Garrigus joins Bettencourt in first in Reno

Golf Betting Lines

07/16/2010 - Reno, NV (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Robert Garrigus fired a seven-under 65 on Friday to join first-round leader Matt Bettencourt in a share of first after the second round of the Reno-Tahoe Open.

Garrigus and Bettencourt, who bogeyed his last two for a four-under 68, are knotted atop the leaderboard at 10-under 134 at the Montreux Golf & Country Club.

John Mallinger managed a five-under 67 and is alone in third at minus-eight.

Bob Heintz (68), Bill Lunde (68), John Merrick (68) and Kevin Stadler (67) are tied for fourth place at seven-under 137.

They are chasing a pair of co-leaders, both of whom have never won on the PGA Tour. This week provides a great chance for someone to break through for a first victory since the best players in the world are at St. Andrews for the British Open Championship.

Garrigus came very close to that maiden title earlier this year.

He famously held a three-shot lead on the 72nd hole of the St. Jude Classic, but made a disastrous triple-bogey, then lost a playoff to Lee Westwood.

When asked if it served as a learning experience, Garrigus responded, "Absolutely."

He broke into red figures at the second when he tapped in a short putt. Garrigus hit a spectacular second as the wind came up, much like it did this morning at St. Andrews.

"I kind of thought, 'Oh, it's kind of like the British Open,'" joked Garrigus. "The guys in the morning got no wind, and we're out here in the elements."

Garrigus braved those elements and continued his fine form with birdies at three and four. He played steady golf around the turn with a good save at nine and a narrowly missed birdie chance at the 10th.

Garrigus got up and down for a birdie from over the green at the par-five 11th. He knocked his tee ball to a foot to set up the easy birdie at the par- three 12th.

Garrigus once again left himself with a foot-long birdie putt, this time at the 15th. He missed a three-foot birdie chance at 16, but sank a 20-footer for birdie at the 17th. He got into the clubhouse at 10-under, then found himself tied for first when Bettencourt fumbled down the stretch.

"It was just one of those days that nothing was going wrong," said Garrigus. "I didn't make any bad swings. Not one bad swing today. It was great. Had a great day. Just one of those days, you know."

Bettencourt appeared headed toward one of those days as well.

He started on the 10th tee Friday and eagled the par-five 11th when he chipped in from off the green. Two holes later, Bettencourt stiffed his approach to a foot and kicked in the short birdie putt. He made it two in a row with a four- footer at No. 14.

Birdies at the second and fourth gave Bettencourt a fairly commanding lead. Garrigus started his run with late birdies, but Bettencourt came back to the field.

At the par-four eighth, Bettencourt landed in a bunker with his second, and the caddies in the group in front didn't rake the trap. He couldn't get on the green with his third and walked off with a bogey. Bettencourt bogeyed the par- five ninth when his four-foot save attempt stayed above ground.

"I'm fine. I'm just frustrated right now," said Bettencourt. "I don't need to work on anything. I just need to keep playing the way I'm playing and everything will be fine."

Chad Campbell, the highest-ranked player in the field at No. 93, shot a three- under 69 and is tied for eighth place with Chris DiMarco, who had a one-under 71 on Friday. The pair is knotted at minus-six.

Tournament host Scott McCarron (69) and Todd Fischer (70) share 10th at five- under 139.

NOTES: Defending champion John Rollins shot an even-par 72 and is tied for 33rd at one-under par...The 36-hole cut fell at three-over 147 and 71 players made it to the weekend...Keith Clearwater, Parker McLachlin, Andrew McLardy and Jerod Turner withdrew on Friday.

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Sportsbook Betting Lines

Who Makes the Sportsbook Betting Lines?

Las Vegas Sports Consultants (LVSC) is the world’s premier oddsmaking company and the most respected authority on making the lines. Mike Seba is a Senior Oddsmaker at LVSC and has been making lines for the last six years. In our extended interview, Seba explained that there are 4-5 oddsmakers assigned to make lines for each of the major sports (pro & college football and basketball; MLB, NHL, boxing, golf). Each of these oddsmakers bring unique opinions, strengths and weaknesses to the process. Oddsmakers at LVSC are professional sports junkies who love what they do and would probably do it for nothing if you asked them, but they do get paid for it. By necessity their approach is very research-oriented and concise, since with millions of dollars at risk there is little margin for error.

