Staten moves in front in College Park

Golf Betting Lines

06/04/2010 - College Park, MD (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - B.J. Staten fired a seven-under 64 on Friday to move atop the leaderboard after the second round of the Melwood Prince George's County Open.

Staten finished 36 holes at 11-under 131 and is one clear at The University of Maryland Golf Course.

Justin Peters shot a four-under 67 and is alone in second place at 10-under 132.

Jin Park (66), Darron Stiles (67) and 2007 Nationwide Tour Player of the Year Nick Flanagan (68) share third place at minus-nine.

Staten broke into red figures on Friday with a birdie at the par-three second hole. He added another birdie two holes later and picked up another birdie at the next par five, the seventh.

Staten found some trouble with his putter after the birdie at No. 7. He missed birdie putts inside 15 feet at eight, nine, 10, 13 and 14 to stall his round.

"I was getting frustrated," admitted Staten. "I knew if I could just give myself a lot of opportunities coming down the stretch that finally a few might go in."

That's exactly what happened.

Staten birdied his last four holes in a row to take the 36-hole lead.

"I think it's probably my best round this year," acknowledged Staten. "I think the rain yesterday afternoon changed the golf course a little bit. I think it carried over to this morning but as the day goes on the greens will start to firm up a bit. It was a definite change from yesterday."

Staten has yet to win on the Nationwide Tour, but has a pair of top-fives this year, including a shared third at the Rex Hospital Open, where the final round was washed away by bad weather.

"It was unfortunate we didn't play the last round, even though I was eight shots back," he said. "I played some really good golf in Raleigh where I didn't make a bogey in the last 36 holes."

Michael Clark II (65), Kyle Thompson (68) and Stephen Leaney (66) are tied for sixth place at minus-eight.

NOTES: The first round was completed Friday after a two-hour weather delay on Thursday set the tournament back...First-round leader Patrick Sheehan struggled to a three-over 74 on Friday and fell into a tie for 24th at minus- five...Mathias Gronberg won't become the first player in Nationwide Tour history to successfully defend a title. He missed the 36-hole cut, which fell at three-under 139, by two strokes.

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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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