Haas Holes Host Smash Against Championship

Golf Betting Lines

Jhonattan Vegas, Dean Wilson, Joe Ogilvie and Kyle Stanley posted three-under 67s in the morning and share third place. Vegas posted the lone bogey-free round of the day.

 

Scott was one of six players -- along with Trevor Immelman, Lucas Glover, Steve Marino, Hunter Mahan and Aronimink member Sean O'Hair -- that competed at Aronimink in the 1997 U.S. Junior Amateur and are also playing this week.

 

The 30-year-old Australian stuck his approach six feet from the hole on the sixth to move to minus-three. He parred the last three holes on the front side.

 

"I think the key to my round was hitting a lot of fairways, which gave me an opportunity to hit the greens. The few fairways that I did miss, I didn't get into too much trouble," Scott stated. "It was kind of a stress-free round, which is a nice way to start."

 

The 34-year-old Haas dropped his tee shot inside three feet on the 14th and made that for birdie to move to minus-two. He ran home a 32-footer for birdie on 15 and made it four in a row with an up-and-down birdie on the 16th.

 

His second found the chipping area right of the green. From there, he played his third to 14 feet and two-putted for bogey to slide back into a share of the lead. Haas parred the last two to remain there.

 

"I just really focused on keeping the ball below the hole and getting the ball in play," Haas stated. "And to be honest, the holes I didn't get it in play, I hit great shots out of the rough and ended up making birdie off one of them, so that kind of helps."

 

NOTES: Justin Rose, the defending champion, is tied for 29th after opening with an even-par 70....Amateur Patrick Cantlay continued his solid play with a 70. Cantlay was low amateur at the U.S. Open, where he tied for 21st, and he followed that with a share of 24th last week at the Travelers Championship...Graham DeLaet withdrew with a back injury...Like last year, the par-three eighth was the most difficult hole on Thursday.

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SPORTS BETTING: NFL Football Sportsbook Betting

NFL owners, already life's biggest winners, want to try their luck with the lottery.


That was the news out of their meetings last week, where team bosses voted unanimously to allow stamping state and local lottery tickets with franchise logos, if, ahem, any governments wanted to do a deal.

A shocker: Within days the Pats announced they'd be sponsoring the Massachusetts state lottery, the Skins said they'd slap their sticker on Virginia scratch-offs and the Ravens admitted they were talking to Maryland lottery bosses. In all likelihood, it won't be long before every team is a presenting sponsor of scratch-offs or just plain old pick fives. "The change in policy was approved 32-0," said NFL spokesman Greg Aiello. "So you can expect to see more deals soon."

It's a branding opportunity too big for the owners to ignore, and one a couple of dozen baseball franchises have enjoyed for years. The fact the NFL has been slower to act than those slack-brained Seligites is indicative of its complicated relationship with all forms of gambling. Consider this: Last Thursday, as the Pats and the Redskins finalized their new lottery deals, a lawyer representing the NFL argued before Delaware's Supreme Court that the state's newly signed sports betting law should be repealed.

The NFL betting is the face of opposition to sports gambling . And as much as it would like to share that responsibility with other leagues, that's not going to happen as long as more than 40% of all money legally wagered on games is bet on football. That's why the Brewers can do a multi-million dollar deal with a local casino, or the Celtics can make their own pact with the Mass lottery, and the response is, "Sweet, let's play." But when the NFL does it the stakes are higher, and everyone from NPR's Frank Deford to the Associated Press to the guys blogging at Deadspin will line up to play gotcha.

So I asked Aiello, who surely knew there'd be piling on, how the league can rail against being bait for sports bettors, then allow its franchises to be just that for lotteries, the most insidious and addictive form of gambling around. He emailed me this response: "We are not moral crusaders. NFL personnel are permitted to engage in legal forms of gambling, except for betting on NFL games. We are making a distinction here between the spread of gambling on the outcome of our games and supporting state lottery scratch-off games, that have nothing to do with the outcome of our games."

Here's where I should rip him. But, the thing is, he's right. Not to get Obama on you, but this is a complicated, nuanced issue. As much as lotteries are considered a tax on the poor, the NFL isn't a socially obligated government program -- it's just a business. Scratch-off's help the bottom line, sports betting doesn't. Now, it's okay to call the league hypocritical when it releases injury reports, which players have told me only helps bettors … But when it supports other forms of gaming? Big Deal.

Now, it's okay to call the league hypocritical when it releases injury reports, which players have told me only helps bettors. And it's okay to mutter something obscene when the league pretends gambling doesn't help drive TV ratings and fan interest and put money in owners' pockets. But when it supports other forms of gaming? Big Deal. The Bears should put an orange "C" on every deck of cards dealt at Harrah's in Joliet; the Eagles should slap their logo on roulette wheels at the Borgata in Atlantic City; the Dolphins should hold training camp at the El San Juan in Puerto Rico.

Seriously.

The NFL's problem, when it comes to the gambling world, isn't hypocrisy, it's worse: The bosses lack vision. That's why the league is picking unwinnable fights in Delaware and taking pot shots from critics after making smart sponsorship deals. Roger Goodell and his gang are acting and thinking locally rather than globally, which is rare for them, especially compared to their professional (and amateur) counterparts.

The NBA held its All Star game in Las Vegas and David Stern's kingdom didn't crumble (although the town did bring plenty of players to their knees.) I'd say it's 6 to 5 and pick 'em that Lebron will make a road swing through Sin City before his career is over.

Even the NCAA College Football Betting is more progressive on this issue than the NFL. Several years ago Rachel Newman Baker, college sports' gambling czar, opened a dialogue with Vegas bookmakers to learn about how they do business. She's visited Nevada sports books, studied their operations and listened to how they regulate action. Now she knows she can expect a call from bookmakers, who lose money when sports are fixed, if they think something sketchy is going on in NCAA games. She's not in favor of sports betting, but, as she once told me, "I know it's not going away, either."

The NFL can't seem to accept that. And until it can find peace with the idea, it'll get flack, even when it's right.

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