Woods, Mickelson finish well back at St. Andrews

Golf Betting Lines

07/18/2010 - St. Andrews, Scotland (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The top two players in the world were unable to make a charge Sunday at the British Open.

Tiger Woods, a three-time Open champion, could only muster an even-par 72 in the final round Sunday. He finished the championship at three-under-par 285.

World No. 2 Phil Mickelson could have passed Woods in the world rankings with a win this week, but only broke par in two of the four rounds. He stumbled to a three-over 75 Sunday to finish at one-over-par 289.

Leader Louis Oosthuizen is 17-under par.

Both top players have been inconsistent of late.

Woods returned from his neck injury at the Memorial Tournament. Though he shared fourth with Mickelson at the U.S. Open, Woods was a non-factor in his other two events, the Memorial and the AT&T National.

Mickelson, who won the Masters back in April, has three top-five finishes since Augusta, including one at the U.S. Open, but he also missed a pair of cuts.

Woods, who had won the last two Opens at St. Andrews, got off to a quick start with birdies on one and two, but gave both those strokes back with a double- bogey on the fourth after he left a shot in a bunker.

At the seventh, Woods found more sand and that led to another double-bogey. Woods birdied the ninth for the fourth straight day.

He got back to even-par for his round with a birdie at the 12th. Woods then bogeyed the 13th for the third day in a row, but closed with a birdie at the last.

Mickelson birdied the third and fifth to move to minus-four. After six straight pars, his round fell apart.

He stumbled to a bogey on the 12th, then bogeyed the par-five 14th. Mickelson faltered to a double-bogey at the 16th for the second straight day. That dropped him back to even-par for the championship.

Mickelson bogeyed the Road Hole, No. 17, for the third consecutive day. He parred the last to end at plus-one.

The struggle for Mickelson was nothing new at this championship. He owns just one top-10 finish in his 17 British Open starts.

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Betting Football

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Is there such a thing as a trap game in the NFL?

I once asked that question to Pete Korner, who at the time was office manager and a senior linesmaker for Las Vegas Sports Consultants.

Korner almost ripped my head off. There is no such thing as a trap game, he loudly berated me. It’s a myth. The numbers are made using power ratings, he said.

There are trap games, though. They just might not be what you think. The perception is of a good team, say Philadelphia, laying a small number against New Orleans.

Using the highly-respected power ranking from The Gold Sheet, you’d find the Eagles with a power rating of 4 and the Saints at 8. When you factor the game being played in New Orleans, you could see why the line opened so short at less than a field goal.

For some, this makes it enticing to take the Eagles. That’s not a real trap game, though.

A real trap game, says professional gambler Dave Malinsky, is thinking you’re getting value betting a bad team, which brings us to the Oakland Raiders-Denver Broncos matchup.

The Raiders are +15 in this long-standing division rivalry. Denver is on a short week having dispatched Baltimore Monday. However, the Raiders haven’t covered the spread their last 10 games.

Many bettors don’t trust the Raiders to give a full effort. Few think much of Art Shell and his Oakland’s coaching staff.

So oddsmakers have to do something to make Oakland attractive if they hope to get equal action.

Now Malinsky is a value shopper. But he won’t touch the Raiders even getting more than two touchdowns.

“I try to eliminate the undisciplined, unfocused teams because they’re the ones most likely to suffer the bad beats,” he said.

Near the top of Malinsky’s list of stay-away teams is the Miami Dolphins, who have yet to cover a spread this season.

“Whatever you think of Nick Saban, you have to look at the penalties and turnovers,” Malinsky said.

It’s easy to point out the Dolphins failed to get the money this past week against New England because Olindo Mare missed a field goal and had another field goal blocked. But even though the Dolphins outgained the Patriots, 283-213, they committed eight penalties.

Bad teams not only cost themselves victories, but pointspread covers as well. The Arizona Cardinals and Green Bay Packers are two more examples.

The Cardinals couldn’t have been in a better position this past Sunday, up 14-0 at home against a mediocre Kansas City Chiefs squad. But they couldn’t hold it. The Packers got a push against St. Louis, but also could have won losing by three when Brett Favre fumbled at the St. Louis 11-yard line with 44 seconds left.

“The Packers were in a position to beat Philadelphia, too,” Malinsky said. “But they couldn’t even cover double digits.

“These teams just make mistakes and it costs you … they always will look good from a value standpoint. They really will. But that’s the trap.”

Houston and Tennessee rank among the six-worst teams. Malinsky wouldn’t be afraid to take either of these teams, however, if the price were high enough.

The Texans are bad, Malinsky said, but they have some discipline. The Titans showed they could not only come up with an outstanding game plan, but execute it as well, losing by one to the Colts on the road as an 18 ?-point underdog this past Sunday.

“Jeff Fisher is a worker,” Malinsky said of the Titans coach. “I’m not sure how hard Art Shell wants to work when he gets out of bed.”

Fisher, though, could be out as Tennessee coach after this season. Is he still worth backing in the right spot, with the right price, as a lame duck coach?

“It’s in his nature to keep working hard and not worry about any possible lame duck status,” Malinsky said. “He’s coaching for his resume.”

Note: Monday night game will be picked Monday. Lines used are from football betting lines.