11/06/2008 - Philadelphia, PA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The European Tour kicked off its 2009 season this week, and thus began the inaugural Race to Dubai.
The PGA Tour has the FedEx Cup, and now the European Tour has responded with the Race to Dubai. The Race uses the same formula as the FedEx Cup, with players being ranked according to their earnings for all 2009 European Tour events.
The Race will culminate with the $10 million Dubai World Championship, which includes the top 60 players in the Race. Along with the $10 million purse for that season-ending event, the top 15 players will split a bonus pool of another $10 million.
With that amount of money on the line, one wonders how many players will consider playing full-time on both the PGA and European Tours.
Top players on the European Tour such as Ernie Els, Retief Goosen, Padraig Harrington, Justin Rose and Lee Westwood already compete regularly on the PGA Tour, and other Tour regulars figure to start crossing the pond as well. Anthony Kim, who played in 22 PGA Tour events in 2008, has already committed to playing full-time on both tours for the '09 season.
Players like Kim will be aided in playing full schedules on both tours by the four major championships and three World Golf Championship events. Those seven tournaments count towards both tours, and would get players nearly halfway to the 15 events needed to be a full-time PGA Tour or European Tour player.
In 2008, Kim played five European Tour events including one regular tour event, one World Golf Championship event and three majors. He is eligible for all four majors next year as well as the three World Golf Championship events, and will therefore need to squeeze in seven regular season events to reach the 15 tournament minimum after this week.
Kim and Phil Mickelson, who has decided against joining the European Tour this season but may in the future, are in China this week to kick off the tour's 2009 campaign with the HSBC Champions.
Though he has not set his schedule yet, there are four more European Tour events this year that Kim could play in.
Other PGA Tour regulars that could play both tours on a regular basis include Geoff Ogilvy, Aaron Baddeley and Tim Clark. All three have won on the European Tour in the past.
I don't think as many PGA Tour players will go to Europe compared to the amount of European players that come to the U.S., with money ranking as the primary factor. Robert Karlsson just wrapped up the 2008 Order of Merit title on the European Tour with $3,473,000. A pretty impressive total, but if he played on the PGA Tour that number would put him only 11th on the money list.
TIGER POSTS MOST WINS AGAIN
Though he played in just six events this season, Tiger Woods will end the '08 with the most wins on the PGA Tour.
Woods won four times in those six starts. The four wins marks the fewest in a single season for Tiger since the 2004 season, the year he was going through swing changes.
The four wins marks the fewest wins by a wins leader since 1998, when David Duval won four times.
Woods has won fewer than four titles in a season three times. Once was the aforementioned '04 campaign, and the others were in 1998 and 1996. In '96, he turned professional halfway through the season.
Despite only playing in six events, Woods increased his winning percentage with his four '08 titles. Throughout his career, Woods has won just under 29% of his starts.
The winning percentage of the next four active wins leaders -- Phil Mickelson, Vijay Singh, Davis Love III and Ernie Els -- does not combine to equal Woods' winning percentage.
Mickelson and Singh both own 34 PGA Tour wins. Mickelson wins 8.85% of his starts, Singh is at 8.43%, Els owns 16 PGA Tour wins and has won 6.13% of his starts, while Love has won 19 times or 4.2% of his starts.
MINI-TIDBITS
- The European Tour will have two Player of the Year awards starting with the 2009 season. One award will come from golf writers, broadcasters and European Tour officials as it has since 1985. The other award will be selected by a players vote.
- Retief Goosen snapped a 50-event winless streak last week when he won on the Asian Tour. However, his last PGA Tour win was at the 2005 International. His last victory on the European Tour was the at 2007 Qatar Masters, which took place on the final weekend of January.
<< United's Ferguson charged with improper conduct
Manchester, England (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Manchester United boss Sir Alex Ferguson
has been charged with improper conduct by the Football Association.
The charge relates to the veteran manager's behavior at the end of last
weekend's 4-3
<< U.S. women settle for tie against South Korea
Cincinnati, OH (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - United States goalkeepers Nicole Barnhart and
Briana Scurry combined to shutout Korea Republic on Wednesday, helping the U.S.
post a 0-0 tie at Paul Brown Stadium.
The draw was just the third time this year
<< Crew's Marshall named Defender of the Year
Columbus, OH (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Columbus defender Chad Marshall was named Major
League Soccer's Defender of the Year on Thursday, becoming just the second Crew
player to win the award.
Marshall, 24, returned from an injury-plagued 2007 seas
<< Wild continue swing in Colorado
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Minnesota Wild hope for a better defensive effort
tonight, when they continue their four-game road trip with a stop in Colorado
to take on the Avalanche at the Pepsi Center.
The Wild are currently fourth in the league
Iguodala's flailing in Philly >>
Philadelphia, PA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Early returns are not necessarily a
harbinger of the future.
