This Week in Golf -- February 16th through February 19th

Golf Betting Lines

02/13/2012 - Philadelphia, PA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - PGA TOUR - NORTHERN TRUST OPEN - Riviera Country Club, Pacific Palisades, California - A week after crushing the field in the final round at Pebble Beach, Phil Mickelson heads to Hogan's Alley to see if he can keep the momentum going.

Mickelson fired an eight-under 64, while paired alongside Tiger Woods, to win the Pebble Beach National Pro-Am by two strokes.

The victory was his 40th on PGA Tour and two of those have come at the Northern Trust Open. Mickelson beat Jeff Quinney by two strokes in 2008 and fended off Steve Stricker by a shot the following year.

Stricker came back to win the title in 2010, but neither he nor Mickelson contended last year.

Aaron Baddeley was one of five players to break par in every round last year, but was the only one to card all four rounds in the 60s en route to a two- stroke win over Vijay Singh.

For Baddeley, it was his third PGA Tour victory, but by far his biggest. The win came four years after his previous tour title.

Baddeley is coming off a fourth place finish at Pebble Beach, and has three top-30 finishes in four starts this year. He'll have plenty of competition this week in his title defense.

World No. 1 Luke Donald will make his first PGA Tour start of the season, and just his second start worldwide.

Along with Mickelson and Donald, two-time winner Fred Couples will be making his 30th appearance at this event and is one of eight former champions playing this week.

Six of the last seven winners are competing this week, including a pair of Australians -- Rory Sabbatini and Adam Scott, who is making his season-debut at Riviera.

Also in the field this week are a pair of college standouts - Jordan Spieth of Texas and Patrick Cantlay of UCLA. Spieth is currently the second-ranked collegiate player, while Cantlay is the top-ranked amateur golfer in the world.

Golf Channel and CBS will split the broadcast this week.

There are a pair of PGA Tour events next week. Donald will be in Arizona to defend his title at the WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship, while the remainder of the tour will be in Mexico for the Mayakoba Golf Classic. Johnson Wagner won that title last year.

EUROPEAN TOUR

AVANTHA MASTERS - DLF Golf & Country Club, New Delhi, India - India native S.S.P. Chowrasia closed with back-to-back 67s last year to earn his second European Tour title.

Chowrasia, whose other tour win was at the 2008 Indian Masters, was in his third campaign on tour and the win was one of just four cuts he made last year. He missed the cut in 16 events and withdrew from two others.

The 33-year-old is off to a better start this season as he has made the cut in three of his four starts. However, his best finish was a share of 24th at the Volvo Golf Champions.

Robert Coles handed Chowrasia the title in regulation last year, as Coles bogeyed the final hole to fall one back.

Chowrasia's countryman Jeev Milkha Singh, who was the first Indian to qualify for the European Tour, will also be in the field.

There will be a trio of Americans in the field as well - former major winners Todd Hamilton and John Daly along with Peter Uihlein, who was the top-ranked amateur in the world before turning pro.

Golf Channel will have tape-delayed coverage of all four rounds.

The European Tour will be in the United States for its next two events. First up is the WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship, where world No. 1 Luke Donald will defend his title. After a week off, Nick Watney will defend his crown at the WGC-Cadillac Championship.

LPGA TOUR

HONDA LPGA THAILAND - Siam Country Club (Pattaya Old Course), Chonburi, Thailand - Women's world No. 1 Yani Tseng ran away with this crown last year as she kicked off a run of four top-five finishes in her first five events.

Tseng went on to win six more times, including two more major championships in 2011. She opened and closed the event with 66s en route to an easy five-stroke win over Michelle Wie. Tseng had four birdies on the back nine to pull away.

The 23-year-old from Taiwan entered the event as the new world No. 1 after a pair of wins on the Ladies European Tour.

Golf Channel will have tape-delayed coverage of all four rounds.

The LPGA will wrap up its three-event Asian swing next week with the HSBC Women's Champions, Karrie Webb won by two strokes over Chie Arimura last year, while Tseng took third.

CHAMPIONS TOUR

ACE GROUP CLASSIC - TwinEagles Golf Club (Talon Course) Naples, Florida - Bernhard Langer cruised to victory at this event last year, but it was one of just three top-10 finishes on the season.

Langer injured his thumb a couple weeks after this win and missed significant time. He played the following week at the Toshiba Classic, then didn't return to the tour until the U.S. Senior Open, which was the last weekend in July.

The German opened with a 64, then carded consecutive 66s on the weekend to win by four strokes over Fred Funk. Langer has finished in the top four in all three of his starts at this tournament.

The field includes 10 of the last 14 champions, including two-time winners Loren Roberts and Hale Irwin.

Golf Channel has tape-delayed coverage all week.

After a three-week break, the Champions Tour will return to action in California for the Toshiba Classic. Nick Price held off Mark Wiebe to win by a single stroke last year.

NATIONWIDE TOUR

PACIFIC RUBIALES COLOMBIA - Country Club de Bogota, Bogota, Colombia - The Nationwide Tour opens its 2012 season in Colombia this week and the event has a big name helping the cause.

