This Week in Golf - September 9th through September 12th

Golf Betting Lines

09/06/2010 - Philadelphia, PA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - PGA TOUR - BMW CHAMPIONSHIP, Cog Hill Golf & Country Club, Lemont, Illinois - The BMW Championship marks the third round of the PGA Tour playoffs, reserved for the top 70 players in the FedExCup standings.

Following the fourth round at Cog Hill, only the top 30 players on the points list will make the field for the playoff finale at the Tour Championship, which begins after a one-week break in the schedule.

Tiger Woods won last year's BMW Championship by eight shots after posting four consecutive rounds of 68 or better, collecting his fifth career victory at the tournament.

The win catapulted Woods to his second FedExCup title in three years.

Fighting for his playoff life -- and his No. 1 ranking -- Woods birdied three of his last four holes at the Deutsche Bank Championship on Monday to earn the right to defend his title.

He closed with a three-under 68 to share 11th place at 10-under-par 274. That was good enough to hold off Phil Mickelson and retain his No. 1 ranking. Mickelson needed a top-four finish to pass Woods and was there for a while.

However, Mickelson had a birdie, two bogeys, a double-bogey and a triple-bogey on the back nine en route to a closing 76. That dropped him 14 spots behind Woods on the leaderboard as the left-hander finished at minus-seven.

Charley Hoffman soared to No. 2 on the FedExCup points list as he won the Deutsche Bank Championship by five strokes. Hoffman carded six birdies on the back nine, and 11 in his round, as he fired a nine-under 62. He matched the tournament scoring record of 262.

Padraig Harrington, Lucas Glover, Chris Couch and Charles Howell III started the week inside the top 70, but were bumped out and will miss the final two playoff events.

Scott Verplank was 70th after the Deutsche Bank, but is out for the year with a wrist injury.

Golf Channel will have coverage of the first two rounds of the BMW Championship, while NBC will broadcast the final two rounds.

Mickelson will defend his title at the Tour Championship beginning Sept. 23. Any player inside the top five in the playoff standings will have a shot to win the FedEx Cup by winning the Tour Championship.

LPGA TOUR

NW ARKANSAS CHAMPIONSHIP, Pinnacle Country Club, Rogers, Arkansas - The LPGA Tour returns from a one-week break for the NW Arkansas Championship, a 54-hole event.

The tour has been away since Michelle Wie's victory at the Canadian Women's Open.

At last year's NW Arkansas Championship, Jiyai Shin birdied the second playoff hole to defeat Angela Stanford and Sun Young Yoo.

Seon-Hwa Lee also earned a hard-fought win at this event in 2008 when she birdied the final hole for a one-shot victory over Jane Park and Meena Lee.

The tournament suffered an inelegant debut in 2007 when it was shortened to 18 holes after three days of weather-related problems in the wake of Hurricane Henriette.

Stacy Lewis, then an amateur and the reigning NCAA champion, carded a 65 for the best score, but was not credited for an official win. Officials believed it was the first full-length tour event ever shortened to 18 holes.

Shin, Lee and Lewis will be part of a field at Pinnacle Country Club that is also scheduled to feature Wie, who has begun another year of juggling golf and college.

Golf Channel will have coverage of all three rounds.

The tour is off until Oct. 7 when the Navistar LPGA Classic begins. Lorena Ochoa won the tournament last year, but retired earlier this season.

EUROPEAN TOUR

KLM OPEN, Hilversumsche Golf Club, Hilversum, Netherlands - Simon Dyson birdied the first playoff hole at last year's KLM Open to beat Peter Lawrie and Peter Hedblom for his third European Tour title.

Dyson, who also won the 2006 KLM Open in a playoff, went on to capture win No. 4 at the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship four starts later.

The Englishman will try to defend his title this week against a field that also includes the last two major championship winners -- British Open champion Louis Oosthuizen and PGA Championship winner Martin Kaymer.

The tournament returns to Hilversumsche Golf Club in the Netherlands for the first time in five years.

Golf Channel will have coverage of all four rounds beginning at 9:30 a.m. (et) on the first two days and an hour earlier on the last two.

Next week's event is the Austrian Golf Open, where Rafael Cabrera-Bello won last season.

CHAMPIONS TOUR

SONGDO CHAMPIONSHIP, Jack Nicklaus Golf Club Korea, Songdo, South Korea - The Champions Tour travels to Asia for the first time ever this week for the Songdo Championship.

The tournament will be played at the Jack Nicklaus Golf Club Korea, a new track designed by the Hall of Famer.

The field is scheduled to include half of the players ranked in the top-10 in the Charles Schwab Cup standings, including leader and five-time 2010 winner Bernhard Langer.

U.S. Ryder Cup captain Corey Pavin, who is 10th in the standings, has bigger things on his mind and won't be in attendance.

Golf Channel will have coverage of all three rounds.

The Champions Tour will take a one-week break before returning for the SAS Championship, which was won by Tom Pernice Jr. last year.

NATIONWIDE TOUR

UTAH CHAMPIONSHIP, Willow Creek Country Club, Sandy, Utah - Three players in the field this week will be looking to drastically improve their fortunes.

Chris Kirk, Tommy Gainey and Martin Piller are each seeking their third victory of the season. If any one of them reaches the milestone, they would earn automatic promotions to the PGA Tour.

The promotion wouldn't kick in until the PGA Tour playoffs are over.

Josh Teater, who won last year's Utah Championship, is playing on the PGA Tour this season and has earned $900,723 in 26 starts. By contrast, Kirk, the leading money winner on the Nationwide Tour this season, has earned $400,475 in 18 events.

