Kim's record 62 leads AT&T National
Golf Betting Lines
07/02/2009 - Bethesda, MD (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Defending champion Anthony Kim set the course record with an eight-under 62 at Congressional, taking the first-round lead Thursday at the AT&T National.
Tiger Woods, the tournament host, shot a six-under 64 to share second place with D.A. Points and Bryce Molder. Australia's Steve Elkington had a 65, while Jim Furyk led a three-way tie at 66.
Kim, who made it around the 7,200-yard course without a bogey, collected six birdies on his last nine holes to best the old scoring record of 63 set by Tom Pernice, Jr. and Peter Lonard last year.
In terms of birdies, it was the kind of success the 24-year-old Kim hasn't approached since he set the 18-hole birdie record at the Masters by making 11 of them in the second round.
"I'd like to say it was just me playing fantastic golf, but I got a couple good breaks along the way," said Kim, who also set a personal scoring record on the PGA Tour.
Kim made his eight birdies before Woods even hit the course to play his first competitive round at Congressional since 2007. That was the year Woods founded the Fourth of July Weekend tournament that benefits his foundation and pays tribute to members of the U.S. Armed Forces.
Woods missed last year's AT&T National after having season-ending left knee surgery following his U.S. Open victory.
He made about 150 feet worth of putts Thursday while shooting his best score since also posting a 64 in the second round of the 2007 Deutsche Bank Championship, which took place in September of that year.
Although Woods has routinely blamed his putting for his sometimes sporadic play this season, he seemed confident with the flat stick on Congressional's soon-to-be replaced greens.
"Today I hit a lot of putts on-line," he said. "Some went in."
Playing catch-up all day, he made four birdies and was bogey-free until hitting into a bunker at the 11th hole. Woods rebounded with a 31-foot birdie putt at the 12th -- this after he cursed his drive, which went into the right rough.
He made back-to-back birdies at the 15th and 16th, holing a 12-footer on the latter to climb within two shots of Kim's lead.
Overnight rains turned Congressional into a shooting gallery, and 36 players in a field of 119 shot under-par in the first round.
"The golf course could be had," said Woods. "You could be aggressive, you could fire at the flags and the only thing you really had to worry about is spinning the ball back too much."
Kim focused on hitting quality shots and also found the course ripe for scoring, although he took some time to explain the ways he got lucky during the first round.
Unsure of the wind at No. 3 -- his 12th hole -- Kim fired a drive that was headed 10 or 15 yards right of the fairway. The ball kicked left, saving him from a lie behind a tree, and he made a birdie.
On the next hole, Kim's drive was so far right that it missed the trees altogether, leaving him with a clear shot at the green. He made a seven-foot birdie putt there, then completed a run of three birdies in a row at No. 5.
"This golf course fits my eye, and when I hit it wide I seem to get lucky out here," Kim said. "This is one of the very few courses I feel like I get lucky at. I love coming back to a course I have good feelings about, and obviously playing well last year helped. But this course does fit my eye, and I'm starting to see the break on these greens pretty well."
Kim added birdies at the seventh and eighth holes, rolling in a seven-foot putt for the last one.
Saddled with high expectations since he won twice in 2008, and battling a nagging thumb injury, Kim has struggled to crack the top 10 this season. He hasn't done it since tying for second place behind Geoff Ogilvy at the Mercedes-Benz Championship in January, the PGA Tour's season-opener.
But Kim has finally gotten some strength back in his injured thumb, helping him to re-adjust his backswing, and he said his goal now is to win major championships.
Congressional, set to host the 2011 U.S. Open, is a good place to practice.
"I'm starting to focus on my course management because I know at majors that's what's important," said Kim, who tied for 16th at last month's U.S. Open. "This is a major championship type of golf course, obviously, because in two years we'll be here for the Open. I just know that if I'm working on the right things, it's going to pay off, whether it's tomorrow, Saturday, Sunday or next week."
The United States Golf Associations will begin its preparations for the '11 Open next week, when the Congressional greens are scheduled to be ripped up and the soil underneath them replaced.
Woods' tournament will move to the Philadelphia area the next two years to Aronimink Golf Club.
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Munich, Germany (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Chelsea and Manchester United appear to have
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FOOTBALL BETTING : Crabtree's base deal: six years, $32 million
In the wake of the news that the 49ers have signed receiver Michael Crabtree after an extended holdout, there has been not a hint of the dollars to be paid to Crabtree.
And since this means that his agent hasn't leaked the numbers, it means that his agent feels no specific motivation to do so.
Possibly because his agent isn't all that thrilled to have his name on the deal.
So the numbers will come from sources other than Crabtree's agent. And we've gotten our mitts into them.
Per a league source, Crabtree has signed a six-year, $32 million contract. (The total includes guaranteed money, base salaries, and the one-time incentive based on achieving minimum playing time.)
The deal also includes $17 million in guaranteed money.
As reported elsewhere, the deal can void to five years based on performance triggers, wiping out a final year base salary of $4 million. But they won't be easily reached.
The source tells us that, in his first four seasons (including 2009), Crabtree must either qualify for two Pro Bowls, or he must qualify for one Pro Bowl in one year and he must participate in 80 percent of the offensive snaps in a separate year in which the team makes the playoffs.
In other words, if in 2010 he qualifies for the Pro Bowl and the team makes the playoffs and he participates in 80 percent of the snaps, he'll still need to make it to the Pro Bowl or achieve the 80-percent/playoffs in another season.
