09/05/2008 - Sandy, UT (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Australia's Marc Leishman fired an eight-under 63 Friday to take a one-shot lead after two rounds of the Utah Championship.
Leishman completed two rounds at 14-under-par 128. His 63 matched the course record first posted by Mark Hensby in 2000 and matched eight other times since, including by Michael Putnam in Friday's second round.
Kyle Thompson entered the day tied for second and then carded a six-under 65. He is now alone in second place at minus-13. Brendon Todd shot five-under 66 and is alone in third at 12-under-par 130.
Chris Nallen and Blake Adams each shot six-under 65 Friday. Nallen is in fourth at 11-under-par 131, while Adams is one shot back at minus-10.
With just five full-field events left on the Nationwide Tour schedule, players are trying to jump into the top 25 on the money list to earn their PGA Tour cards for next season. The top-five players on the leaderboard all need big weeks. Todd is closest to the top-25 as he is 53rd on the money list, while the other four rank between 68th and 87th.
Leishman, No. 75 on the money list, opened with birdies on the first and third. He moved to minus-nine with a birdie at the sixth. However, Leishman tripped to a bogey on the par-three seventh.
The Australian bounced back from that bogey with three straight birdies from the eighth at Willow Creek Country Club to move to 11-under.
After a par on 11, Leishman dropped in birdies on 12 and 13 to move into the lead at 13-under. He parred three in a row before dropping his third shot within five feet at the par-five 17th.
Leishman rolled that putt in for birdie to get to 14-under. He parred the last to finish one shot off the tournament's 36-hole scoring record.
"That's big around here because there's five of them," said Leishman, who birdied all five par-fives. "I birdied four of them yesterday. I've been playing ok, but the biggest challenge is that I have never seen most of the courses. You make a few silly mistakes and hit it in the wrong spots, but it's starting to come together. The last few weeks have been pretty good."
Thompson played the back nine first and parred his first four holes. He birdied 14 and 15 to move to minus-nine.
Around the turn, Thompson birdied the first and third to move into a share of third place. Birdies on seven and eight got Thompson within one of Leishman. Thompson missed a birdie putt at the ninth, his last, to end alone in second.
Television commentator Bobby Clampett carded a four-under 67 to move into sixth place at nine-under-par 133.
Putnam's 63 moved him into a share of eighth at eight-under-par 134. He was joined there by Mark Brooks, Roger Tambellini, Ricky Barnes, Matt Weibring, Bubba Dickerson, Bill Lunde, Spencer Levin, Gary Christian, Fabian Gomez, Jeff Curl, Won Joon Lee and Daniel Summerhays.
Dickerson carded a hole-in-one on the par-three 18th. After four aces on Thursday, the five holes-in-one for the event set a Nationwide Tour record for most aces in one tournament.
First-round leader David Branshaw stumbled to a one-over 72 and is tied for 20th at minus-seven.
The cut line fell at four-under-par 138 with 63 players moving on to the weekend. Among those missing the cut were the Nationwide Tour's leading money winner Brendon De Jonge (139), No. 5 on the money list Rick Price (142) and Scott Dunlap (149), who won the Panama Championship earlier this year.
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In any football or basketball game (the main sports that use point spreads) there are two teams playing against each other.
Those teams, though, are rarely exactly evenly matched – meaning that typically one team has a better chance than the other to win the game. If bettors were allowed to bet on who was simply going to win the game, smart ones would obviously bet on the better team (likely winning more than 50% of the time in the process).
If winning were that easy the Las Vegas and online sportsbooks would stop taking any bets! This is where the point spread comes in: the basic function of the point spread is to balance the likelihood of each team “winning” by adjusting the final score by the point spread. After this adjustment is made you get the Against The Spread result (ATS result for short).
Let’s look at Super Bowl XXXIX, New England Patriots vs. Philadelphia Eagles. Most people believed the defending champ Patriots to be the better team – so if betting were simply based upon which team would win the game, an uneven majority of people would have wagered on New England. But, by using the point spread, the bookmakers adjusted the terms of the bet, evening the proposition so about half the people believed the Pats to be the smart bet, while the other half considered Philly to be the smart bet.
New England Patriots -7 vs. Philadelphia Eagles
The better team, called the Favorite, is expected to win the game and must “give” or “lay” points to the weaker team. The favorite is listed with a minus sign and the number of points they are favored by (e.g., New England -7)
In the case of our example, New England must not only win the game, but they must win by more than 7 points for Pats bettors to have a winning ATS result. An Eagles bettor wins his bet either if:
There was also the possibility that the final score could land exactly on the spread number (for example, the Pats winning 28-21 when -7), which is called a “push” or “no action” and a refund is then issued to bettors of both teams.
The same game with the same point spread can be considered from the weaker team’s perspective: The Underdog (Philly in the case of our example) is not expected to win the game and thus receives or “gets” points given by the stronger team. When a game is stated from the underdog’s perspective the team is listed with a plus sign and the number of points they are underdogs by:
Philadelphia Eagles +7 vs. New England Patriots
Keep in mind that Philadelphia +7 and New England -7 is the same point spread on the same game, simply stated differently. The first is from the underdog’s perspective; the later is from the favorite’s.
Not a must, but for some a mathematical approach is insightful. You can determine the ATS winner by either:
Let’s look at the actual result of Super Bowl XXXIX: New England 24 Philadelphia 21
The favorite, New England, won the game but not by more than the point spread they were favored by (7), so the ATS result was a LOSS for Pats bettors.
Looking at it from the underdog’s perspective, Philly did not win the game, but they lost by less than the point spread (7), so the ATS result was a WIN for Eagle bettors.
Mathematically considered, 24 for the favorite Pats minus 7 equals 17, which is less than the 20 the Eagles scored, so the underdog Eagles win the ATS result (or you could figure 20 plus 7 equals 27 for the Eagles, which is more than 24 for the Pats).
Emily’s boyfriend understood the point spread and wagered $100 on the Eagles at +7. The Eagles may not have gotten a Super Bowl ring, but since they won the ATS result Emily’s boyfriend cashed his bet – giving him money to take her out to a nice dinner.
And now hopefully you understand how to read point spreads, putting you one step closer to joining the fun of sports betting.
To visit this internet sportsbook go to MySportsbook.com for all your football betting and World Series odds.
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