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08/20/2010 - Sunriver, OR (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - D.A. Weibring carded his second straight five- under 67 to take a two-stroke lead at the halfway point of the Tradition.
Weibring completed 36 holes of the season's fourth major at 10-under-par 134.
Tom Lehman, who shared the first-round lead with Weibring, posted a three- under 69 and is alone in second at minus-eight.
Bob Tway carded a five-under 67 to move into a share of third place at seven- under 137. He stands alongside Jay Don Blake (68), 2008 winner Fred Funk (69) and two-time champion Gil Morgan (69).
Weibring rolled in a birdie effort from just outside 15 feet on the first to get his round going. After four straight pars, he kicked in a short birdie putt on the sixth at the Crosswater Club at Sunriver Resort.
The five-time winner on the Champions Tour made it two in a row as he converted a 12-footer for birdie on the seventh to move to eight-under.
Weibring parred five consecutive holes from the eighth. At the par-three 13th, he rolled in a downhill 15-foot birdie try. Two holes later, he drained an 18- footer for birdie to climb to 10-under.
At the 17th, Weibring three-putted for bogey as his lead fell two strokes. However, he recovered that lost stroke at the last, where he converted a birdie putt from 20 feet out to finish two clear of Lehman.
"It was a bit cool this morning, but it warmed up nicely," Weibring said. "I got off to a good to start. I played some nice shots. I putted very well today and that was the key. I made two or three good par putts."
Lehman, the 2006 U.S. Ryder Cup captain, started his round with a birdie on the second. He gave that stroke back when he tripped to a bogey on the par- four eighth.
After five straight pars around the turn, Lehman rolled in back-to-back birdie efforts from the 14th to move to seven-under. On the par-three 17th, Lehman found sand off the tee, but holed out for birdie to end two back.
"Today was a really difficult day for me because I started out playing so well, but wasn't making any putts," Lehman explained. "I was hitting good putts and they were not going in. I was really starting to lose my patience."
Bernhard Langer (69) and Jay Haas (65) are tied for seventh place at six- under-par 138.
Langer is trying to join Gary Player as the only two men in Champions Tour history to win three straight major championships. Player did so in 1987-88 when he won the last two majors in '87 and the first one in '88.
NOTES: Weibring has won all three times he held the 36-hole lead, but all three of those events were 54-hole tournaments...Weibring hasn't won since the 2008 Senior Players Championship...Haas had the low round of the day with his seven-under 65...Defending champion Mike Reid carded a three-under 69 to get to plus-four through two rounds.
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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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