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02/04/2012 - Doha, Qatar (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Paul Lawrie fired a five-under 67 in breezy conditions Saturday to grab a one-stroke lead after two rounds of the Qatar Masters.
Lawrie, who won both this event and the British Open in 1999, completed 36 holes at eight-under-par 136. He broke a nine-year winless drought last year with a victory at the Open de Andalucia and will go for his seventh tour title on Sunday.
The event was cut to 54 holes after heavy wind on Friday forced officials to pull players off the course at Doha Golf Club. The wind never diminished Friday so the play was called for the day and completed on Saturday.
Lawrie has five players within three strokes of his lead, but there are 10 players tied for seventh, four shots back.
Nicolas Colsaerts, last year's China Open winner, posted a four-under 68 to end 36 holes at seven-under-par 137. Ricardo Gonzalez (67) and Peter Hanson (69) share third place at minus-six, while James Kingston (69) and Simon Khan (68) are tied for fifth at five-under 139.
The group four strokes off the lead includes Jason Day, Sergio Garcia and John Daly, who had the lead when play was called on Friday despite not hitting a single shot.
First-round leader Gonzalo Fernandez-Castano had two bogeys in the seven holes he played on Friday. In his final 11 holes on Saturday, he managed 10 pars and another bogey to post a three-over 75, which dropped him into a share of 16th at minus-three.
Lawrie, who played his entire second round on Saturday, started with a birdie on the first. However, he gave that stroke back as he tripped to a bogey on the par-three third.
After three pars in a row, Lawrie converted a birdie effort on the seventh. Another birdie at the ninth gave the Scotsman a share of the lead at minus- five.
Lawrie could have birdied the 10th, but for the second straight week he dropped his ball on his ball marker and was forced to take a one-shot penalty.
"I'd never done it in my life, 20 years on Tour, but last week in Abu Dhabi I was lucky because my caddie saw it and said the marker never moved," Lawrie explained.
"This time I wasn't sure and (referee) Andy McFee said I had to be 100 percent sure. I wasn't watching and [they] didn't have it on the telecast, so you've got to take the penalty and kick on."
Lawrie bounced back with his second birdie in two rounds on the 11th. With that, he regained a piece of the lead after Colsaerts and Kingston had moved ahead. Lawrie again fell behind as he parred four in a row from the 12th.
The 43-year-old Lawrie converted a birdie try on No. 16 to join Colsaerts at minus-seven. Lawrie got up and down from the right rough at the last to head into the final round with a one-stroke lead.
Colsaerts, who was in the group ahead of Lawrie, had six birdies on Saturday, four of which came on holes he also birdied in round one.
He birdied the first for the second straight round, then birdied the fourth to get to minus-five. Colsaerts dropped a shot on the seventh before making pars on eight and nine.
Colsaerts, 29, birdied the 10th and 12th, both for the second round in a row to move atop the leaderboard. He climbed to seven-under with a birdie on 16.
However, Colsaerts stumbled to a bogey on the par-three 17th. He atoned for that error with his second birdie in two rounds at the last.
NOTES: Defending champion Thomas Bjorn rallied with a seven-under 65 to finish two rounds at even-par 144...The cut line fell at one-over-par 145 with 76 players moving on to the final round...Among those that missed the cut were Matteo Manassero, K.J. Choi, Henrik Stenson, Hunter Mahan, Colin Montgomerie and Peter Uihlein.
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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 online football betting 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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