Miyazato still in front at Safeway Classic

Golf Betting Lines

08/21/2010 - North Plains, OR (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Ai Miyazato posted a five-under 67 on Saturday to stay atop the leaderboard after the second round of the Safeway Classic.

Miyazato, the first-round leader of this 54-hole event, finished two rounds at 11-under 133 and is three strokes ahead at Pumpkin Ridge Golf Club. She will be in search of her fifth win this season alone and would move back to No. 1 in the world if she emerges victorious on Sunday.

Song-Hee Kim fired an eight-under 64 on Saturday and vaulted into a tie for second place with Na Yeon Choi, who had a five-under 67. The pair is knotted at eight-under 136.

There was another player at eight-under par, but things turned out poorly.

Hall of Famer Juli Inkster shot a five-under 67 in round two, but was disqualified for violating Rule 14-3/10, Use of a Training or Swing Aid During a Round.

She was using a weighted device on her club when she was taking practice swings on the 10th tee.

"I had a 30 minute wait and I needed to loosen up. It had no effect on my game whatsoever, but it is what it is. I'm very disappointed," said Inkster.

Miyazato first broke into red figures on Saturday with a birdie at the par- four second. She parred her next three holes, but caught fire before the end of her front nine.

At the par-four sixth, Miyazato rolled in an eight-foot birdie putt. She made it two in a row with a 15-footer at the seventh and was in the lead at nine- under par.

Miyazato closed her front nine with a five-foot birdie putt at the par-five ninth, the second of three consecutive par-five holes around the turn at Pumpkin Ridge.

Miyazato took advantage of the third par five in a row thanks to a two-putt birdie. She reached 11-under par, but trouble loomed immediately for the world No. 2.

She bogeyed the par-three 11th, a hole she birdied in round one, and landed in a greenside bunker at 12. Miyazato caught way too much ball from the sand and her bunker shot sailed over the green. She didn't reach the putting surface with her fourth shot and it looked like a big number was imminent. Miyazato chipped in for a tough, albeit unlikely bogey.

"I thought there would be more sand in the bunker, but then it was a bit less than I thought," she said of her bunker shot on 12. "It was kind of too clean, because I thought that there was more sand underneath. It was really lucky I think."

After two pars, Miyazato got back on track. She hit her third 10 feet right of the flag at the par-five 15th and holed her birdie putt. One hole later, Miyazato spun her tee ball back to six feet and cashed in on the birdie chance.

She had a good look at birdie at the short, par-four 17th, but her six-footer stayed above ground. Miyazato parred the last to keep her spot atop the leaderboard.

"I just try to take it one shot at a time and I think I did really well controlling myself in between shots as well," said Miyazato.

World No. 1 Cristie Kerr (67) and former world No. 1 Jiyai Shin (68) are knotted in fourth place at minus-seven.

Ji Young Oh (64), Stacy Lewis (67), Eun-Hee Ji (69) and Jee Young Lee (71) share sixth place at six-under 138.

NOTES: If any of the top-five players in the world - Kerr, Miyazato, Shin, Suzann Pettersen or Yani Tseng - wins this week, they would assume the top spot...The 36-hole cut fell at three-over par and last year's winner M.J. Hur, Morgan Pressel and Paula Creamer missed the mark.

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Big 12 Conference betting odds

Work left to do: Texas Tech, Oklahoma State, Kansas State

Texas joins Texas A&M and Kansas as locks after getting league win No. 11. Texas Tech greatly helped its own hopes and crippled OK State's with the two-point win Saturday. Is K-State the last reasonable hopeful? Could be an elimination match in Stillwater on Tuesday, at least for the Cowboys.

Work left to do:

Texas Tech [18-11 (7-7), RPI: 44, SOS: 12] A critical two-point win over OK State leaves the Red Raiders with Baylor and at Iowa State left. Get both and the Red Raiders likely are good to go. Get one and there could be some interesting comparisons with a K-State team that could finish two or three games "ahead" of them in the standings but doesn't have any of the quality wins Texas Tech has. Not a lot in nonconference play (against Arkansas in Little Rock being the best win, by far) to lean on.

