Golf Tidbits: Too little, too late for PGA Tour?

Golf Betting Lines

09/02/2010 - Philadelphia, PA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - A week after Jim Furyk overslept and missed his pro-am tee time, the PGA Tour suspended its own rule that disqualifies a player for missing a pro-am.

But has the damage been done? Furyk would probably argue that it has.

We have all been there before. You wake up a few minutes after a final started, or 10 minutes before a job interview, or five minutes before you are supposed to be at work and the office is 20 minutes away.

It happened to Furyk last week. He was doomed by a dead cell phone battery and woke up less than 10 minutes before his scheduled pro-am tee time.

Furyk raced to the course and got there no more than five minutes after he was scheduled to tee off, but was deemed to have missed his tee time and disqualified.

"I overslept. I always use my phone as an alarm and it had no power this morning," Furyk explained.

After plenty of criticism over Furyk's disqualification, PGA Tour commissioner Tim Finchem suspended the rule for the remainder of the year. The rule that says players must compete in the pro-am to play in the tournament was originally put into place so that players couldn't just skip the pro-am for no reason.

But, as Phil Mickelson pointed out, the rule applies to only some of those entered in each week's tournament.

"The rule itself applies to only half the field. So if you're going to have a rule that does not apply to everybody, because not everybody played the pro- am, you cannot have it affect the competition," explained Mickelson. "It's got to be a different penalty. It can't be disqualification if it only applies to half the field.

"I cannot disagree with it more. I have no idea how the commissioner let this rule go through. It's ridiculous. I made my viewpoint very clear to him."

Strong words from the No. 2-ranked golfer in the world, who previously had a run-in with this rule himself. In 2007, Mickelson was stuck in Arkansas due to heavy rain and flooding. The airports around him were closed and he was unable to get to Texas for his pro-am tee time.

The tour made an accommodation for that, but if you're 10 minutes away catching some extra shut-eye as Furyk was, no dice. Not only are you out of the pro-am, you are disqualified from the tournament.

Furyk has made nearly $50 million in his career on the course. Being kicked out of an event with a $1.35 million first-place paycheck might not be a big deal for him. At the same time, missing the tournament did drop Furyk from third to eighth in the FedExCup playoff points standings. Entering this week's second playoff event, the Deutsche Bank Championship, Furyk is 2,246 points behind points-leader Matt Kuchar. If the disqualification ends up costing Furyk the top spot at the end of the FedExCup points race, there will be even more consternation, not least due to the $10 million first-place paycheck that comes with winning the trophy.

To his credit, Finchem heard the complaints and responded quickly. In a statement on Tuesday, Finchem called for the Player Advisory Council to evaluate the current pro-am regulations.

"Hereafter, should a player be late for his pro-am starting time, the situation will be handled as a matter of unbecoming conduct," said the commissioner's statement. "Such player will be required to participate in the remainder of the pro-am round and may be required to perform additional sponsor activity. A player who misses his pro-am obligation in its entirety will still be ruled ineligible for the tournament unless he has been excused in accordance with the provisions of the regulations."

The players realize the importance of the pro-ams. They get paired with three players that forked over a nice chunk of change - $8,500 or more in some cases - to have the chance to compete alongside the best players in the world.

No one ever knows what opportunities could arise from these pro-ams. There's a chance that a tour player could find a new sponsor for himself through a pro- am.

Mickelson had this one right. If the rule only applies to half the field, change it or get rid of it.

GOLF EN FUEGO

I've been golfing for nearly 25 years and have caddied for over 10. Suffice it to say, I've seen a lot of things on a golf course.

However, one thing happened last week that most people have never seen before. A golfer at Shady Canyon Golf Course in Irvine, Cal. sparked a fire with a single swing.

The poor soul has remained nameless, and who would want to be connected with that? Said player was hitting a shot out of the rough and clipped a rock with his swing.

The golf club/rock connection created a spark which lit the rough on fire.

Nearly 150 firefighters and 12 burned acres later, the fire was finally extinguished.

Who knows, maybe someone yelled 'Noonan' while the guy was swinging. Though in this case, he didn't hit his ball into the lumber yard - he burned it down.

MINI-TIDBITS

- At one point in his career, Matt Kuchar had just 10 top-10s in 149 starts. This year, he has 10 top-10s in 22 starts. He should be under consideration for PGA Tour player of the year.

- People always talk about golf being a gentlemen's sport which polices itself. Junior golfers are taught the rules growing up, and start policing themselves at a young age. Zach Nash, a 14-year-old in Wisconsin, disqualified himself after winning a recent tournament because he had too many clubs in his bag. He realized the mistake after the tournament and turned in his winning medal. He could have gotten away with it, but showed maturity beyond his years in giving up the victory.

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Online Sportsbook Football Betting

LaDainian Tomlinson Favorite to be 2007 NFL MVP

With the first NFL preseason game less than two weeks away, it is time to start thinking about football once again at MySportsbook.com. Reigning NFL MVP LaDainian Tomlinson is currently the 5-1 co-favorite to win the award again alongside Super Bowl MVP Peyton Manning.

This shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone after his all out assault on the record books last season. For those suffering from amnesia or were under a rock last football season, all L.T. did last season was set the NFL record for rushing touchdowns (28), total touchdowns (31) and total points scored (186) to go along with his 1815 rushing yards and 508 receiving yards. At 6-1, Tom Brady is next in line which isn’t surprising considering all of the firepower the Pats added over the off-season. With the addition of Randy Moss, Donte Stallworth and Wes Welker; it would be quite difficult for Brady’s numbers not to improve from last years 3529 yards and 24 touchdowns. There appears to be some decent value in Drew Bees at 10-1 considering he probably would have won the award last year if it wasn’t for L.T.’s record breaking season.

