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07/26/2010 - Philadelphia, PA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - WOMEN'S BRITISH OPEN, Royal Birkdale Golf Club, Southport, England - The women remain in Europe this week for the fourth and final major of their season, the Women's British Open.
Catriona Matthew was the only player in red figures at the end of last year's Women's British Open as she finished at three-under par and won by three strokes over Karrie Webb.
It was Matthew's first major championship. Webb was denied her fourth Women's British title.
Matthew has not won an LPGA Tour event since, but did compete in her fifth Solheim Cup for the European Tour last fall.
Last year, the event was contested at Royal Lytham & St. Annes and switches to Royal Birkdale this year.
The last time Birkdale hosted the Women's British Open in 2005, Jeong Jang fired four rounds in the 60s and cruised to a four-stroke win over Sophie Gustafson. Jang matched the 36-hole scoring record with her two-day total of 134 and had the second-lowest 54-hole score (203) in tournament history.
Jang won wire-to-wore after opening with a four-under 68. Also that week, Kris Tschetter posted an eight-under 29 over nine holes in the third round. That matched the lowest nine-hole score in Women's British Open history and set the mark for lowest score in relation to par.
Sherri Steinhauer was the last American women to win this title in 2006. She also won in '98 and '99. Prior to her, Emilee Klein was the previous American woman to win this title in 1996. Only one of those counted as a major championship title, though, as the event wasn't designated a major until 2001.
The first three majors this year have been won by Yani Tseng (Kraft Nabisco), Cristie Kerr (LPGA Championship) and Paula Creamer (U.S. Women's Open).
ESPN will have coverage from 9-11 a.m. (et) the first two days, then three hours of coverage each of the final two rounds starting at 10 a.m.
After a two-week break, the LPGA Tour returns to action in Oregon for the Safeway Classic, where M.J. Hur won last year.
CHAMPIONS TOUR
U.S. SENIOR OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP, Sahalee Country Club, Sammamish, Washington - The Champions Tour heads to the west coast this week as Sahalee Country Club will host the season's third major, the U.S. Senior Open.
Fred Funk blew away the field last year at Crooked Stick as he fired four rounds in the 60s, including a seven-under 65 in the final round, to cruise to a six-stroke victory over Joey Sindelar.
Funk set a pair of records by finishing at 20-under par. He broke Hale Irwin's U.S. Senior Open record for most strokes under par, by three, and he was also the lowest player under par in any of the USGA Open Championships.
It was Funk's second major championship victory on the Champions Tour. He also won the 2008 JELD-WEN Tradition.
This will be the first of three USGA Open Championships to be contested in the state of Washington.
The last major in Washington state was the 1998 PGA Championship, which Sahalee hosted. Vijay Singh was the winner that week and 34 players who were in that field are competing this week. Funk shared 23rd in '98, while Mark O'Meara and Nick Price tied for fourth behind Singh. John Cook was the only other player in the top 10 that week -- he finished ninth -- who is competing this week.
There are 27 players in the field who have combined to win 49 majors on the Champions Tour.
Tom Lehman was a playoff winner over Fred Couples at the first major this season, the Senior PGA Championship, while Bernhard Langer fended off Corey Pavin last weekend at the Senior British Open.
ESPN2 will have four hours of coverage each of the first two rounds starting at 5 p.m. (et), while NBC will air three hours of play beginning at 4 p.m. the final two rounds.
The Champions Tour heads to Minnesota next week for the 3M Championship, where Langer won by one shot over Andy Bean last year.
The next USGA event will be the U.S. Women's Amateur, which runs from August 9-15 at Charlotte Country Club.
PGA TOUR
THE GREENBRIER CLASSIC, The Old White Course, White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia - The Greenbrier Classic is a new event on the PGA Tour schedule this year and it comes before one of the busiest stretches of the season.
Players who are qualified for all four PGA Tour playoff events and the Ryder Cup could potentially play seven of the next nine weeks following The Greenbrier Classic with a World Golf Championships event, a major and the four playoff events coming before the Ryder Cup.
The Old White Course at the Greenbrier resort will host a field that includes just two of the top 25 players in the world and seven of the top 25 on the FedEx Cup points list.
There are five PGA Tour winners from this season competing this week, including two-time winner Jim Furyk. He is one of 10 major champions in the field.
Not only are many of the top players taking this week off, so is network television. Golf Channel will air all four rounds from 3-6 p.m. (et).
There are two events next week. The top players in the world will be in Ohio for the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational, where Tiger Woods is the defending champion. The remaining PGA Tour players will be in New York for the Turning Stone Resort Championship, where Matt Kuchar won last year.
EUROPEAN TOUR
IRISH OPEN, Killarney Golf & Fishing Club, Killarney, Ireland - Shane Lowry became the third amateur to win a European Tour event when he captured this title last year.
The young Irishman needed three extra holes to fend off Robert Rock for the victory. Not only did Lowry need a playoff to gain the title, he had to sit through a two-hour weather delay.
After Lowry and Rock matched pars on the first extra hole and birdies on the second, Lowry ran home a six-foot birdie effort on the third playoff hole to join Pablo Martin and Danny Lee as the only amateurs to win on the European Tour.
Not only was the win Lowry's first on the European Tour, it was also his first tour start. Since that win in May '09, he has posted just two top-10 finishes, both of which came this season.
