Creamer still three in front after third round

Golf Betting Lines

07/11/2010 - Oakmont, PA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Paula Creamer rolled in a four-foot birdie putt on the 18th hole Sunday to move three shots clear after the third round of the U.S. Women's Open.

Creamer finished the third round Sunday morning and posted an impressive, one- under 70 at a difficult Oakmont layout. She is the only player under par and got through 54 holes at one-under 212.

Wendy Ward also had a 70 in round three and is second at plus-two.

Suzann Pettersen (72), Christina Kim (72) and Amy Yang (71) are knotted in third place at three-over 216.

The third round was completed on Sunday morning after play was halted for darkness on Saturday.

The championship has played catch up after inclement weather halted action on Friday and forced the second round to be completed earlier Saturday.

Once the second round was completed, players went off the first and 10th tees in threesomes. More than half the field managed to complete round three before darkness fell at Oakmont Saturday night.

The players will go back out in threesomes off split tees for the final round, and with a bright forecast for Sunday, there should be no problem completing the final round.

Creamer was one-under for the championship after a missed short par putt on 13 Saturday night. The horn blew, but Creamer, well within her right, elected to putt out and missed a two-footer.

On Saturday, Creamer parred 14 and 15 and had a mere two feet left for par at the 16th. She missed that par putt to fall to even-par for the tournament, but the putter, and maybe nerves, got in the way again.

Creamer had three feet for birdie at the short, par-four 17th, but that putt never hit the hole. She was still at even, but hit a spectacular approach to four feet at the tough closing hole.

Creamer converted the birdie putt to build a three-stroke cushion with one round to go.

Creamer hasn't won a major, but has won several of the LPGA Tour's biggest events. She claimed the 2005 Evian Masters, the Tournament of Champions in 2007 and the 2008 Samsung World Championship.

The win at the Samsung stands as Creamer's last LPGA Tour victory as she has battled a thumb injury through most of last year and the earlier part of this season as well.

In fact, this is just Creamer's fifth start of the year and fourth since having surgery on her injured left thumb.

Lexi Thompson, 15, finished her third-round 70 on Saturday and is sixth at four-over 217.

World No. 1 Cristie Kerr, who romped to victory at the last major, the LPGA Championship, carded a four-over 75 and is tied for seventh place with Sophie Gustafson (74), In Kyung Kim (73), Natalie Gulbis (72), Sakura Yokomine (76) and first-round leader Brittany Lang (75). The group finished at plus-five.

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Betting Football

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Is there such a thing as a trap game in the NFL?

I once asked that question to Pete Korner, who at the time was office manager and a senior linesmaker for Las Vegas Sports Consultants.

Korner almost ripped my head off. There is no such thing as a trap game, he loudly berated me. It’s a myth. The numbers are made using power ratings, he said.

There are trap games, though. They just might not be what you think. The perception is of a good team, say Philadelphia, laying a small number against New Orleans.

Using the highly-respected power ranking from The Gold Sheet, you’d find the Eagles with a power rating of 4 and the Saints at 8. When you factor the game being played in New Orleans, you could see why the line opened so short at less than a field goal.

For some, this makes it enticing to take the Eagles. That’s not a real trap game, though.

A real trap game, says professional gambler Dave Malinsky, is thinking you’re getting value betting a bad team, which brings us to the Oakland Raiders-Denver Broncos matchup.

The Raiders are +15 in this long-standing division rivalry. Denver is on a short week having dispatched Baltimore Monday. However, the Raiders haven’t covered the spread their last 10 games.

Many bettors don’t trust the Raiders to give a full effort. Few think much of Art Shell and his Oakland’s coaching staff.

So oddsmakers have to do something to make Oakland attractive if they hope to get equal action.

Now Malinsky is a value shopper. But he won’t touch the Raiders even getting more than two touchdowns.

“I try to eliminate the undisciplined, unfocused teams because they’re the ones most likely to suffer the bad beats,” he said.

Near the top of Malinsky’s list of stay-away teams is the Miami Dolphins, who have yet to cover a spread this season.

“Whatever you think of Nick Saban, you have to look at the penalties and turnovers,” Malinsky said.

It’s easy to point out the Dolphins failed to get the money this past week against New England because Olindo Mare missed a field goal and had another field goal blocked. But even though the Dolphins outgained the Patriots, 283-213, they committed eight penalties.

Bad teams not only cost themselves victories, but pointspread covers as well. The Arizona Cardinals and Green Bay Packers are two more examples.

The Cardinals couldn’t have been in a better position this past Sunday, up 14-0 at home against a mediocre Kansas City Chiefs squad. But they couldn’t hold it. The Packers got a push against St. Louis, but also could have won losing by three when Brett Favre fumbled at the St. Louis 11-yard line with 44 seconds left.

“The Packers were in a position to beat Philadelphia, too,” Malinsky said. “But they couldn’t even cover double digits.

“These teams just make mistakes and it costs you … they always will look good from a value standpoint. They really will. But that’s the trap.”

Houston and Tennessee rank among the six-worst teams. Malinsky wouldn’t be afraid to take either of these teams, however, if the price were high enough.

The Texans are bad, Malinsky said, but they have some discipline. The Titans showed they could not only come up with an outstanding game plan, but execute it as well, losing by one to the Colts on the road as an 18 ?-point underdog this past Sunday.

“Jeff Fisher is a worker,” Malinsky said of the Titans coach. “I’m not sure how hard Art Shell wants to work when he gets out of bed.”

Fisher, though, could be out as Tennessee coach after this season. Is he still worth backing in the right spot, with the right price, as a lame duck coach?

“It’s in his nature to keep working hard and not worry about any possible lame duck status,” Malinsky said. “He’s coaching for his resume.”

Note: Monday night game will be picked Monday. Lines used are from football betting lines.