Tee Ball Leaves Lead For Par-five

Golf Betting Lines

"I got off to a bad start, but regrouped with that birdie on No. 4, " Armour admitted. "I didn't drive it well on the back nine."

 

The two-time Nationwide Tour winner parred his next four holes. Down the stretch, he turned it on. Bowden birdied the par-four 15th from 18 feet out and made it two straight as he drained an improbable 80-foot putt at 16.

 

"I've been playing good golf all year long, but I'm surprised to be in the picture. Realistically, I thought I had no shot after the first round," Bowden said of his opening 70.

 

"I came into this week without any expectations at all," admitted Bowden. "After the first day, I thought it would be an absolute moral victory to just make the cut. I have no expectations tomorrow. I'll just go out, have fun and think about my daughter."

 

Grand Blanc, MI (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Tiger Woods posted his third consecutive round of six-under-par 66 on Saturday to move two clear of the field after three rounds of the Buick Open. He stands at 18-under-par 198 at Warwick Hills Country Club. If Woods heads into the winner's circle (he has won 35 out of 38 times on the PGA Tour with at least a share of the 54-hole lead), he will collect PGA Tour victory No. 50. He would become the seventh man to accomplish the feat, but would be the youngest to do it at the age of 30.

 

Standing in Woods' way on Sunday will be Scott Verplank, Lucas Glover and Robert Allenby, all of whom shot 66s on Saturday and are knotted at 16-under- par 200.

 

As if trying to catch Woods on Sunday wasn't a difficult enough task, Verplank and Glover have other things on their mind. Both are outside the top-10 on the United States Ryder Cup points list with only three weeks remaining to automatically qualify.

 

Some players finished their second rounds on Saturday morning. Play has finally caught up as Thursday's action was called early due to inclement weather and unplayable course conditions.

 

When Taylor, who is 11th on the American Ryder Cup points list, three-putted the 17th green for a bogey, Woods tapped in a short birdie putt at 10 to draw even.

 

He parred that hole and 15, where he hit a nine-iron from 175 yards out. Woods pulled another outrageous club at the par-five 16th, when he roped a four- iron from 248 yards to 30 feet. His eagle putt came up well short, but Woods converted the five-footer for birdie and the outright lead.

 

Woods made his way to the par-three 17th tee and a "Let's go Tiger!" chant broke out, forcing a smile to Woods' face. His six-iron tee ball came up 20 feet short, but he missed the putt.

 

"You can't sit around and make a bunch of pars," said Woods, who won this title in 2002. "I made some nice putts and basically just stayed out of trouble."

Earthilnk Golf Betting Blog

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FOOTBALL BETTING : Crabtree's base deal: six years, $32 million

Football Betting

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.

NFL Betting Lines

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