10/26/2008 - Scottsdale, AZ (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Cameron Beckman parred the second playoff hole Sunday to defeat Kevin Sutherland and win the Frys.com Open at Grayhawk Golf Club.
The second playoff hole was the difficult 17th at Grayhawk and both players landed in the short grass of the tee.
Sutherland played first and hit a terrible shot right of the green. The ball bounced along a cart path and left Sutherland with a nearly impossible pitch to the green.
Beckman hit a spectacular approach right of the putting surface, but the ball took the hill down within seven feet of the stick.
Sutherland hit as good a chip as he could, but the ball ran through the green. Knowing Beckman was in great shape to at lest two-putt for par, Sutherland tried to hole his chip, but could not.
Beckman rolled his birdie putt past the hole, but stepped up and converted the par save for his second PGA Tour victory.
What helped even more was that Beckman was headed to his 11th appearance at Q School, but now is going to Hawaii to start next year at the Mercedes-Benz Championship armed with a two-year exemption.
"I can hardly even see straight," said Beckman, whose other victory came in Mississippi in 2001. "I've been there before and I can't wait to go back."
Beckman fired a seven-under 63 on Sunday and Sutherland had a four-under 66. The pair finished regulation tied at 18-under 262.
On the first playoff hole, both players found the fairway off the tee and had similar lengths into the green. Sutherland's approach stopped nine feet past the stick, while Beckman's came up close to 30 feet short.
Beckman ran his almost five feet past the hole, opening the door for Sutherland. He appeared to rush his stroke a bit and Sutherland's birdie putt for the win never threatened the hole. Sutherland tapped in for par, then Beckman made the gutsy par save to move to the 17th for the second extra hole.
Then it was an errant shot by Sutherland and an accurate one by Beckman that gave Beckman the title and the $900,000 first-place prize.
"I just had the go-for-it attitude," said Sutherland. "I was trying to take down the pins and make some putts. My putter kept me in it. I'm just ecstatic."
Mathew Goggin fired a seven-under 63 and missed the playoff by a single stroke. The Aussie finished the championship at 17-under 263.
Defending champion Mike Weir challenged to be repeat winner, but came up short. The former Masters champion shot a seven-under 63 and tied for fourth place with J.J. Henry (64) and Arron Oberholser (66) at 14-under 266.
Sutherland appeared to have the tournament in control after three consecutive birdies from the sixth, two of which were inside 10 feet. After a 20-footer for birdie at eight, Sutherland was three ahead of the field.
Beckman lurked, although he was only one-under on his round through eight holes. He rattled off three straight birdies from nine to inch closer, but Sutherland was still in command.
Beckman did narrow the gap to two, but Sutherland extended the margin with a five-foot birdie putt at 12. Beckman got it back down to two with a birdie at 14, then ran home a six-footer for birdie at 15 to get it to one.
Sutherland followed in the next group with a birdie of his own at 15. Beckman holed a 10-foot birdie putt at the par-three 16th and Sutherland could not quite manage birdie at the same hole.
He missed right of the target at 16, but gave himself six feet for par. Sutherland missed the putt and he was now tied with Beckman, who drove into the left rough at 18.
Beckman sank a four-footer to save par at the last, then watched as Sutherland had 13 feet for birdie and the title. Sutherland missed and the two went to a playoff and Beckman got win No. 2.
Pat Perez (63), Michael Sim (64), Steve Allan (69) and Players Champion runner-up Paul Goydos (69) tied for seventh at minus-13.
George McNeill, who was second at the start of Sunday's final round, struggled to a one-over 71 and dropped into a large group tied for 11th place at 12- under 268.
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Las Vegas Sports Consultants (LVSC) is the world’s premier oddsmaking company and the most respected authority on making the lines. Mike Seba is a Senior Oddsmaker at LVSC and has been making lines for the last six years. In our extended interview, Seba explained that there are 4-5 oddsmakers assigned to make lines for each of the major sports (pro & college football and basketball; MLB, NHL, boxing, golf). Each of these oddsmakers bring unique opinions, strengths and weaknesses to the process. Oddsmakers at LVSC are professional sports junkies who love what they do and would probably do it for nothing if you asked them, but they do get paid for it. By necessity their approach is very research-oriented and concise, since with millions of dollars at risk there is little margin for error.
“You either have a passion for it or you don’t,” Seba said.
“The #1 thing for us is to make a line for each game that creates good two-way action. We do this by drawing from past experiences and applying them to current situations. People think it’s much more complicated, but it’s not. “Divided action means the sportsbook is guaranteed a profit on the game because of the fee charged to the bettor (called juice or vig – typically $11 bet to win $10).
Power ratings are the oddsmaker’s value of each team and are used as a guide to calculate a "preliminary" pointspread on an upcoming game. The power ratings are adjusted after each game a team plays. Examples of non-game factors that would require an adjustment to a team's power rating are key player injuries and player trades.
Once a game’s power rating based pointspread is determined, the oddsmaker will make adjustments to that line after considering each team's most recent games played and previous games played against that opponent. Also, adjustments are made after reading each team’s local newspapers to get a sense of what the coaches & players are thinking going into the game.Since the oddsmaker’s ultimate goal is equally dividing the sports betting action, public perception and sportsbook betting patterns must be taken into account. For example, the public might have heavy betting interest week after week on a popular college football betting team such as USC. If an oddsmaker comes up with a preliminary line of USC -7, then an adjustment up to -7.5 or -8 would be made in response to the public’s expected USC bias.
The last step in the line-making process for each oddsmaker is taking one final look to determine whether or not the line "feels right." This is where common sense and past experience with how games are bet enters into the picture.A round-table discussion among the 4-5 oddsmakers involved in making the line for each sport is then conducted and a consensus line is decided upon by the Odds Director before it is released to the sportsbooks. Of the 4-5 oddsmakers, generally the 2 most respected opinions are weighed more heavily by the Odds Director before he decides on the final line.
Experts working for the individual books having a strong opinion on the game
Individual books having players who consistently bet with certain tendencies (such as an extreme bias toward favorites or toward a certain popular team like USC)The purpose of these adjustments, like all line adjustments, is to more equally divide the betting action.
Once betting begins, sportsbooks can adjust the line at any time. In doing so they attempt to make more attractive the team that is getting less action. By moving the line, sportsbooks can influence how the public bets on a particular game.For example, if the pointspread on a game is 7 and most of the money is coming in on the underdog (taking the +7), sportsbooks will then move the number down to 6 ½ to try and attract money on the favorite.
Moving the line is the oddsmaker's effort to balance betting action, and often times such moves can have a major impact on a bettor’s decision. Oddsmakers can also change the line depending on various event-related factors such as player injuries or weather. Obviously, if the line comes out a week ahead of the event (which is the case in football), there is much that could happen during the week leading up to the event that could affect the line. Oddsmakers have to determine if any changes are necessary and send out an "adjusted line."“The main objective is that our clients get equal action on both sides,” Seba said. “We’re not trying to pick the team that covers the spread, we’re trying to make it a coin flip, a tough decision (for the bettor). If we’ve done that, we’ve done our job.”
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