There is no reason to think the Saints will come back to earth this season and playing in a weak NFC, they should have as good a shot as any to represent the NFC in the Super Bowl. At 15-1, Donovan McNabb could also be worth a look. Remember, many felt he was the MVP of the first half of the season before going down with a season ending injury. Reportedly, he is in great shape and well ahead of schedule to return to form. Also, he could have some added motivation to put up big numbers this season with the Eagles using their first pick in the draft on McNabb’s future successor Kevin Kolb.

Be sure to log on to MySportsbook.com to check out the complete odds for NFL MVP as well as all of the new football related futures. With the popularity of NFL futures, these betting lines will be sure to change as the money comes in; get the early sports lines now.

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Numerous College Basketball teams take final big step to March Madness betting

So, what turned on the lock spigot? Well, after what felt like weeks of teams treading water and slipping back into the bubble muck, a bunch of them finally decided to say "to heck with parity" and won games that should put them into the Big Dance.

Disagree with some of these? Then here's the challenge. Take all of the "should be ins" and make a legit case that each should be ahead of the team that's a lock. Then find 10 more teams that also should be placed in the bracket ahead of that lock team. Not so easy, is it?

If you want more evidence that these locks should be good to go, check out what our research department dug up. Since the NCAA Tournament went to 64 teams in 1985, only six teams from a "big six" conference have had a record of 10-6 or better in conference play and not been selected: Colorado (2004) and Nebraska (1999) from the Big 12, Boston College and Seton Hall (both 2003) from the Big East, Indiana (2005) from the Big Ten and UCLA, which somehow went 12-6 in the Pac-10 in 1988 and still missed out. (Note: Five teams went 11-7 and didn't get in, the latest being last season's Stanford team, which had a brutal nonconference run.)

Yes, 10 conference wins doesn't always mean what it used to because of unbalanced schedules, but this season, it should be plenty good in all but the extreme cases (see: Iowa).

In a way, this is a welcome development, because this is a bubble watch, not a lock watch. We can finally be done with teams like Maryland and Virginia Tech and start really bearing down on at-large battles such as Syracuse-West Virginia and Appalachian State-Georgia Tech.

Interestingly, all the shifting of teams into lock status appears to be more administrative than impactful. The number of remaining available at-larges didn't change one iota. The only difference is that teams on the bubble now have a clearer idea of which team(s) they are competing with for those precious bids.

The Bubble Breakdown
CONFERENCE LOCKS SHOULD BE INS AT-LARGES TAKEN
(assuming no auto bid outlier)
ACC Betting Odds 6 0 5
Big East Betting Odds 5 0 4
Big Ten Betting Odds 2 2 3
Big 12 Betting Odds 3 0 2
Pac-10 Betting Odds 5 1 5
SEC Betting Odds 4 0 3
MVC Betting Odds 1 1 1
MWC Betting Odds 2 1 2
TOTAL 28 5 25

As always, I've tried to be as inclusive as possible while only including teams that would have a reasonable chance of at least being discussed if this were Selection Sunday. If your team's not on here, there's probably a good reason (or three) -- start with the RPI and SOS numbers and work your way down.

(Please remember, per selection committee criteria, that records displayed are Division I only. Next update: Feb. 28)

If you have a legitimate grievance, or just like talking bubble, send an e-mail. Polite ones with fact-based arguments have a much better chance of receiving a response. I apologize in advance if I can't get back to all of you.

Atlantic Coast Conference

Work left to do: Clemson, Florida State, Georgia Tech

The ACC moves to six locks as BC, Va Tech and Virginia all got their 10th ACC wins, which should be more than enough this season, and Maryland rallied past North Carolina to get the final piece the Terps needed. After that? It could end there unless FSU, Ga Tech or Clemson picks things up in a hurry.

 

Work left to do:

Clemson [19-9 (5-9), RPI: 41, SOS: 42] The Tigers are closer to locking up the collapse of the year award (in a good battle with OK State) than they are to grabbing an at-large. Clemson's been very competitive, but there's no really positive way you can spin nine losses in 11 games. They now cannot get to .500 in ACC play and still must head to Virginia Tech in the season finale (after hosting Miami). Unless the Tigers win both and/or do some serious work in the ACC tourney, they very well could be left out. There are no great nonconference wins, but ODU, App State, Miss. State, South Carolina and Georgia are all respectable W's.

Florida State [18-11 (6-9), RPI: 48, SOS: 14] The Noles got thrashed at Maryland to run their losing streak to five, but then pounded NC State at home to set the table for what likely is an elimination game at Miami. You can at least make a case for the Seminoles at 7-9 in ACC play (and some work in the ACC tourney), but 6-10 is not going to cut it. Wins at Duke and over Florida will resonate, but the computer numbers remain questionable. Beyond Florida, FSU thrashed bubble buddy Providence, but there's not a ton beyond those two games that will help. They didn't show well in big-time opportunities against Pitt and Wisconsin (before the Florida win).

Georgia Tech [18-10 (6-8), RPI: 51, SOS: 46] The Jackets beat Wake on Wednesday but couldn't get it done at UVa on Saturday, which could be a crucial loss with UNC and BC (both at home) remaining and 8-8 almost a certain need for at-large consideration. A nonconference win over Memphis helps, but the RPI and SOS are not at-large quality right now; if you combine those with a sub-.500 ACC mark, that could spell NIT for GT.

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