If they were, John Kerry would have been running for reelection on Tuesday and
John McCain would have cried uncle two months ago.
So, we all
Jankovic, Venus land in Championships semis >>
Doha, Qatar (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Reigning No. 1 Jelena Jankovic of Serbia and
former top-ranked star Venus Williams of the United States were a pair of
round-robin winners Thursday at the season-ending $4.55 million Sony Ericsson
Championships
Oilers D Grebeshkov placed on IR >>
Edmonton, AB (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Edmonton Oilers on Thursday placed
defenseman Denis Grebeshkov on injured reserve, retroactive to November 1.
The fourth-year pro has missed the Oilers' last two games, in Philadelphia and
Columbus
Bordeaux's Chamakh eyes future in England >>
Bordeaux, France (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Bordeaux's Moroccan striker Marouane
Chamakh has admitted that he would like to try his luck in England in the
future.
The 24-year-old is out of contract with the French club at the end o
While the NFL is the sport wagered on the heaviest, college football betting lines has become more and more popular as people realize it’s a game that can be beat. The NCAA football season gets longer each year with the addition of numerous bowl games and with that comes more opportunities for more money in your pocket, if handled correctly.
Betting on college football is not the same as with the NFL, so make sure you separate the two. Because of the vast number of teams, the parity between college football programs is slight and thus, you are going to see some high numbers in the NCAA. Teams favored by more than 40 points are not uncommon especially early in the season when teams playing their non-conference schedules.
The best advice when trying to tackle these enormous spreads and is to just stay away. A team that is favored by 40 points is favored by that many for a reason while teams getting 40 points are bad enough that they shouldn’t be touched. Set yourself a spread limit. Getting rid of these games will cut down on the number of contests that you need to handicap while staying away from backdoor or front-door covers.
What is a backdoor and front-door cover you ask? A backdoor cover is a team that is getting beat by more than the spread, but scores late to get within that number thus covering the spread. A front-door cover is just the opposite where the favorite scores late and covers the number they are favored by.
These front-door and backdoor covers are common when second and third string players enter games in college football and it can be the worst nightmare for some bettors. These players can also be your best friend, but ask any bettor and he will give you more instances on losing in this situation than winning. It just seems to work out that way even though everything evens out in the end.
College football betting has some of the softest lines of any sport and it’s being able to find these lines that will make you a successful college football handicapper. The NFL and NBA have the tightest lines around and while those sports can be beat by looking at situations and systems, college football doesn’t quite work that way. It’s much more manual, but when done correctly, it’s much more gratifying as well.
Getting into the nuts and bolts of college football means looking at the many stats in order to beat the number. As opposed to pro football, college football is less dependent on situations and angles and more on certain statistics. Rushing offense and defense, pass efficiency offense and defense and turnover margins are huge. These are vital in the NFL, but even more so when it comes to college football.
Being able to run the ball in college football has always been a key factor in the overall success of a team. The same adage also goes for teams who have the ability to stop the run. Putting these two factors together can produce some positive results in a team’s record both straight up and against the spread. These numbers show huge differences in teams and the spread may not take those into effect, which is where the value comes into play.
Passing yardage numbers both for and against can be a misinterpreted statistic. However, pass efficiency has always been one of the best ways to look at a teams’ passing game ability both offensively and defensively. But is it really a true indication of how they perform? I wouldn’t say so since they are raw passing numbers with nothing else taken into consideration.
I use pass efficiency ratings when doing my handicapping but I adjust my numbers based on a number of factors including power ratings, strength of schedules, personnel and injuries. This gives a much better picture of a team’s ability to pass effectively and also being able to defend the pass. Tweaking pass efficiency stats instead of raw passing yards is the key.
Turnovers are the single most frustrating, and at times the most gratifying, aspect of a college football lines, mostly because they are so unpredictable. They are part of the game and most of the time nothing can be done to control them. However, turnovers are contagious and they can carry over from game to game and season to season.
It’s important to know how to forecast these unforeseen events and how to use them to your advantage. You can find ways to give yourself an edge by looking at past histories of teams and coaches and how they have fared in turnover wars in the past. Instead of turnovers hurting you at the wrong times, find ways to use them to your advantage.
As you can see, college football handicapping is very labor intensive and isn’t just based on where teams are ranked in the AP and coaches polls. Experience, coaching and match-ups are all important since unlike the NFL, college teams turn over much more often with new personnel at most positions every single year. Keeping current on this information is vital.
Betting NCAA football can be lucrative if done correctly, but more importantly, it’s just plain enjoyable because it can be beat. College football is one of the best sports to watch with some of the best rivalries taking place in all of sports. The only downfall is that a championship isn’t decided on the field but on a computer-based system that is the Bowl Championship Series. That will change someday and we will all be better off for it.
To visit this online sportsbook got to MySportsbook.com for all your NCAA college football betting needs. Mysportsbook.com online sportsbook accepts Visa and Mastercard credit cards.
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