Lowry will have a tough fight on his hands this week as the field will be led by fellow Irishmen and recent major champions Padraig Harrington and Graeme McDowell, as well as Rory McIlroy.
Golf Channel will have three hours of coverage of all four rounds starting at 10 a.m. (et) the first two days and at 9 a.m. on Saturday and Sunday.
The European Tour is in the United States for the next two weeks with the WGC- Bridgestone Invitational next week, followed by the PGA Championship at Whistling Straits.
NATIONWIDE TOUR
COX CLASSIC, Champions Run, Omaha, Nebraska - Last year's Cox Classic was a low-scoring affair.
Rich Barcelo went lowest as he closed with a six-under 65 to finish 20-under 264 and win by a single stroke over Tom Gillis. The victory was Barcelo's first on the Nationwide Tour.
Both Barcelo and Gillis are competing on the PGA Tour this week.
There are 13 winners from 2010 in the field this week, including two-time winner Tommy Gainey and last week's champ D.J. Brigman. The field also includes 24 of the top 25 players on the money list.
Golf Channel has two hours of coverage the first two days starting at 12:30 p.m. (et), then three hours of action starting at 1 p.m. the final two days.
The tour heads to Kansas next week for the Wichita Open, where Chris Tidland was victorious last year.
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Recently I had an email debate with an angry reader who said I did not understand "the science of oddsmaking", as he called it.
He said I was wrong for suggesting oddsmakers care about who wins or loses games.
"Oddsmakers only care about splitting the betting public 50/50 on both sides of the line and keeping the commission (a.k.a. juice)," he wrote.
He might have been right about not understanding "the science of oddsmaking". After all, I'm not an oddsmaker. That said, I stick to my assertion that oddsmakers (a.k.a. sportbooks) often do care about who wins games.
Granted, as a general rule, sportsbooks try to balance their action so that they're not exposed to big losses. However, there are times when this is difficult to pull off, regardless of how much a line has moved. There are also times when that general rule is ignored and a book pursues risk.
Generally speaking, it's safe to say the books in Vegas are risk-adverse. Unlike in the past when the wise guys ruled the town, Vegas is now corporate and the goal of most casinos is to make as much money as possible with as little risk as possible.
Thus, Vegas sportsbooks try everything in their power to balance the action. They're satisfied simply collecting the juice. But these profits are small, especially compared to the take from other casino games, namely slot machines.
Because the profits at Vegas sportsbooks are so small, you could argue that many casinos operate sportsbooks simply as a novelty to keep the tourists happy.
With a growing aversion to risk, it should come as no surprise that Vegas bookmakers have been panicking this NFL season.
Despite huge pointspreads, a disproportionate percentage of bettors are still laying their money on favorites like the Eagles, Colts, Pats and Vikings rather than the dogs (a common trend for the largely recreational bettors that visit Vegas).
And much to the dismay of the books, those favorites are finding ways to cover the thick chalk. In fact, prior to Week 7, the four teams listed above are a combined 16-2-2 (88 percent) against the spread. (The tables turned dramatically in Week 7, but more on that later.)
The result has been an early-season beating for the books, and a bonanza for bettors.
While Vegas increasingly hates risk, it's no longer a major player in the sports betting world. Most of the betting action now takes place offshore where sportsbooks are not as obsessed about balance. In fact, some books encourage exposure to risk because the rewards can be so much bigger.
Consider MySportsbook.com. On its website, the book has odds pages which actually display the amount of action it's getting on games. In other words, you can see how much action the book is taking on both sides of a pointspread, moneyline or over/under.
One look at these numbers and it's obvious MySportsbook.com does not balance every game. In fact, far from it.
Take last weekend's matchup between St. Louis and Miami. By game time on Sunday, 83 percent of the betting action at MySportsbook.com was on the Rams; only 17 percent was on Miami.
What's interesting is that MySportsbook.com opened the pointspread with Miami at +6 1/2. By game time, the spread had lowered to +5.
That goes contrary to the balancing theory. If MySportsbook.com had wanted to balance the action, it would have given Miami more points; instead, it took away 1 1/2. World Series odds are now up as well.
MySportsbook.com exposed itself to even more to risk, and rolled the dice on the underdog Dolphins. Why? I contacted a representative with the book to find out. His answer was simple.
"The line moved early based on 'smart money' from sharp players," said Jeff Gilroy, a spokesperson for the book. "We also knew from early in the week that we would need Miami, therefore (we dropped) the spread to encourage Rams money.
"At the end of the day, we liked the home team."
So the conclusion is this: MySportsbook.com respected the sharp action, and gambled that the sharp bettors had a better take on the game than the recreational bettors, who were hammering the visiting Rams.
In the end, the gamble paid off. Miami, desperate for a win in front of its home fans, pounded the overrated Rams, who are terrible on the road and even worse on grass. Final score: 31-14 Fish.
MySportsbook.com was also heavily exposed on numerous favorites in Week 7, including Philadelphia, Seattle and Denver. All three failed to cover.
The fact that sportsbooks are exposed to risk on certain games is really nothing new. The fact, that Sportsbook.com is willing to show the public where it's exposed is intriguing.
Armed with this type of information, bettors can make more educated wagers. They can get an idea where the sharp money is going and conversely where the public money is headed.
MySportsbook.com is opening up its cashbox, letting bettors look inside and challenging them to take their best shot at grabbing the cash.
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