Since the chances of Crabtree making the Pro Bowl or participating in 80 percent of the offensive snaps this year is roughly zero percent, he'll have three years to get it done.
And it won't be easy. Frankly, he'll be hard pressed to make it to one Pro Bowl in three years with the likes of Larry Fitzgerald, Calvin Johnson, Anquan Boldin, Steve Smith, the other Steve Smith, Hakeem Nicks, DeSean Jackson, Johnny Knox, Percy Harvin, Greg Jennings, Roddy White, T.J. Houshmandzadeh in the same conference for sportsbook betting.
So, by all appearances, it's a six-year deal. And at $17 million in guaranteed money, the per-year guarantee is a tepid $2.83 million per year.
There's another problem with the deal -- it has no mid-tier incentive package. Instead, the additional $8 million that Crabtree can earn (pushing the max value to six years, $40 million) requires the kind of unrealistic, mega-star performances that no rookie is likely to ever achieve.
So while the contract paid to Packers defensive tackle B.J. Raji covers five years and pays $22.5 million, he has the ability (if he's a solid player) to make up the difference between his base deal and Crabtree's five-year, $28 million haul via the mid-tier incentive package in Raji's deal.
And unless Crabtree meets the performance thresholds necessary to void the sixth year, he'll be stuck under contract for another year at a base salary of only $4 million.
There's one other area of concern with the deal. Crabtree, per the source, received no option bonus. Instead, he has significant money tied to a fairly new device known as a "discretionary salary advance," which unlike an opition bonus is subject to forfeiture if Crabtree decides in a year or two that he wants to hold out for a better deal. (We're also told that the 49ers have included language that would make certain escalators subject to forfeiture, too.)
Meanwhile, the deal falls well short of the mark for which Crabtree and agent Eugene Parker were aiming -- the five-year, $38.25 million contract paid by the Raiders to receiver Darrius Heyward-Bey, the seventh overall pick in the draft.
Even if Crabtree successfully voids the final year, he'll make more than $2 million per year less on average than Heyward-Bey.
Thus, as we explained earlier in the day, this is a deal that Crabtree could have done in July, which would have given him a much better chance of making a contribution to the 49ers during his rookie year.
So while the final outcome can be described as win-win, the broader view suggests that it's really a lose-lose situation.
To visit this sportsbook go to MySportsbook.com for all your college football betting needs.
MySportsbook.com: NBA Championship Odds
With the playoffs about two months away, the top two teams in the Western Conference are the clear cut leaders to win the NBA Championship. The Dallas Mavericks have the best record in the NBA (44-9) and have been absolutely scorching since the second week of the season. What makes the Mavs’ record more impressive is the fact that they dropped their first four games of the season. Currently they have won 17 out of their last 18 and are MySportsbook.com’s favorite (2-1) to win it all. Right behind the Mavs are the Pacific leading Phoenix Suns (39-13). Last season, the Suns lost in the Conference Finals to non-other then the Mavericks four games to two. Of course the Suns were without center Amare Stoudemire who has is averaging 19.9 PPG and 9.5 RPG since coming back from his knee injury. Unlike the Mavs, the Suns have struggled a bit lately having lost their last three and four out of their last seven. Of course the main reason for their three straight loses is due to the absence of two time MVP Steve Nash, who is out with a shoulder injury. Heads-up, the Mavs have beaten the Suns in both of their meetings this season.
In the Eastern Conference, the Pistons (32-19) are the favorites to win it all at 6-1. The addition of Chris Webber seems to have been a good move for the Pistons. Since coming over from the 76ers, Webber has averaged 13.1 PPG and 7.3 RPG and the Pistons are 11-4. Even though the defending champion Heat are currently on the playoff making cusp, they are the Eastern Conference team that is getting the most action to win it all (9-1). The fact that Shaquille O’Neal is back in the starting lineup after missing 39 games probably has something to do with this. No doubt, Shaq makes a difference when in the lineup as their winning six out of their last seven would indicate.
Just because it is the All-Star break doesn’t mean that you can’t bet on NBA hoops this weekend. Be sure to log onto MySportsbook.com to bet on who you think will cut down the nets this July. Also, be sure to check out all of the lines and props for All-Star weekend. With the highest credit card acceptance rate in the industry, there are plenty of ways to cash in on the NBA this weekend.
MySportsbook.com’s NBA Championship odds:
Atlanta Hawks 1000-1
Boston Celtics 5000-1
Charlotte Bobcats 5000-1
Chicago Bulls 20-1
Cleveland Cavaliers 20-1
Dallas Mavericks 2-1
Denver Nuggets 25-1
Detroit Pistons 6-1
Golden State Warriors 250-1
Houston Rockets 12-1
Indiana Pacers 60-1
Los Angeles Clippers 45-1
Memphis Grizzlies 5000-1
Miami Heat 9-1
Milwaukee Bucks 1000-1
Minnesota T-Wolves 200-1
New Jersey Nets 50-1
New Orleans Hornets 150-1
New York Knicks 150-1
Orlando Magic 75-1
Philadelphia 76ers 1000-1
Phoenix Suns 5-2
Portland TrailBlazers 1000-1
Sacramento Kings 250-1
San Antonio Spurs 9-1
Seattle Sonics 5000-1
Toronto Raptors 35-1
Utah Jazz 20-1
Washington Wizards 25-1
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