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07/23/2010 - Carnoustie, Scotland (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - American Ryder Cup captain Corey Pavin shot his second straight two-under 69 on Friday to join Bernhard Langer atop the leaderboard after the second round of the Senior British Open Championship.
Pavin and Langer, a first-round co-leader who carded an even-par 71 on Friday, finished 36 holes at four-under 138 at Carnoustie.
Former Masters champion Ian Woosnam shared low round of the day honors on Friday with a four-under 67. He vaulted into a tie for third place with Dan Forsman (71), Larry Mize (70) and Jay Haas (69). The group is knotted at minus-three.
Mark Calcavecchia, the 1989 British Open champion who is making his third Champions Tour start, posted his second straight one-under 70 on Friday and is alone in seventh at two-under 140.
Tom Watson, a five-time British Open winner and three-time Senior Open champion, posted an even-par 71 and moved into a tie for 24th place at plus- three.
They are chasing a pair of major champions from their days on the PGA Tour, but a duo who has yet to break through in one of the big five events on the Champions Tour.
Pavin, a tour rookie, started well enough with five consecutive pars. He broke into red figures with a birdie at the par-five sixth, his second in as many rounds at the 565-yard hole.
He closed with three straight pars, but went on a mini run to start the back nine. Pavin birdied his first two holes of the second side and reached six- under par when he birdied the par-three 16th.
Pavin found trouble at the par-four closing hole. Pavin, never one of the longest hitters in the game, hooked a five-wood approach shot out of bounds. He walked off with a double-bogey that cost him sole possession of first place.
"I played pretty solidly today," said Pavin. "Wish I could take that shot over on 18. I was pleased with the day - I played well. I had a few times when I put myself in a little bit of trouble, but extricated myself and made some good par putts coming in and a nice birdie on 16."
Langer, like Pavin, started decently with five straight pars on Friday. He hit a five-iron to 50 feet with his second at the par-five sixth and two-putted for birdie.
He made it two in a row thanks to a seven-footer at No. 7. Langer got it to six-under par for the championship and was in the lead with Pavin in the clubhouse, but, like almost everyone in the field, the back nine tripped up Langer.
The German Hall of Famer came undone on the two back-nine par threes at Carnoustie. He landed in a pot bunker at the 13th en route to a bogey, then three-putted from off the green at No. 16 for his second bogey of the second round.
Those two hiccups cost Langer first, but he was satisfied with his performance on Friday.
"Overall, I'm pretty pleased," said Langer, a 10-time winner on the Champions Tour, including two victories in 2010. "There's no real birdie hole or easy hole. This course can get you on any hole. The wind was really blowing all day. It made links golf that much harder."
First-round co-leader Jay Don Blake struggled to a three-over 74 on Friday and fell into a tie for eighth place with 2008 runner-up John Cook (72) and Russ Cochran (71). The trio is knotted at one-under 141.
NOTES: Pavin won the 1995 U.S. Open and Langer captured the Masters in 1985 and 1993...The third first-round co-leader Carl Mason, who is tied for most wins in European Senior Tour history with 23, shot a five-over 76 and fell into a tie for 13th at plus-one...Defending champion Loren Roberts is also one-over par...The 36-hole cut fell at seven-over 149 and Chip Beck, Craig Stadler and Sandy Lyle missed the mark.
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My fellow Americans, as tempting as it may be to don the coat and HD-ready tie in order to deliver this State of the Game address before the cameras, I know better. As Brad Paisley sings on his latest album, "I'm so much cooler online."
The ideas for this annual essay to kick off the MySportsbook.com college football betting preview flowed like frat-house beer, which is to say they were cheap and spilled all over the floor. The 2007 season will be better than 2007, if only because there will be more of it. A year ago, the NCAA Football Rules Committee made two rule changes in the interest of speeding up the game. These changes went over like Kobe burgers at a vegan banquet.
To its credit, the rules committee rectified its mistakes. This season the clock once again will start when a kickoff is received, rather than when it is kicked, and the clock will not start so quickly on a change of possession.
However, kickoffs have been moved back five yards, to the 30, which will force more returns. (Thus forcing the clock to run. Clever, huh?) Special teams might decide a lot of games, because coaching strategy will come straight out of another new Paisley lyric (almost), I'd like to check you for kicks.
Paisley sings with a twang, which is why he's appropriate for this college football season. The sun coming up over the 2007 college football betting lines season rises from the south. It's a Southern football world. As the Southeastern Conference begins its 75th year, the power shift is noticeable.
