Wie aces her way to Canadian Open lead

Golf Betting Lines

08/26/2010 - Winnipeg, MB (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Michelle Wie aced the par-three 11th hole on Thursday en route to a seven-under 65 and the first-round lead of the Canadian Women's Open.

"It was a fun day out there today, it was a good pairing," said Wie. "Just went out there and tried to have fun. Obviously it worked out well for me on 11. But it was pretty cool."

Already three-under on her round, Wie hit a five-iron at the 183-yard, par- three 11th. The ball landed on the putting surface and rolled in for her second ace in tournament action.

"It was the first time I had actually seen it go in in a tournament," admitted Wie. "It was pretty cool. It was surreal. I didn't believe it actually happened.

"They make that sound like it's going to go in and make that noise and everyone's hands go up. It was pretty crazy."

Wie's hole-in-one wasn't her only heroics on Thursday. She holed out from a bunker at the par-four 17th that got her to seven-under par for the championship.

"It just was an uphill lie, uphill to the green, and I just really thought I could make it, and I went up there, really thought about it, just trusted it, and kind of did what I thought it would do," said Wie.

Sarah Kemp posted a four-under 68 and is alone in second place at St. Charles Country Club.

Defending champion Suzann Pettersen, who won this title last year at Priddis Greens Golf & Country Club, carded a three-under 69 and is alone in third place at minus-three.

"It was windy out there today," said Pettersen. "It was a little different wind than the practice rounds and the pro-am, but hit the ball pretty good, made my fair share of putts, and I mean, I think I hit 17 greens, so that was pretty good."

Wind aside, Thursday's story was Wie.

She collected her first birdie at the par-four third and added back-to-back birdies at five and six to get to three-under par.

Wie parred the next four around the turn, then recorded her ace at 11 to take the lead at minus-five. She bogeyed the next hole, but went on another mini- run to grab the lead.

She rattled off back-to-back birdies at the 13th and 14th, both par fives, and found herself two strokes clear at six-under par. Wie's hole-out birdie at 17 padded her cushion, and she took the first-round lead for the first time since her days as an amateur at the 2005 U.S. Women's Open.

"It's been a long time ago. It's pretty cool, you know, but it means nothing, really," said Wie. "Today is over and done with. We still have three more days of the tournament, so I've just really got to focus and try to play better every day."

Jiyai Shin, Jane Park, Meredith Duncan, Pernilla Lindberg, Ilhee Lee, Kristy McPherson, Karen Stupples and Amy Hung are knotted in fourth place at two- under 70.

NOTES: World No. 1 Ai Miyazato struggled to a two-over 74 and is tied for 63rd place...Cristie Kerr, who was No. 1 two weeks ago, was a stroke worse with a three-over 75...Shi Hyun Ahn and Ilmi Chung were disqualified on Thursday.

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Big 12 Conference betting odds

Work left to do: Texas Tech, Oklahoma State, Kansas State

Texas joins Texas A&M and Kansas as locks after getting league win No. 11. Texas Tech greatly helped its own hopes and crippled OK State's with the two-point win Saturday. Is K-State the last reasonable hopeful? Could be an elimination match in Stillwater on Tuesday, at least for the Cowboys.

Work left to do:

Texas Tech [18-11 (7-7), RPI: 44, SOS: 12] A critical two-point win over OK State leaves the Red Raiders with Baylor and at Iowa State left. Get both and the Red Raiders likely are good to go. Get one and there could be some interesting comparisons with a K-State team that could finish two or three games "ahead" of them in the standings but doesn't have any of the quality wins Texas Tech has. Not a lot in nonconference play (against Arkansas in Little Rock being the best win, by far) to lean on.

Oklahoma State [18-9 (5-8), RPI: 50, SOS: 35] Still without a road win, the Cowboys now need to win two on the road just to get to .500 in conference play. It's hard to recall a team (OK, other than Clemson) falling so precipitously from lock status to almost certainly out of the NCAAs at this point. There are wins to be had in the last three, including a very big home game against K-State on Tuesday, but this team is reeling. Can you tell the pressure to win is getting to them with the way the final possession played out at Texas Tech? There are some good nonconference performances to lean on, specifically beating Missouri State and Syracuse on neutral floors and Pitt in OK City, but if the Pokes don't right this very, very soon, that won't be enough.

