Oosthuizen moves in front at St. Andrews

Golf Betting Lines

07/16/2010 - St. Andrews, Scotland (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - South African Louis Oosthuizen carded a five-under 67 Friday to move to the top of the leaderboard in the early stages of the second round at the British Open.

His two-round total of 12-under-par 132 matched the low 36-hole score for the Open Championship at St. Andrews. Nick Faldo and Greg Norman both posted 132 in 1990.

Oosthuizen mixed seven birdies and two bogeys in his round.

After four straight pars to start his round, Oosthuizen ran off three consecutive birdies from the fifth.

Around the turn, he birdied the 10th, but gave that stroke right back with a bogey on 11. Oosthuizen again traded a birdie for a bogey from the 12th.

Oosthuizen birdied the par-five 14th for the second straight day to move back to 11-under. He parred his next three holes before converting a 15-footer for birdie at the last.

"Everyone plays to play in a major and the final round on Sunday, I'm just really glad the way I dealt with my nerves around the course," Oosthuizen stated. "We started in the rain and the first nine was not that easy, but it got a bit better from 14 on."

The South African has won five times on his home tour, the Sunshine Tour, and was victorious for the first time earlier this year on the European Tour.

However, this is uncharted territory in the major championships for Oosthuizen.

Prior to this, Oosthuizen had made the cut just once in eight previous starts in the four majors. The only cut he made in a major was at the 2008 PGA Championship, where he finished last for those who made the cut.

At the time he walked off the course, Oosthuizen led by three strokes over first-round leader Rory McIlroy, who wasn't scheduled to tee off for another two hours.

Wwwfifa2002 Golf Betting News

<< Lincecum blanks Mets
San Francisco, CA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Tim Lincecum shut out the Mets, becoming the second-fastest Giants pitcher to win 50 games, as San Francisco posted a 2-0 victory in the opener of a four-game set at AT&T Park. It took the hard-th

<< Twins put Morneau on DL
Minneapolis, MN (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Minnesota Twins first baseman Justin Morneau was put on the 15-day disabled list following Thursday's 8-7 loss to the White Sox due to a concussion. The move is retroactive to July 8. Morneau suffered the i

<< Pineiro beats former team, Angels down Mariners
Anaheim, CA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Joel Pineiro threw seven solid innings to win his seventh straight decision and the Angels got three RBI apiece from Erick Aybar and Bobby Abreu in a 8-3 win over the Seattle Mariners to start the post All-Sta

<< Lincecum blows out candles, blows away Mets
San Francisco, CA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Tim Lincecum shut out the Mets, becoming the second-fastest Giants pitcher to win 50 games, as San Francisco posted a 2-0 victory in the opener of a four-game set at AT&T Park. It took the hard-th

<< ChiSox win ninth straight, edge Twins
Minneapolis, MN (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Gordon Beckham hit a solo home run and drove in two as the Chicago White Sox took an 8-7 win over the Minnesota Twins to begin the second half of the season. Juan Pierre went 3-for-4 with an RBI and tw

Line of Scrimmage: NFL GameChangers '10: Running Backs >>
Philadelphia, PA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - In addition to being three people who have never been in my kitchen, former NFL running backs Troy Hambrick, Greg Hill, and Neal Anderson all share another important commonality - they all followed legends.

Redick stays in Orlando >>
Orlando, FL (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Magic have matched the Chicago Bulls' offer sheet for J.J. Redick, meaning the shooting guard will remain in Orlando for the foreseeable future. The Bulls had given Redick, a restricted free agent, a r

Closing birdie saves Mickelson >>
St. Andrews, Scotland (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - With the wind picking up, the cut line will likely climb through Friday afternoon, and possibly into Saturday morning, at the British Open. Phil Mickelson birdied the 18th hole Friday to post

Tigers, Scherzer open set with Indians >>
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Max Scherzer goes after his fifth straight winning decision this evening when the Detroit Tigers start the second half of their season in the first test of a four-game set against the Cleveland Indians at Progressive Field.

Reds, Rockies get second half started in Cincinnati >>
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Two potential National League playoff teams square off tonight when the Cincinnati Reds host the Colorado Rockies in the opening contest of a three-game weekend series at Great American Ball Park. The Reds enter the season

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.

To visit this sports book go to MySportsbook.com for all your football betting needs.