Fisher seem like safe bets as two of the five from the European Points list. Francesco Molinari, last week's Czech Open winner Peter Hanson and Miguel Angel Jimenez are in the precarious spots 7-9.

Molinari and Hanson are in the field at Gleneagles, but Jimenez is not. He's attending his nephew's wedding, so he may be in trouble for one of those automatic spots.

Paul Casey and Padraig Harrington are next in line, but are teeing it up at the PGA Tour's Barclays instead. They will have to rely on Montgomerie selecting them with a pick.

Simon Dyson, Alvaro Quiros and Ross McGowan have chances to break into the top nine. Dyson and Quiros need to win the title this week to make the team, while McGowan has to do no worse than second.

Casey and Harrington will definitely be on Monty's short list for picks come the completion of play on Sunday. Luke Donald and Justin Rose will be among those for Monty to choose from, as will Edoardo Molinari, the brother of Francesco, and Champions Tour star Bernhard Langer.

Monty stoked the fire a few weeks back when he said he'd consider Langer, who won the Senior British Open and U.S. Senior Open in back-to-back weeks.

Edoardo Molinari is in the field at Gleneagles.

Peter Hedblom captured last year's event when he held off fellow Swede Martin Erlandsson by a shot. The win was Hedblom's third European Tour title.

Golf Channel will have all four rounds.

Next week is the European Masters, won by Alexander Noren last year.

LPGA TOUR

CANADIAN WOMEN'S OPEN, St. Charles Country Club, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada - It's a new venue ... sort of.

This is the first time that St. Charles Country Club will host the Canadian Women's Open, but the track hosted the defunct du Maurier Classic numerous times.

Sherri Steinhauer won the last du Maurier held at St. Charles in 1992. Juli Inkster, fresh off her disqualification for using a weighted device on her club to warm up during a delay on the 10th tee Saturday at the Safeway Classic, took the title at the du Maurier way back in 1984. Both are in the field this week.

Suzann Pettersen won last year's Canadian Women's Open at Priddis Greens Golf & Country Club in Calgary. She won by five strokes over five different women and if she can do that this week, she might move to No. 1.

The revolving door at No. 1 this year has seen Lorena Ochoa (remember her?), Jiyai Shin, Ai Miyazato and Cristie Kerr hold the perch. Miyazato is back to first after her win at the Safeway.

Kerr is second and Pettersen is third. Pettersen has never held the top spot, but a successful title defense will most likely get her that elusive No. 1 ranking.

Golf Channel has all four rounds.

The next LPGA Tour event is Sept. 10-12. It's the Arkansas Championship and it was won last year by Jiyai Shin.

CHAMPIONS TOUR

BOEING CLASSIC, TPC Snoqualmie Ridge, Snoqualmie, Washington - It's another home crowd for Freddie Couples.

After having almost the entire gallery behind him a few weeks back at the U.S. Senior Open at Sahalee in Seattle, Couples is back near his hometown this week.

He lost to Bernhard Langer on Sunday at the U.S. Senior Open, but Couples will try and put a dent in the margin Langer's built in both the money race and Charles Schwab Cup points race.

Both are in the field this week, but Langer may have quite an interesting Sunday. With the time difference between Washington and Scotland, Langer will know when he tees off Sunday if Colin Montgomerie has made him one of his captain's picks for the European Ryder Cup team.

Fred Funk is also in the field this week. He won his third major title on the Champions Tour Sunday at The Tradition.

Last year, Loren Roberts birdied his final two holes on Sunday to defeat Mark O'Meara by a single stroke. The win was Roberts' third of 2009 on the Champions Tour.

Golf Channel will carry all three rounds.

Next week is the First Tee Open at Pebble Beach, which was won last year by Jeff Sluman.

CANADIAN TOUR

CANADIAN TOUR CHAMPIONSHIP, St. Catharines Golf and Country Club, St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada - For the second year in a row, St. Catharines will host the season-ending Tour Championship.

The top players from the 2010 season gather with the money title on the line. The top-two finishers on the Order of Merit after play on Sunday will be exempted into the second stage of the PGA Tour National Qualifying School.

James Love won last year's Tour Championship when he parred the first playoff hole to defeat Lucas Lee.

USGA

U.S. AMATEUR, Chambers Bay Golf Club, University Place, Washington, and The Home Course, Dupont, Washington - The 110th U.S. Amateur Championship began Monday at Chambers Bay Golf Club and The Home Course.

Both venues will be used for the two days of stroke play while Chambers Bay will host the match-play rounds. At 7,742 yards, Chambers Bay will be the longest course in USGA history. Torrey Pines Golf Club, which was the site of the 2008 U.S. Open, was previously the longest at 7.643 yards.

