11/19/2008 - West Palm Beach, FL (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The 2009 LPGA Tour schedule was released by tour commissioner Carolyn F. Bivens on Wednesday and there is plenty of change coming next year.
The tour released the dates of 31 official events, down from 34 in 2008, and the Solheim Cup. Several unofficial events will have their dates released at a later time. Players will compete for nearly $55 million in official money in '09.
The season again begins in Hawaii with the SBS Open at Turtle Bay, which starts February 12. The first change on the schedule is that the second Hawaii event to open the season, the Fields Open, is off the docket.
In all, there are three events that won't return in 2009 and the Ginn company will only sponsor one event as opposed to two in '08. Also off the schedule are the SemGroup Championship and the ADT Championship.
Two weeks after the SBS Open, the tour heads to Asia for two events. First up is the Honda LPGA Thailand. That event was on the 2007 schedule, but was not played in 2008.
The following week is the HSBC Champions, which again will take place in Singapore. The tour returns to North America, but stops in Mexico for the MasterCard Classic before returning to the Unites States with the Phoenix LPGA International.
That event was sponsored for the last several years by Safeway, but they will only run the event in Portland in 2009.
The season's first major, the Kraft Nabisco Championship, will take place April 2-5. Women's world No. 1 Lorena Ochoa will defend her title at Mission Hills.
The next two events, the Ginn Open and the Corona Championship, exchanged slots on the calendar and there is a week off between the Kraft Nabisco and the Ginn in '09.
The first East Coast swing starts May 7 with the Michelob ULTRA Open at Kingsmill. After heading to Clifton, New Jersey and Corning, New York, the tour shifts to Illinois for the LPGA State Farm Classic, which will be played six weeks earlier than in 2007.
That will be followed by the McDonald's LPGA Championship, the season's second major. Yani Tseng won that crown in 2008.
After a week off, the tour returns to New York for the Wegmans LPGA, which will be contested three weeks earlier than this year. The Jamie Farr Owens Corning Classic follows and will be played a week earlier than 2008.
The U.S. Women's Open is slated for July 9-12, two weeks later than this year. Inbee Park will defend her title on The Old Course at Saucon Valley in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.
Following a two-week break, the tour heads to Europe for the Evian Masters and the Women's British Open. Ji-Yai Shin will defend her Women's British Open crown at Royal Lytham & St. Annes.
Two weeks later, 12 of the top American golfers will face 12 of Europe's best in the Solheim Cup at Rich Harvest Farms in Illinois.
The following seven events are all in different places on the schedule. The week after the Solheim Cup is the Safeway Classic, which is a week later than this year.
The Canadian Women's Open follows the Safeway and is being contested three weeks later than in '08. The tour heads to Arkansas for the P&G Beauty NW Arkansas Championship, which was pushed back two months from '08.
The Samsung World Championship and Longs Drugs Challenge were both pushed up two weeks from this year, while the Navistar LPGA Classic will be played a week later than this year in Alabama.
The tour remains in Alabama for a second straight week with the Bell Micro LPGA Classic, which will be contested a month later than in '08.
A week later, the tour moves back to Hawaii for the Kapalua Classic before heading to Asia for three more events.
The final two events will be the Lorena Ochoa Invitational and the Stanford Financial Tour Championship.
Stanford Financial, which sponsored the Stanford International Pro-Am the last few years, takes over as sponsor of the Tour Championship. That event shifts from Florida to Houston, Texas.
<< Bucs put RB Graham, LB Hayes on IR
Tampa, FL (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Tampa Bay Buccaneers placed running back
Earnest Graham and rookie linebacker Geno Hayes on injured reserve Wednesday,
ending their seasons.
The Bucs also signed running back Noah Herron and linebac
<< Iverson and Pistons welcome King James to Motor City
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The first of many battles between Central Division rivals
Cleveland and Detroit is on tap this evening at The Palace of Auburn Hills.
Wednesday's showdown between the Cavs and Pistons is the first of four
meetings during t
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(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Dallas Mavericks will try to extend their season high
winning streak to three games when they close out a three-game road trip
tonight against the Southwest Division-rival Houston Rockets.
Dallas is 2-0 so far on the t
<< Bulls resume trek at Portland
(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Chicago Bulls continue a torturous seven-game road
swing Wednesday when they face the Portland Trail Blazers at the Rose Garden.