Eight-figure budgets, glamorous settings -- and that's just for the head coaches. The SEC has four coaches who have won national championships -- the greatest aggregation of coaching know-how since Eddie Robinson dined alone.
Steve Spurrier, Phil Fulmer, Nick Saban and Urban Meyer have given lie to the idea that a conference championship game is too daunting a hurdle on the road to No. 1. In six of the past 10 seasons, the national champions played and won a conference championship game -- three of the six (Tennessee, 1998; LSU, 2003; Florida, 2007) from the SEC.
There will be more of the same this season, if the preseason prognostications are correct. Six SEC teams are in the preseason coaches' poll, more than from any other conference. Only one conference has talent so deep that a team with 15 returning starters, including the best quarterback in the league, from an eight-win season is considered an afterthought. That may speak more to Kentucky's losing legacy than to the wisdom of the predictions, but there you have it. And seriously, keep an eye on Wildcats QB Andre' Woodson.
The reach of the South extends all the way to No. 1. Take a look at the team that is a consensus pick to win the national championship. The quarterback is from Shreveport. The best wide receiver is from Nashville. The top recruit is from New Orleans.
So what's the campus doing in Los Angeles? Hey, it is the University of Southern California.
USC lost two Pacific-10 Conference games a year ago, the first time that had happened in five seasons, and university officials withstood the urge to form blue-ribbon panels to unearth the cause of such a disaster. Instead, the Trojans gathered themselves and routed Michigan, 32-18, in the Rose Bowl.
USC's losses at Oregon State and at UCLA last year should have given pause to those who question the Pac-10's football prowess (such as, without naming names, L.M. from Baton Rouge). The league only got deeper this season; Dennis Erickson is taking over an Arizona State team that never quite got out of its own way under his predecessor, Dirk Koetter.
Erickson will resume his quest to become the first coach to win a national championship at two schools. Both he and Spurrier, now in his third season at South Carolina, returned to college football at schools with lower profiles than where they won their titles.
That isn't the case for the third coach looking for the national championship double. You may have missed this, but NASA reported the astronauts on the space shuttle last spring made contact with what can only be described as beings from another galaxy.
The leader of the aliens said, "We come in peace," followed by, "So how do you think Nick Saban will do at Alabama?"
The public is reacting to the new Crimson Tide coach as if he is the Barry Bonds of college football -- beloved at home for what his fans believe he is going to do, hated on the road for his intimidating attitude and for what his detractors believe he did (bend NCAA recruiting rules). I made this comparison from the dais at a charity dinner in Mobile, Ala., last month, and the chill that washed over me didn't come from the air conditioning.
Saban will attempt to prove that he can remake in Tuscaloosa what he built in Baton Rouge, much like another member of the national championship fraternity. Bobby Bowden is attempting to remake at Florida State what he built at, um, Florida State. Bowden rebuilt his offensive staff, bringing in four new coaches led by Saban's former offensive coordinator, Jimbo Fisher, to jump-start an offense that has been dead for a couple of years.
The Atlantic Coast Conference is expected to show new signs of life, too. That is said with no disrespect toward last season's champion, Wake Forest, which provided one of the best story lines of 2007. The Demon Deacons begin this season in their customary position, overshadowed by the Virginia Techs, Miamis and Florida States.
It's not that Wake will find it difficult to duplicate its success in 2007 as much as the feeling that success engendered. Surprising success is the narcotic of sport. It never feels quite so euphoric the next time. Big East commissioner Mike Tranghese has figured this out. He refers to 2007, when a league looked down upon by fans and foes alike took three undefeated teams into November, as "Cinderella."
The fairy tale may be over, but the Big East has four genuine Heisman Trophy candidates in Louisville quarterback Brian Brohm, West Virginia tailback Steve Slaton and quarterback Pat White, and Rutgers tailback Ray Rice. Rutgers, as did Wake Forest and, of course, Boise State, proved last season that the have-nots in college football occasionally have quite a lot.
The Broncos' rousing 43-42 overtime victory over Oklahoma in the Fiesta Bowl has raised the profile of all schools in conferences that don't get automatic BCS bids. This season, TCU and Hawaii are the preseason favorites to burst through the BCS doors and earn an at-large bid. The Warriors return 14 starters from an 11-3 team, including quarterback Colt Brennan.
Brennan not only broke the single-season record with 58 touchdown passes in 2007, but he also led Division I-A in passing efficiency (186.0). The senior is expected to contend for the Heisman Trophy, and neither his success nor the rise of his team should come as any surprise in the 2007 season.
After all, Hawaii is the southernmost team in the country.
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