Former President Bill Clinton will be at the event on Tuesday and Wednesday and will play in the Pro-Am to boost the stature of the tournament. The Tuesday evening charity gala will support Clinton's foundation.

The weather was the real winner last year. With bad weather the first couple days, the first round was not completed until Saturday morning. Brendan Pappas took the lead after round two and the third round started Sunday afternoon.

More than two hours into the third round, more inclement weather moved in and the tournament was shortened to 36 holes.

Pappas was declared the winner. It was his second tour victory. He will be on hand to defend his title.

There is no television this week.

The tour heads to Panama next week for the Panama Claro Championship, where Mathew Goggin won by two shots last year.

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Horse Betting

(This is an update of a sportsbook for the May 4th issue of ESPN The Magazine).

The Kentucky Derby's post-position draw happened on Wednesday. And, as is always the case, shortly afterwards, a buzz raced around Churchill Downs. It was a low rumble at first, nothing that the squares in the mint julep crowd pick up right away. But by the time the sun set over the twin spires, the chatter was impossible to ignore. Everyone -- sharps, trainers, owners -- was talking about one thing: the wise guy horse, the pre-draw long shot us mopes didn't have on our radar until it was too late.

"You think you're hearing the scoop," says handicapper Lane Gold. "Then you get to the window, the odds are short, and you missed it."

Recognizing a wise-guy horse early is as hard as picking a Derby bonnet. That's because handicappers don't like hype (see ya, I Want Revenge). They want Thoroughbreds who look good losing prep races like the Santa Anita Derby. They eye horses who ate up the field after starting wide or made an easy transition from synthetic tracks to dirt. They look for ponies who showed muscle gain race to race and those who ran hard after several weeks' rest.

"A wise guy," says John Avello, a bookmaker at Wynn Las Vegas, "looks for a horse who can improve."

When I first wrote Horse Betting for The Mag, which I turned in a three weeks before Wednesday's draw, I predicted these three horses had wise guy potential:

CHOCOLATE CANDY (15-1 in mid-April, currently 20-1 according to Avello): His second-place finish at Santa Anita, following a seven-week layoff, proved two things: He can run after resting, and -- by losing a high-profile prep race -- he wouldn't be overhyped.

DESERT PARTY (15-1; 15-1): He was upset in the UAE Derby by a horse he had beaten twice. The public remembers his loss, but the wise guys his wins.

PIONEEROF THE NILE (8-1; 4-1): The big favorite at Santa Anita struggled to win, so he initially got less hype than Quality Road and I Want Revenge.

You may have noticed that the odds on Pioneerof the Nile have been cut in half, from 8-1 to 4-1. Which means the wise guys took a shine to him long before the post-position draw. But, to be honest, this is one of those years with four elite horses getting everyone's attention, squares and sharps alike.

"You're not gonna get a lot of chatter about a horse that isn't in that group, which includes Pioneer, I Want Revenge, Dunkirk and Friesan Fire," Avello told me Wednesday. "We don't have a group of horses behind those top four who look like real legit contenders."

Come Derby week, the final two elements in picking a wise guy horse are how he's working out and what gate he's coming out of.

(By the way, picking a Preakness favorite is a whole different bale of hay, partially based on how horses finish in the Derby. You can see my analysis of who has the best shot at Pimlico on Insider Sunday morning.)

Well, early in the week I Want Revenge, Pioneerof the Nile and Friesan Fire were working out better than anyone. Some thought Friesan Fire, currently 6-1, might have run too fast, burning a five-furlong run in :57 4/5. "When you are running that fast you have the sense that it took something out of him," says Gold. "The Derby is longer than any horse has run, and if they need that extra surge you worry they won't have it because they burned it in the workout."

But, Gold points out, Friesan Fire's trainer is Larry Jones, Two years ago his horse Hard Spun did a five-eighths workout in :57 3/5 and then went on to finish second, behind Street Sense, in the Derby. "Every trainer has different methods," says Gold. "And clearly he knows what he's doing."

Now, as for starting position, Gold says to remember this: Churchill Downs traditionally has 14 starting gates. For the Derby, it brings out auxiliary gates and between the original 14th gate and the new 15th gate, there is a little more space than there is between gates 1-14. "That 15 position will give you a precious second or two to sort out what's happening to your inside," says Gold. "Sixteen is also okay because you can follow the horse in front of you."

Dunkirk, one of the race favorites, is coming out of gate 15. In 16 is Baffert's Pioneerof the Nile. I Want Revenge drew 13, where Smarty Jones won from in 2004, and Friesan Fire picked the sixth position. "He doesn't have a lot of speed to the inside of him," says Gold. "So he will get a clear shot to be near the front."

All the jibber-jabber means this: Pioneerof the Nile has leapfrogged from 8-1 to being the second favorite, along with Dunkirk, behind I Want Revenge. Meanwhile, Friesan Fire, with a good trainer, a strong week of training and a decent post position, is still at 6-1. "By Saturday, it's possible he could go from fourth to the favorite," says Gold.

In other words, meet Friesan Fire, your 2009 wise guy horse.

"Now," says Avello, "it's time for action."

To visit this horse betting site go to MySportsbook.com for all your horse racing betting needs.