The Bulls fell to 0-4 away from home this season when Los Angeles' Pau Gasol
score
NCAA announces future Final Four sites >>
Indianapolis, IN (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The NCAA Division I men's basketball
committee has announced five selections as hosts for the Final Four starting
in 2012 and running through 2016.
New Orleans, Atlanta, Dallas-Arlington-Fort Wo
Wolf Pack loan Murray to Charlotte >>
Hartford, CT (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Hartford Wolf Pack loaned defenseman Chris
Murray to its ECHL affiliate, the Charlotte Checkers, the American Hockey
League club announced.
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Manning, Harrison, Washington selected for AFC weekly honors >>
New York, NY (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Indianapolis Colts quarterback Peyton Manning,
Pittsburgh Steelers linebacker James Harrison and New York Jets return
specialist Leon Washington have been selected as the AFC's top players for
Week 11
Hill, Ross, Rackers earn NFC weekly honors >>
New York, NY (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - San Francisco 49ers quarterback Shaun Hill,
New York Giants cornerback Aaron Ross and Arizona Cardinals kicker Neil
Rackers have been selected as the NFC's top players for Week 11 of the NFL
season.
Rule No. 1 in the gamblers' handbook states, "Avoid sports betting on meaningless games."
When you're drowning in a sea of baseball monotony, however, things change. Even a hint of pro football betting can persuade the most disciplined bettor to break a few rules.
The NFL preseason is around the corner, with a tempting Hall of Fame match kicking off on Sunday. But bettors must stay vigilant. Wagering on NFL exhibition games is an entirely different beast than the regular season. Most fans don't recognize the players on the field because starters get as much action in August as Warcraft fans get on Prom night.
The only certainty about the NFL this time of year is uncertainty – and yet there are some who say betting in August can be a gold mine.
“I actually feel the NFL preseason presents solid profit opportunities for sharp bettors and handicappers,” Sports Expert Steve Merril explains. “My experience has been that the sportsbooks fear the preseason, which is evident by lower limits and massive moves.”
The line moves are attributed to the limited knowledge available regarding playing-time distribution. One team’s top unit out on the field for one more series has an impact on the pointspread. Setting lines in the preseason often is a shot in the dark.
“We base the betting lines mostly on public perception,” Pete Korner, founder of the Sports Club in Las Vegas, says. “It’s very tough to predict, almost a guessing game.”
The preseason is all about figuring out who’s in and for how long.
“It becomes a race between bettors and oddsmakers to find out how long the quarterbacks are going to stay in,” Korner admits. “If a sharp gets the information first, he could exploit an early line. I’m a full believer in moving the line in the preseason if the books find out something late in the week.”
Determining what each team’s motive is can help bettors handicap. To do this you must pay close attention to the philosophies head coaches employ in exhibition play.
“You need to know what a coach is trying to accomplish,” says Covers Expert Bryan Leonard. “Sometimes a new coach will want to instill a winning attitude. Others just want to make sure their starters don’t get hurt."
So how do you distinguish who’s playing scared and who’s playing for keeps?
“Head coaches on the hot seat or new coaches trying to implement a winning attitude usually try harder to win in the preseason,” Merril says.
Cleveland Browns head coach Romeo Crennel fits this criteria. He’s entering his third season as the sideline boss and has yet to lead the Browns to more than six wins.
Cleveland is an enticing bet as well because of the unresolved quarterback situation. General manager Phil Savage sacrificed the Browns’ first-round pick in next year’s draft for Brady Quinn, but the former Notre Dame quarterback hasn’t signed or reported to training camp yet.
Charlie Frye and Derek Anderson split time at QB last season and it looks like either player (or even Quinn) could be the opening-day starter.
“If a team has quarterback depth and the pecking order hasn’t been decided, it’s a big advantage,” Leonard says.
Even in the third week of the preseason when starters generally play the most, the final outcome of the game is in the hands of fringe players. A team's talent, all the way down to the last man on the roster, is something to consider.
The New England Patriots have long been considered one of the deeper teams in the NFL and coach Bill Belichick has said in the past he’s unafraid of stars getting hurt in games with nothing on the line. He shocked his colleagues in 2003 by playing some of his starters on special teams in the preseason.
“We want to have the team ready to play a tough, physical game and preparation has to go into that and I imagine a certain amount of injuries go with it,” Belichick told the Providence Journal in August 2003.
Bettors can only hope to find more teams that share the Pats' business-like approach to the preseason (New England is 17-9-3 against the spread since 2000) and take advantage of teams who detest the exhibition schedule.
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