Last year, Byeong-Hun An became the youngest U.S. Amateur champion in history when he defeated Ben Martin, 7 & 5. At 17 years, 11 months and 13 days, An surpassed 2008 winner Danny Lee as the youngest champion.

An is back to defend his title and if successful, he would be the first to do so since Tiger Woods' three-peat from 1994-96.

After two days of stroke play to find the low 64 players, the first round of match play begins on Wednesday. The second and third rounds are scheduled for Thursday. The quarterfinals will be Friday, the semifinals on Saturday and the 36-hole final is on tap for Sunday.

Golf Channel will broadcast some action on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. NBC takes over on the weekend.

The next USGA event is mid-Septemeber and it's the USGA Men's State Team event.

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College Football Betting Tips From a Pro

While the NFL is the sport wagered on the heaviest, college football betting lines has become more and more popular as people realize it’s a game that can be beat. The NCAA football season gets longer each year with the addition of numerous bowl games and with that comes more opportunities for more money in your pocket, if handled correctly.

Betting on college football is not the same as with the NFL, so make sure you separate the two. Because of the vast number of teams, the parity between college football programs is slight and thus, you are going to see some high numbers in the NCAA. Teams favored by more than 40 points are not uncommon especially early in the season when teams playing their non-conference schedules.

The best advice when trying to tackle these enormous spreads and is to just stay away. A team that is favored by 40 points is favored by that many for a reason while teams getting 40 points are bad enough that they shouldn’t be touched. Set yourself a spread limit. Getting rid of these games will cut down on the number of contests that you need to handicap while staying away from backdoor or front-door covers.

What is a backdoor and front-door cover you ask? A backdoor cover is a team that is getting beat by more than the spread, but scores late to get within that number thus covering the spread. A front-door cover is just the opposite where the favorite scores late and covers the number they are favored by.

These front-door and backdoor covers are common when second and third string players enter games in college football and it can be the worst nightmare for some bettors. These players can also be your best friend, but ask any bettor and he will give you more instances on losing in this situation than winning. It just seems to work out that way even though everything evens out in the end.

College football betting has some of the softest lines of any sport and it’s being able to find these lines that will make you a successful college football handicapper. The NFL and NBA have the tightest lines around and while those sports can be beat by looking at situations and systems, college football doesn’t quite work that way. It’s much more manual, but when done correctly, it’s much more gratifying as well.

Getting into the nuts and bolts of college football means looking at the many stats in order to beat the number. As opposed to pro football, college football is less dependent on situations and angles and more on certain statistics. Rushing offense and defense, pass efficiency offense and defense and turnover margins are huge. These are vital in the NFL, but even more so when it comes to college football.

Being able to run the ball in college football has always been a key factor in the overall success of a team. The same adage also goes for teams who have the ability to stop the run. Putting these two factors together can produce some positive results in a team’s record both straight up and against the spread. These numbers show huge differences in teams and the spread may not take those into effect, which is where the value comes into play.

Passing yardage numbers both for and against can be a misinterpreted statistic. However, pass efficiency has always been one of the best ways to look at a teams’ passing game ability both offensively and defensively. But is it really a true indication of how they perform? I wouldn’t say so since they are raw passing numbers with nothing else taken into consideration.

I use pass efficiency ratings when doing my handicapping but I adjust my numbers based on a number of factors including power ratings, strength of schedules, personnel and injuries. This gives a much better picture of a team’s ability to pass effectively and also being able to defend the pass. Tweaking pass efficiency stats instead of raw passing yards is the key.

Turnovers are the single most frustrating, and at times the most gratifying, aspect of a college football lines, mostly because they are so unpredictable. They are part of the game and most of the time nothing can be done to control them. However, turnovers are contagious and they can carry over from game to game and season to season.

It’s important to know how to forecast these unforeseen events and how to use them to your advantage. You can find ways to give yourself an edge by looking at past histories of teams and coaches and how they have fared in turnover wars in the past. Instead of turnovers hurting you at the wrong times, find ways to use them to your advantage.

As you can see, college football handicapping is very labor intensive and isn’t just based on where teams are ranked in the AP and coaches polls. Experience, coaching and match-ups are all important since unlike the NFL, college teams turn over much more often with new personnel at most positions every single year. Keeping current on this information is vital.

Betting NCAA football can be lucrative if done correctly, but more importantly, it’s just plain enjoyable because it can be beat. College football is one of the best sports to watch with some of the best rivalries taking place in all of sports. The only downfall is that a championship isn’t decided on the field but on a computer-based system that is the Bowl Championship Series. That will change someday and we will all be better off for it.

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