05/09/2008 - Philadelphia, PA (Golf Betting) - There have been significant winning streaks in golf over the years, and there have also been plenty of players who have stressed family over golf. Occasionally the two intersect.
Consider the case of Juli Inkster, who will miss the upcoming McDonald's LPGA Championship because her daughter is graduating from grade school.
Inkster last missed a major in 1994, missing the Kraft Nabisco Championship that year due to the birth of her youngest daughter, the same one on the verge of graduation. Inkster has played every major since. That is 56 straight majors played, the seventh-longest unbroken string on the all-time LPGA list.
The soon-to-be-snapped streak trails those of Amy Alcott (74), Betsy King (73), Meg Mallon (68), Liselotte Neumann (62), Jane Geddes (60) and Laura Davies (57). Davies' streak is the only active one on that list.
If she hadn't missed the '94 Kraft, Inkster's streak would be at 73 straight majors.
During this stretch, Inkster has missed just five cuts and was disqualified once. She collected four of her seven major championship titles along the way, including back-to-back wins at the 1999 LPGA Championship and U.S. Women's Open. Those were her first wins at both of those majors.
In the midst of picking up titles, Inkster also posted at least one major top-10 finish in 10 of the 14 years of the streak. Her best year in the stretch was 1999, when she finished tied for sixth, first, first and third at the four majors.
There have been many notable players who have taken time off to be with their families, or in Jack Nicklaus' case, taken a plane after a round to see a child's performance and flown right back to the tournament site.
Add Inkster to that list of notables.
CADDIE BENEFITS
Tour caddies normally have pre-arranged deals with their players regarding how they get paid on a weekly basis. Two of the past three PGA events have had an added bonus for the loopers.
At the Byron Nelson Championship, Adam Scott defeated Ryan Moore for the title. That meant Scott's caddie, Tony Navarro, was awarded a brand new Cadillac XLR-V courtesy of tournament sponsor EDS.
Couple that with his 10-percent cut of the $1.2 million paycheck Scott collected, and Navarro had a huge week.
At this week's Players Championship, the island green 17th has traditionally hosted some of the best drama on the PGA Tour. The drama of hitting the island green switched to the caddies on Wednesday.
Players used to stuff money in a jar on the tee box, and the winning caddie collected whatever was stuffed into the jar.
According to Michael Collins from the Golf Channel, winning caddie Jeff Willett was given a new laptop from the PGA Tour and CDW after knocking his shot to 17 inches.
Willett didn't get the jar money, which instead went to a cause near and dear to the tour caddies' hearts, the Bruce Edwards Foundation. Edwards was Tom Watson's regular caddie for many years and passed away due to ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig's Disease, on April 8th, 2004.
WHO CAN WIN ON THE LPGA TOUR?
The LPGA is playing its' 11th event this week. There are 22 more after this. So far, just four players have won titles.
Not surprisingly, Lorena Ochoa has continued her remarkable play this year with five wins in seven starts. That comes after she won eight events last year.
Along with Ochoa, the other three winners are Paula Creamer (two), Annika Sorenstam (two) and Louise Friberg (one).
The field has its work cut out for it this week at the Michelob ULTRA Open at Kingsmill. Sorenstam is one back and Ochoa two back after the opening round. Ochoa has shared second place here three times in the five years of the event.
ODDS AND ENDS
- Dallas Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo missed the cut a U.S. Open qualifier this week. Romo, who said afterwards that he hadn't practiced enough, shot 75 at a local qualifying event and missed a playoff by four strokes. If he had played in the playoff, he could have won a spot in a sectional qualifying event.
- Michelle Wie returned to action this week, marking her first appearance since the Fields Open in Hawaii in February. She continues to battle wrist injuries, and opened with a four-over 75 on Thursday. Wie will need to shoot 68 or better to stay around for the final two rounds. She hasn't posted a top-10 finish since tying for second at the 2006 Evian Masters.
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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.
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