Johnson leads Woods, two others, by two at Quail Hollow

Golf Betting Lines

05/02/2009 - Charlotte, NC (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Zach Johnson carded four-under 68 Saturday to grab a two-stroke lead after three rounds of the Quail Hollow Championship.

Johnson, the 2007 Masters champion, completed 54 holes at 11-under-par 205.

World No. 1 Tiger Woods had taken the lead with a birdie on the 15th, but bogeyed the final two holes to finish two back at minus-nine. Woods posted a two-under 70 and he was joined in second place by Lucas Glover (68) and George McNeill (70).

Second-round leaders Bubba Watson and Retief Goosen both managed even-par 72s Saturday to slide into a tie for fifth place at eight-under-par 208.

Johnson did not look like he was going to be a factor early on Saturday as he bogeyed two and four to slide back to five-under.

The third round was completed despite a weather delay of nearly 75 minutes.

The five-time winner on the PGA Tour started his rally with a birdie on the sixth. Johnson followed that with an eagle on seven and a birdie on eight to get within one of the lead at the Quail Hollow Club.

Johnson parred three straight around the turn, then birdied the 12th to grab a share of the lead. He missed the fairway on the short par-four 14th, then his pitch took a big bounce on the green and rolled all the way through the green and into the water behind the putting surface.

From there, Johnson was able to save bogey, but he trailed McNeill and Woods by one at that point. Johnson played his third within two feet at the par-five 15th and kicked that in for birdie, but he still trailed by one.

Johnson drained a 14-foot birdie effort from the fringe on the par-three 17th to take the outright lead after the leaders fell backwards. He two-putted for par at the last to secure the fourth third-round lead of his PGA Tour career.

"I felt good about today, and I didn't get off to the start I necessarily wanted, but I remained patient. I think that was the key for me the whole week, and certainly today," said Johnson, who won two of the previous three times he owned at least a piece of the 54-hole lead.

"I put myself in nice places in the fairway some of the time, and as a result I could be aggressive at certain points of the course, and I took advantage of it."

Woods, the 2007 champion, grabbed a piece of the lead with an 18-foot birdie putt on one. He gave that shot back as he bogeyed the third, but recovered with birdies on five and seven to get to nine-under.

At the ninth, Woods found a fairway bunker off the tee, then pulled his second into the trees left of the green. He scrambled for a bogey, but again bounced back with a two-foot birdie putt on 10.

Woods sank a six-footer for birdie on 12 to tie for the lead, then took the lead by himself with a two-putt birdie on the par-five 15th. He three-putted for bogey on 17, then missed the green right at the last and that led to a closing bogey that left Woods two back.

"I hit the ball better today, there's no doubt," said Woods, who hit nine fairways Saturday after hitting nine in the first two rounds combined. "Obviously, the last two holes were not very good there. I had two seven-irons the last two holes and made two bogeys, that's not the way you want to finish, but I've got a shot going into tomorrow.

Glover birdied the fourth and fifth, then jumped into the lead with a 12-foot eagle putt on the seventh. He stood at minus-nine after the eagle, but remained there as he parred the next eight holes.

The 2005 FUNAI Classic winner regained a piece of the lead with a six-foot birdie putt on 16, but he gave that shot back at the last, where he found a bunker with his second before two-putting for bogey.

"I played well, very pleased. Just one mistake on the last," said Glover. "I started missing some greens, but got up-and-down and then birdied 16 and had a pretty good opportunity to make four on the last and didn't do it."

McNeill ran off three straight birdies from the fifth to grab the lead at 10- under. He cruised to seven straight pars from the eighth though.

At the 15th, McNeill sank a six-foot putt for birdie and a piece of the lead. Like Woods though, he tripped to back-to-back bogeys to close his round.

Goosen and Watson were joined in a share of fifth place at minus-eight by Brendon de Jonge (67) and Sean O'Hair (67). Davis Love III, David Toms, Jason Dufner, Y.E. Yang and Ross Fisher are tied for ninth at seven-under-par 209.

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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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