Four share AT&T lead; Woods seven back

Golf Betting Lines

07/01/2010 - Newtown Square, PA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Nick Watney fired a four-under 66 Thursday to grab a share of the lead after the opening round of the AT&T National at Aronimink Golf Club.

Watney was joined atop the leaderboard by Jason Day, Joe Ogilvie and Arjun Atwal. All four players competed in the morning wave before a steady breeze that picked up as the day went along made for tougher scoring in the afternoon.

Six players, including Ryan Moore and Carl Pettersson, are one stroke off the lead at three-under 67. Moore and Pettersson were among the afternoon wave.

World No. 1 Tiger Woods faltered on the back nine, dropping four strokes over a four-hole period from the 14th to shoot three-over 73 and drop into a tie for 81st place.

The defending champion, Woods traded a birdie for a bogey from the first, then snaked in a birdie putt at No. 5 to get back to minus-one.

After eight straight pars, Woods came apart down the stretch, starting with a three-putt bogey at the par-three 14th.

He found thick rough off the tee at the par-five 16th, then laid up. Woods dropped his third into the sand from just 82 yards and was unable to save par from there. That bogey dropped him to plus-one and more trouble was on the horizon.

Woods found water short of the green at the par-three 17th, leading to a double-bogey, and he lipped out a five-foot birdie putt at the 18th after a spectacular approach

"I just let my round get away from me," Woods said in a TV interview afterward.

He added later: "I hit it well today, but made nothing. I just putted terrible. My speed was good, but I never hit the ball on line. It was a very frustrating day on the greens."

Watney did all of his scoring in one bunch. He posted eight straight pars to open his round, then collected a birdie on the par-five ninth -- the first of four in a row.

The 29-year-old rolled in birdie putts at the 10th, 11th and 12th and then parred the final six holes to become the last of the four leaders to reach the clubhouse at minus-four.

"I played very, very steady," said Watney, who earned his second PGA Tour win at the 2009 Buick Invitational. "I was never really in much trouble."

Day, who was in the group ahead of Watney, got going with a birdie on the first hole and picked up another birdie at three. He turned in three-under thanks to a birdie on the seventh, but tripped to a bogey on 10.

The Australian, who won the Byron Nelson Championship earlier this year, came back with birdies on 12 and 16 to grab a piece of the lead.

Ogilvie and Atwal were in the first groups out, Ogilvie off the 10th tee and Atwal off the first. Ogilvie birdied the 11th, but gave it right back with a bogey on 12. He got back to minus-one with a birdie on 16.

The 36-year-old Ogilvie parred his next five holes. He dropped in a birdie effort on the long par-four fourth and followed with a birdie on the fifth, the shortest par-three on the course at 178 yards. Ogilvie got to four-under with a birdie on the seventh and he parred the final two holes.

Atwal had the most uneven round of the leaders. Following an opening bogey, he birdied three straight from the second. After six consecutive pars, birdies on 11 and 13 moved Atwal to minus-four.

He gave one back with a bogey on 14, but recovered that with a birdie on 16. Atwal faltered to a bogey on 17, but came back to birdie the last to end at minus-four.

Moore and Pettersson were joined in fifth place by John Mallinger, Brian Gay, Michael Letzig and Brett Quigley.

Tim Herron and Scott McCarron headline eight players tied for 11th at two- under-par 68.

Aronimink member Sean O'Hair managed just one birdie to go with two bogeys in a round of one-over 71. He is tied for 49th.

"It would be nice to play really well in front of everybody, but at the end of the week, it's just another golf tournament," said O'Hair, who is battling a balky back. "I'd love to play well at this golf course, but I can't control my back."

NOTES: Nathan Green made the only hole-in-one of the day, acing the par-three fifth...Just 34 of 120 players broke par on Thursday...Kevin Streelman withdrew after opening with an eight-over 78 due to an illness in the family...Aronimink is hosting its first big event since the 2003 Senior PGA Championship...Congressional, which is the normal host course, is undergoing renovations for next year's U.S. Open.

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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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