Oklahoma State [18-9 (5-8), RPI: 50, SOS: 35] Still without a road win, the Cowboys now need to win two on the road just to get to .500 in conference play. It's hard to recall a team (OK, other than Clemson) falling so precipitously from lock status to almost certainly out of the NCAAs at this point. There are wins to be had in the last three, including a very big home game against K-State on Tuesday, but this team is reeling. Can you tell the pressure to win is getting to them with the way the final possession played out at Texas Tech? There are some good nonconference performances to lean on, specifically beating Missouri State and Syracuse on neutral floors and Pitt in OK City, but if the Pokes don't right this very, very soon, that won't be enough.

Kansas State [20-9 (9-5), RPI: 56, SOS: 96] It pays to be in the Big 12 North. The nine league wins are Colorado (twice), Missouri (twice), Iowa State (twice), Baylor, Nebraska and (a good one against) Texas. That helps explain the middling computer profile. The win over USC is nice, but the nonconference leaves a lot to be desired. The game at OK State in Stillwater on Tuesday is huge, as it could KO the Cowboys and leave K-State with a home date against Oklahoma with which to work.


MySportsbook.com: New College Football Clock Rules Examined

Coaches and bettors alike are desperate to make sense of the new time-keeping rules on the NCAA gridiron. One of the big stories to come out of the Ohio State-Texas clash last weekend was Texas coach Mack Brown's criticism of the NCAA's new clock rules that are intended to shorten the duration of college football games, therefore affecting college football betting.

"They scored with six minutes left and the game was over before we had a chance to do anything," Brown told ESPN.com. "I really hope whoever made these changes will go back and look them over."

Sure, it might be sour grapes; the Buckeyes thoroughly trounced the defending national champion Longhorns 24-7. However, Brown isn't alone in giving the changes their due thought. Bettors are also wondering about them, albeit for a completely different reason. Most experts agree that the changes will result in games being shortened by anywhere from 10 to 20 plays. The obvious consequence is lower scores, with more time rolling off the clock during changes of possession. (The Ohio State-Texas game flew well under the total of 52.)

According to research at the online sportsbook MySportsbook.com, more than 18 plays a game disappeared last weekend into thin air. That's a 10-percent reduction. In 2005, a typical game had 168.58 plays. For 2007 already, it's down to 150.26.

As a result, teams combined to gain an average of about 100 fewer yards a game last weekend versus the 2005 openers. Scoring was also down by about 4.5 points (attention Las Vegas sports lines).

Of course, oddsmakers were able to adjust to the changes before the season started. Proof of that came as the over went a balanced 8-9 at My Sportsbook on Saturday.

Other angles to consider:A shorter game should theoretically result in shorter lines. Whereas Team A might have been a 14-point favorite in a 168-play game (last year), if there are 10 percent less snaps in 2007, the line should also be reduced by 10 percent (to 13 or 12.5). Of course, this is an over-simplification of the matter, but something to keep in mind.
Less possessions means a better chance the game will be decided by three or seven points. For example, what might have been a 20-10 final score in 2005 may end at

17-10 in 2007. Granted, a 24-17 game last year might end at 21-17 these days, but the former - a three- or seven-point advantage being preserved as opposed to created - is the most likely scenario.

*UPDATE* - Sept. 25, 2007

New Clock Rules Boon for online bookmakers

By adjusting the time-keeping rules to shorten the duration of college football games, the NCAA hoped to make its product more enjoyable for the fans. While the NCAA's success in this regard is still up for debate, bookmakers couldn't be happier with the results.

"We are seeing a massive jump in college football betting," noted the MySportsbook.com management team. "With all the early Saturday games (12 a.m. ET) ending before the second wave begins (3:30 p.m. ET) - something that didn't always happen before the changes - bettors are now able to re-invest their winnings from the morning session in the afternoon games."

While not all bettors will choose to roll over their winnings, it doesn't take much for an impact to be seen on the bottom line. "Not all of the millions of dollars in morning payouts get re-bet. In fact, it's probably only 10 to 20 percent," noted the sportsbook management team. "Still, the increased football betting lines window will create a ton of growth for us over the course of the season."

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