Golf Channel will have coverage of all four rounds.

Next week is the Albertsons Boise Open, which was won by Fran Quinn last year.

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Betting the NFL preseason

Rule No. 1 in the gamblers' handbook states, "Avoid sports betting on meaningless games."

When you're drowning in a sea of baseball monotony, however, things change. Even a hint of pro football betting can persuade the most disciplined bettor to break a few rules. 

The NFL preseason is around the corner, with a tempting Hall of Fame match kicking off on Sunday. But bettors must stay vigilant. Wagering on NFL exhibition games is an entirely different beast than the regular season. Most fans don't recognize the players on the field because starters get as much action in August as Warcraft fans get on Prom night.

The only certainty about the NFL this time of year is uncertainty – and yet there are some who say betting in August can be a gold mine.

“I actually feel the NFL preseason presents solid profit opportunities for sharp bettors and handicappers,” Sports Expert Steve Merril explains. “My experience has been that the sportsbooks fear the preseason, which is evident by lower limits and massive moves.”

The line moves are attributed to the limited knowledge available regarding playing-time distribution. One team’s top unit out on the field for one more series has an impact on the pointspread. Setting lines in the preseason often is a shot in the dark.

“We base the betting lines mostly on public perception,” Pete Korner, founder of the Sports Club in Las Vegas, says. “It’s very tough to predict, almost a guessing game.”

The preseason is all about figuring out who’s in and for how long.

“It becomes a race between bettors and oddsmakers to find out how long the quarterbacks are going to stay in,” Korner admits. “If a sharp gets the information first, he could exploit an early line. I’m a full believer in moving the line in the preseason if the books find out something late in the week.”

Determining what each team’s motive is can help bettors handicap. To do this you must pay close attention to the philosophies head coaches employ in exhibition play.

“You need to know what a coach is trying to accomplish,” says Covers Expert Bryan Leonard. “Sometimes a new coach will want to instill a winning attitude. Others just want to make sure their starters don’t get hurt."

So how do you distinguish who’s playing scared and who’s playing for keeps?

“Head coaches on the hot seat or new coaches trying to implement a winning attitude usually try harder to win in the preseason,” Merril says.

Cleveland Browns head coach Romeo Crennel fits this criteria. He’s entering his third season as the sideline boss and has yet to lead the Browns to more than six wins.

Cleveland is an enticing bet as well because of the unresolved quarterback situation. General manager Phil Savage sacrificed the Browns’ first-round pick in next year’s draft for Brady Quinn, but the former Notre Dame quarterback hasn’t signed or reported to training camp yet.

Charlie Frye and Derek Anderson split time at QB last season and it looks like either player (or even Quinn) could be the opening-day starter.

“If a team has quarterback depth and the pecking order hasn’t been decided, it’s a big advantage,” Leonard says.

Even in the third week of the preseason when starters generally play the most, the final outcome of the game is in the hands of fringe players. A team's talent, all the way down to the last man on the roster, is something to consider.

The New England Patriots have long been considered one of the deeper teams in the NFL and coach Bill Belichick has said in the past he’s unafraid of stars getting hurt in games with nothing on the line. He shocked his colleagues in 2003 by playing some of his starters on special teams in the preseason.

“We want to have the team ready to play a tough, physical game and preparation has to go into that and I imagine a certain amount of injuries go with it,” Belichick told the Providence Journal in August 2003.

Bettors can only hope to find more teams that share the Pats' business-like approach to the preseason (New England is 17-9-3 against the spread since 2000) and take advantage of teams who detest the exhibition schedule.

To visit this online sportsbook got to MySportsbook.com for all your bet on football needs. Mysportsbook.com online sportsbook accepts Visa and Mastercard credit cards.

NFL Football Betting : Odds on NFL Division to Win the Super Bowl

NFL Super Bowl Betting

The AFC South and the NFC East are the favorite divisions to have the next Super Bowl champ among them in the NFL betting odds. But more down to the point, these football odds are in favor of the Indianapolis Colts, by far the strongest team in the AFC South, and the Dallas Cowboys of the NFC East.

Most sports fans would agree that these two teams top the list to win it all before the season even begins. In the BetUS Sportsbook football futures, the Colts are +800 in the odds to win the Super Bowl, while the Cowboys are sitting at +1000 and the Super Bowl XLIV champions New Orleans Saints at +900. In the AFC South, the Colts won the division for five straight years after the 2002 realignment, before the Tennessee Titans won it in 2008. But the Colts came back strong in 2009 to win the division again en route to the Super Bowl. The Cowboys are the favorite to win the NFC East, as well as to advance far into the post season. The Cowboys won the division last season before their horrendous loss in the NFC Divisional playoff to Brett Favre and the Minnesota Vikings. But the ‘Boys will take that loss humbly and be ready for the playoffs this time around.

The NFC South is also very strong, at +600 in the NFL futures, considering that it is home to the defending Super Bowl champions. However, some predictions have the Atlanta Falcons with possibilities of claiming the divisional title this season in place of the Saints, as no team has won back-to-back division championships since the division realignment took place. Let’s not overlook the AFC North at +500. As TO goes to Cincinnati to join Chad OchoCinco and Adam “Pac-Man” Jones, this team looks to claim the division title again. And it is likely they will do so. The Bengals lost in the AFC Wild Card spot in a hard-fought battle against the New York Jets last season. Lest not forget the Pittsburgh Steelers, the XLII Super Bowl Champions… All these teams present interesting odds and matchups for the upcoming season, but the safest and surest bet seems to be with the Colts in the AFC South and the Cowboys in the NFC East. Play this weekly NFL Football Contestto see if you can win.

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