“You either have a passion for it or you don’t,” Seba said.

“The #1 thing for us is to make a line for each game that creates good two-way action. We do this by drawing from past experiences and applying them to current situations. People think it’s much more complicated, but it’s not. “

What are the Football Betting Lines Trying to Accomplish?

There is a common misconception that point spreads represent the oddsmakers’ prediction of how many points the favorite will win by. That is not the case at all – their intent is NOT to evenly split the ATS result between the teams; rather, their goal is to attract equal betting action on both sides. Stated another way, they want to create a line that half the people find appealing to bet one way while the other half find it appealing to bet the other way (known as ‘dividing the action’).

Divided action means the sportsbook is guaranteed a profit on the game because of the fee charged to the bettor (called juice or vig – typically $11 bet to win $10).

How the Opening Line Is Made

The opening line is the first line created by the oddsmakers, which is then sent out to sportsbooks. Of course there is an entire method to the madness on how the opening line is created. Seba explained that it all starts with each oddsmaker creating a line on each game based upon their own personal approach. This usually includes having up-to-date power ratings on each team.

Power ratings are the oddsmaker’s value of each team and are used as a guide to calculate a "preliminary" pointspread on an upcoming game. The power ratings are adjusted after each game a team plays. Examples of non-game factors that would require an adjustment to a team's power rating are key player injuries and player trades.

Once a game’s power rating based pointspread is determined, the oddsmaker will make adjustments to that line after considering each team's most recent games played and previous games played against that opponent. Also, adjustments are made after reading each team’s local newspapers to get a sense of what the coaches & players are thinking going into the game.

Since the oddsmaker’s ultimate goal is equally dividing the sports betting action, public perception and sportsbook betting patterns must be taken into account. For example, the public might have heavy betting interest week after week on a popular college football betting team such as USC. If an oddsmaker comes up with a preliminary line of USC -7, then an adjustment up to -7.5 or -8 would be made in response to the public’s expected USC bias.

The last step in the line-making process for each oddsmaker is taking one final look to determine whether or not the line "feels right." This is where common sense and past experience with how games are bet enters into the picture.

A round-table discussion among the 4-5 oddsmakers involved in making the line for each sport is then conducted and a consensus line is decided upon by the Odds Director before it is released to the sportsbooks. Of the 4-5 oddsmakers, generally the 2 most respected opinions are weighed more heavily by the Odds Director before he decides on the final line.

Why Sports Betting Lines Change

Once the opening line is released by LVSC, the individual sportsbooks decide if they want to make any adjustments before offering it to the public. Reasons for such adjustments include:

Experts working for the individual books having a strong opinion on the game

Individual books having players who consistently bet with certain tendencies (such as an extreme bias toward favorites or toward a certain popular team like USC)

The purpose of these adjustments, like all line adjustments, is to more equally divide the betting action.

Once betting begins, sportsbooks can adjust the line at any time. In doing so they attempt to make more attractive the team that is getting less action. By moving the line, sportsbooks can influence how the public bets on a particular game.

For example, if the pointspread on a game is 7 and most of the money is coming in on the underdog (taking the +7), sportsbooks will then move the number down to 6 ½ to try and attract money on the favorite.

Moving the line is the oddsmaker's effort to balance betting action, and often times such moves can have a major impact on a bettor’s decision. Oddsmakers can also change the line depending on various event-related factors such as player injuries or weather. Obviously, if the line comes out a week ahead of the event (which is the case in football), there is much that could happen during the week leading up to the event that could affect the line. Oddsmakers have to determine if any changes are necessary and send out an "adjusted line."

“The main objective is that our clients get equal action on both sides,” Seba said. “We’re not trying to pick the team that covers the spread, we’re trying to make it a coin flip, a tough decision (for the bettor). If we’ve done that, we’ve done our job.”

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