Schulz grabs three-stroke lead at First Tee Open

Golf Betting Lines

09/04/2010 - Pebble Beach, CA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Ted Schulz fired a eight-under 64 at Pebble Beach on Saturday to grab a three-stroke lead after two rounds of the First Tee Open.

Schulz, who is making his 12th Champions Tour start of the year, completed two rounds at 12-under-par 132.

Pebble Beach and Del Monte Golf Course were used for the first two rounds. Sunday's final round will be contested at Pebble Beach.

First-round leader Mark Calcavecchia managed a one-under 71 Saturday, but slipped into a tie for second place at minus-nine. Tom Kite, who won the 1992 U.S. Open at Pebble Beach, carded a four-under 68 at Pebble to join Calcavecchia in second place.

Tom Pernice, Jr. is alone in fourth place at eight-under-par 136 after shooting 70 at Del Monte.

Schulz started on the back nine at Pebble Beach and got off to a fast start with birdies on 10 and 11. He posted back-to-back birdies from the 13th to jump to eight-under.

The 50-year-old birdied the 16th, but gave that stroke right back with a bogey on the 17th. Schulz made the turn at minus-nine thanks a birdie on the 18th.

Schulz, who won twice on the PGA Tour, made it two in a row again as he birdied the first. He birdied the third and sixth to move to 12-under. Schulz parred his final three holes to grab the second-round lead for the first time on the Champions Tour.

Calcavecchia started on the first at Pebble Beach on Saturday. His front nine consisted of eight pars and a single birdie on the par-three fifth.

Around the turn, Calcavecchia got to 10-under with a birdie on No. 10. However, he bogeyed three of the next four holes to slide to minus-seven. He got two of those strokes back with birdies at 16 and 17.

MORE TO FOLLOW.

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SPORTS BETTING - Tennis is an underrated and under-utilized bettors' sport.

Ten years ago, at just about this time, I called Alan Boston in Vegas and left him a voicemail that went something like this (abridged version): "Hey Alan, Chad Millman from ESPN The Magazine calling. I want to do a book about wise guys, you in?"

A couple weeks later I got a message back (abridged version): "I don't know, maybe," Boston said. "Call me and we'll talk about it. But not later today. I got $1,000 on Andre Agassi to win the French Open at 40-1, and he's in the finals."

Here's what happened next (abridged version): Agassi won his tourney. Boston won his $40,000. I wrote sportsbook.

In the ten years since, how much has been wagered on the big-time tennis events? Put it this way: The Nevada Gaming Commission doesn't even track the number year by year because it's so small.

"Tennis makes up about one-tenth of one percent of our take," says Lucky's bookmaking boss Jimmy Vaccaro. "The last big golf major we probably had $100,000 worth of bets. In tennis, we might have written two big tickets."

Tennis' lack of popularity amongst the American bettoratti is no surprise, really. For starters, the biggest sports betting holidays -- the Super Bowl, the NCAA tourney -- are must see TV. People, at least the degenerates I know, plan vacations around watching those events in Vegas sports books.

But Wimbledon? Doesn't exactly reel in the whales. "Seriously, it's the nuts as an event," says Boston. "But who even knows when it's on?"

Here's another reason that helps explain why golf gets traction, something I call "The Bubbe Theory." My Bubbe is pushing 95 and has cataracts so bad that, to her, even the most crystalline Chicago day is mostly cloudy. But she still listens to the Cubs games, and she still calls me in a fit if she disagrees with something Rick Telander writes in the Chicago Sun Times. She's a sports fan. If she doesn't know you, you're just filling a niche. And niche players, even historically good ones like Roger and Raf, don't drive betting volume. Only the highest profile names attract square money, which inflates wagering totals like a shot of saline to the lips. Bubbe, and the public, loved Agassi, tennis' last cross-the-rubicon, mainstream draw. She also has a crush on Tiger. She's given me standing orders to put a sawbuck on the big cat whenever I walk through a sports book (or mistakenly tap into one via my Internet machine.) That explains why the Masters is getting $100K in action at some books while the four tennis majors might not get that combined this year.

This isn't a case of tennis being a difficult sport to bet. In fact, in Europe, it's probably the second most popular sport for gambling after soccer. Granted, as the WSJ football betting last week and The Mag's Shaun Assael examined in even greater depth last year, that might be because gamblers across the pond see it as an easy game to fix. But it could also be because, over there it holds the kind of sway the big two do over here.

Street corners in Spain are peppered with public courts and kids doing their best Raffy impressions. In some war torn parts of Eastern Europe poverty-stricken kids view tennis as an escape route, like football or basketball here. A couple years ago The Mag's Lindsay Berra wrote a great piece about Belgrade's Jelena Jankovic, Ana Ivanovic and Novak Djokovic. They learned the game as kids while bombs were raining down on their homeland. They practiced in drained swimming pools. Not exactly Nick Bolletierri conditions.

In the United States, casual fans think tennis is played four times a year. But on the tightly packed European continent, national interest in homegrown talent runs deep every weekend. Of the ATP's current top 20 players, only two, tennis betting and James Blake, are American. Fourteen are from Europe, representing six different countries.

No wonder fans from Lisbon to Bhudapest get jacked up for the net game, whether it's Wimbledon or a low-level tourney like the Estoril Open in Portugal (congrats to Spain's Albert Montanes for winning that one, btw). Chances are good that someone representing their flag will not only be playing, but have a shot at winning.

And that's all any bettor can ask for.

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