Kansas State [20-9 (9-5), RPI: 56, SOS: 96] It pays to be in the Big 12 North. The nine league wins are Colorado (twice), Missouri (twice), Iowa State (twice), Baylor, Nebraska and (a good one against) Texas. That helps explain the middling computer profile. The win over USC is nice, but the nonconference leaves a lot to be desired. The game at OK State in Stillwater on Tuesday is huge, as it could KO the Cowboys and leave K-State with a home date against Oklahoma with which to work.


SPORTS BETTING - Tennis is an underrated and under-utilized bettors' sport.

Ten years ago, at just about this time, I called Alan Boston in Vegas and left him a voicemail that went something like this (abridged version): "Hey Alan, Chad Millman from ESPN The Magazine calling. I want to do a book about wise guys, you in?"

A couple weeks later I got a message back (abridged version): "I don't know, maybe," Boston said. "Call me and we'll talk about it. But not later today. I got $1,000 on Andre Agassi to win the French Open at 40-1, and he's in the finals."

Here's what happened next (abridged version): Agassi won his tourney. Boston won his $40,000. I wrote sportsbook.

In the ten years since, how much has been wagered on the big-time tennis events? Put it this way: The Nevada Gaming Commission doesn't even track the number year by year because it's so small.

"Tennis makes up about one-tenth of one percent of our take," says Lucky's bookmaking boss Jimmy Vaccaro. "The last big golf major we probably had $100,000 worth of bets. In tennis, we might have written two big tickets."

Tennis' lack of popularity amongst the American bettoratti is no surprise, really. For starters, the biggest sports betting holidays -- the Super Bowl, the NCAA tourney -- are must see TV. People, at least the degenerates I know, plan vacations around watching those events in Vegas sports books.

But Wimbledon? Doesn't exactly reel in the whales. "Seriously, it's the nuts as an event," says Boston. "But who even knows when it's on?"

Here's another reason that helps explain why golf gets traction, something I call "The Bubbe Theory." My Bubbe is pushing 95 and has cataracts so bad that, to her, even the most crystalline Chicago day is mostly cloudy. But she still listens to the Cubs games, and she still calls me in a fit if she disagrees with something Rick Telander writes in the Chicago Sun Times. She's a sports fan. If she doesn't know you, you're just filling a niche. And niche players, even historically good ones like Roger and Raf, don't drive betting volume. Only the highest profile names attract square money, which inflates wagering totals like a shot of saline to the lips. Bubbe, and the public, loved Agassi, tennis' last cross-the-rubicon, mainstream draw. She also has a crush on Tiger. She's given me standing orders to put a sawbuck on the big cat whenever I walk through a sports book (or mistakenly tap into one via my Internet machine.) That explains why the Masters is getting $100K in action at some books while the four tennis majors might not get that combined this year.

This isn't a case of tennis being a difficult sport to bet. In fact, in Europe, it's probably the second most popular sport for gambling after soccer. Granted, as the WSJ football betting last week and The Mag's Shaun Assael examined in even greater depth last year, that might be because gamblers across the pond see it as an easy game to fix. But it could also be because, over there it holds the kind of sway the big two do over here.

Street corners in Spain are peppered with public courts and kids doing their best Raffy impressions. In some war torn parts of Eastern Europe poverty-stricken kids view tennis as an escape route, like football or basketball here. A couple years ago The Mag's Lindsay Berra wrote a great piece about Belgrade's Jelena Jankovic, Ana Ivanovic and Novak Djokovic. They learned the game as kids while bombs were raining down on their homeland. They practiced in drained swimming pools. Not exactly Nick Bolletierri conditions.

In the United States, casual fans think tennis is played four times a year. But on the tightly packed European continent, national interest in homegrown talent runs deep every weekend. Of the ATP's current top 20 players, only two, tennis betting and James Blake, are American. Fourteen are from Europe, representing six different countries.

No wonder fans from Lisbon to Bhudapest get jacked up for the net game, whether it's Wimbledon or a low-level tourney like the Estoril Open in Portugal (congrats to Spain's Albert Montanes for winning that one, btw). Chances are good that someone representing their flag will not only be playing, but have a shot at winning.

And that's all any bettor can ask for.

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