Garcia Recalls Open On Title

Golf Betting Lines

Quinney lost a playoff last week at the Scholarship American Showdown at Somerby, but has a plan for Sunday.

 

"I just want to go out there tomorrow and go as low as I can," said Quinney, who won the 2004 Oregon Classic. "I've got to shoot seven- or eight-under to have a chance to win. I've been in this situation the past couple of weeks so hopefully that will help."

 

"I holed my fair share of putts," said Flanagan, who hit 17 of 18 greens on Saturday. "I pretty much holed everything that I looked at. It was one of those things where you just get on a roll."

 

Hoylake, England (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Tiger Woods successfully defended his British Open Championship title on Sunday with a two-shot victory at Royal Liverpool. The No. 1 player in the world was threatened by Chris DiMarco on the back nine, but three consecutive birdies from the 14th allowed Woods to shoot a final-round, five-under 67. Woods finished the event at 18-under-par 270.

 

This was Woods' third British Open title and first at a venue other than St. Andrews. It was his 11th major championship to tie Walter Hagen for second all-time in professional majors. This marked Woods first major title since last year's British Open and the win was his third this season on the PGA Tour.

 

Jim Furyk, who squandered a chance to win this year's U.S. Open on the 72nd hole, shot a one-under 71 and took fourth at minus-12.

 

Sergio Garcia, who was trying for his first major in the final group with Woods, struggled again on Sunday. He posted a two-over-par 73 and tied for fifth place with Hideto Tanihara, who shot a 71 in the final round. The pair came in at 11-under-par 277.

 

"It's a shame," said Garcia. "That's the way it goes sometimes. I definitely didn't play the way I should have scored today. I hit a lot of good shots that were just on the wrong side."

 

This is not the only time that Garcia has been in contention in a big event only to play poorly on Sunday. He was in the hunt for the 2002 U.S. Open at Bethpage, then went into the final round this year at the Players Championship one off the lead, but shot a 78 on Sunday and tied for 14th place.

 

He dueled with Woods on the back nine Sunday in the 1999 PGA Championship at the ripe age of 19. The runner-up finish at Medinah was his best finish in a major.

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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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